Naive art is a comfort from chaos, a release if you wish, but who says a painting must be a mirror image of the disorder of our time or the disgruntlement of the artist? Must art be so subtle or non-communicative that it leaves the viewer confused, not sure what it is or whether it is interesting to anyone once the novelty has worn off?

It is a pleasure from time to time to turn to what is known as naive or primitive art, to peruse through coffee table art books showing the works of Rousseau, Kane, Bombois, Hicks, Pippin, and Grandma Moses. Their work has a simplistic tone, an innocence that beguiles and charms and takes us back to a world we somehow have lost.

Unlike the art school artist, the primitive artist has no interest in how anyone else paints. Seldom are they accurate in the treatment of perspective or the relative size of objects.  He/She magnifies details in a way a more sophisticated artist would. The virtue (if I could be so bold to define it in this manner) is the innocence of the art.  Virtue in a world filled with trained painters that have lost the ability to see with the eye of the innocent.

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