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American Primitive Painting
Reproduces works which illustrate the unique traditions and unpretentious quality of nineteenth-century primitive painting
158 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1972
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November 22, 2019
"It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child."--Pablo Picasso
Jean Lipman's monograph American Primitive Painting was originally published in 1942. It came out when the art world was in a welter of reassessment of all naive, folk and outsider art. Abstract art's rise to dominance had rejuvenated an interest in the supremacy of personal vision. (Dubuffet would later launch a similar revolution in Europe.) One testament to this is the list of exhibitions in the back of this book. They were going off non-stop throughout America in the twenties through the forties. The Whitney, R.I.S.D, Brooklyn Museum, V.M.A., Carnegie Institute, and so on.
This is mostly plates with a smattering of text to introduce each group of selections (Portraiture, The Composite Scene, A Lady's Portfolio, Wall Decorations). There's interesting information to be gleaned here, like the fact that many itinerant painters would prepare bodies on canvases in the winter and then seek patrons in the warmer months of wandering whose faces they might then add on the prepared trunks. And I wasn't aware of how we got the Colonial revival wrong in America, using all those demure colors, wan shades. Lipman insists Colonial American dwellings were lavishly decorated with bright patterns and colors.
This Dover reissue is sparing with color. There are a few color plates at the front of the book, but the rest are in black and white. Well, Dover is known for their thrifty editions, right? I really enjoyed this book, as the author clearly spent a great deal of time studying these painters (most of whom are anonymous, their names lost to time) and was making the case for the legitimacy of this art when that idea was still facing an uphill battle.
The art itself is the real star here. And much of it is trippy and delicious. A cat whose patterning is vibing with a carpet's psychedelic patterns catches one's eye. And trees in a memorial work for Mrs. Rhoda Darling are lysergically alive. In fact, all of nature in this watercolor seems to be throbbing with energy as if the landscape were electrified. It looks like a cross between Australian aboriginal art and Louis Wain's schizophrenic reading of cats. In "The Brown Family" from the mid-19th century, the four young sons appear to be one being magically jumping from body to body, only slightly changing the features. It's not a matter of quadruplets. It's just a weirdness to the design. American primitive paintings can be unsettling. But it's an interesting sort of unsettling.
Lipman dates the heyday of American Primitive painting as approximately 1790 to 1875. She makes the case that any earlier and there would not be the luxury of time or energy to produce the works and selects the endpoint based on the ascendancy of photography. She is well aware that the tradition would continue, but often as a consciously-chosen modality (quotation) rather than as the unconscious expression of artists and artisans who did not see what they produced as belonging to any school or received tradition of image-making.
I found Lipman's writing on the concept of "memory painting" to be intriguing. She explored the idea of how images would morph in the minds of people remembering them, what particular details would remain, and what would be exaggerated in representation. This is interesting because it implies that the artists who painted in this manner were all about making an image theirs. Rather than seeking mere verisimilitude, they were after a quintessence of the personal. Perhaps this opens the door wider to feeling and emotion in painting. It would make sense.
Jean Lipman's monograph American Primitive Painting was originally published in 1942. It came out when the art world was in a welter of reassessment of all naive, folk and outsider art. Abstract art's rise to dominance had rejuvenated an interest in the supremacy of personal vision. (Dubuffet would later launch a similar revolution in Europe.) One testament to this is the list of exhibitions in the back of this book. They were going off non-stop throughout America in the twenties through the forties. The Whitney, R.I.S.D, Brooklyn Museum, V.M.A., Carnegie Institute, and so on.
This is mostly plates with a smattering of text to introduce each group of selections (Portraiture, The Composite Scene, A Lady's Portfolio, Wall Decorations). There's interesting information to be gleaned here, like the fact that many itinerant painters would prepare bodies on canvases in the winter and then seek patrons in the warmer months of wandering whose faces they might then add on the prepared trunks. And I wasn't aware of how we got the Colonial revival wrong in America, using all those demure colors, wan shades. Lipman insists Colonial American dwellings were lavishly decorated with bright patterns and colors.
This Dover reissue is sparing with color. There are a few color plates at the front of the book, but the rest are in black and white. Well, Dover is known for their thrifty editions, right? I really enjoyed this book, as the author clearly spent a great deal of time studying these painters (most of whom are anonymous, their names lost to time) and was making the case for the legitimacy of this art when that idea was still facing an uphill battle.
The art itself is the real star here. And much of it is trippy and delicious. A cat whose patterning is vibing with a carpet's psychedelic patterns catches one's eye. And trees in a memorial work for Mrs. Rhoda Darling are lysergically alive. In fact, all of nature in this watercolor seems to be throbbing with energy as if the landscape were electrified. It looks like a cross between Australian aboriginal art and Louis Wain's schizophrenic reading of cats. In "The Brown Family" from the mid-19th century, the four young sons appear to be one being magically jumping from body to body, only slightly changing the features. It's not a matter of quadruplets. It's just a weirdness to the design. American primitive paintings can be unsettling. But it's an interesting sort of unsettling.
Lipman dates the heyday of American Primitive painting as approximately 1790 to 1875. She makes the case that any earlier and there would not be the luxury of time or energy to produce the works and selects the endpoint based on the ascendancy of photography. She is well aware that the tradition would continue, but often as a consciously-chosen modality (quotation) rather than as the unconscious expression of artists and artisans who did not see what they produced as belonging to any school or received tradition of image-making.
I found Lipman's writing on the concept of "memory painting" to be intriguing. She explored the idea of how images would morph in the minds of people remembering them, what particular details would remain, and what would be exaggerated in representation. This is interesting because it implies that the artists who painted in this manner were all about making an image theirs. Rather than seeking mere verisimilitude, they were after a quintessence of the personal. Perhaps this opens the door wider to feeling and emotion in painting. It would make sense.
June 20, 2014
Jean Lipman and her husband were the owners and she the editor of "Art in America" for many years. When they sold the magazine shifted its focus away from primitive or naive art. The art was popular in the 40's and 50's but people collected so avidly that they exhausted the supply. This is a good survey of know works at the time. Goodreads says it was published in 1972 but my notes say 1942 so I nust check on this.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews