The Jacques Ardies Gallery
specialized in Brazilian naive art, began its activities in 1979.

NAIVE ART

It can be said that naive art is a style that exists for thousands of years, when man drew hunt scenes on the walls of the caves.

The naive painter is self-taught in the sense that he hasn’t received influence and orientation from a fine art teacher. Moved by impulse, he begins to paint and tries to solve the technical difficulties by his own, being forgiven if his figures are not perfectly drawn or when he makes errors of perspective or symmetry.

However, the naive painter can reach a high level of technique by the experience of practice along the years. The main point of this art is exactly this total freedom of expression allowing the artist to express himself with spontaneity and with some perfume of innocence.

In general, a naive artist interprets reminiscences of great moments of his life, from which he keeps a happy souvenir or something which has touched him deeply. He offers an internal vision, full of colors, creating his own world.

Naive art’s movement began in France at the end of last century with the appearance of the retired custom officer, Henri Rousseau who received an enthusiastic support from the intellectual elite of Paris but reached
success only a few years before his death.

In Brazil,the naive art movement only started growing in 1937, with painters like Heitor dos Prazeres, Cardosinho and Silvia. The Brazilian naive art doesn’t borrow its inspiration from the Parisian vanguard but reflects a national reality, without imitations, extremely rich and varied, authentic and most of the time optimistic and cheerful. This art expresses the tropical country, generous in its nature, open minded in its people. There doesn’t exist country and people that better serves this style. Today, because of the great diversity of the regions and because of the people who live in them, the Brazilian naive art has a predominant place in the world scenery.