The International Museum of Naive Art in Vicq, France, is presenting a fabulous exhibition dedicated to the representation of cities in naive art, with the title "Cities from here and elsewhere", opened between March 20 - September 16 2007. It is a great chance for the public to discover the principles and ideas of naive art and especially to understand how the artists of the genre chose to represent cities and their life, making the shift from imaginary to reality and from observing everyday scenes to transmuting these into dreams.
 | The exhibition is divided into four sections : "Cities of the world", "City of young age", "Life in the city" and "Imaginary cities", each of these being filled with works that are both astounding and emotional. No matter what the name of the city is, ranging from Ancient and forgotten cities to modern day ones, the artists have tried to represent them in a deeply personal manner. Some of the cities depicted are nowadays only legends or memories, others are still developing, but each of them has changed the life of their inhabitants forever, over many generations. A city is on the long run the ultimate act of civilisation, yet for a naive artist it can be a space of fantasy and dream, where reality makes way for imagination. |
By discovering the works signed by several prestigious naive artists, the French public has the chance of escaping reality through art and to understand what "art naive" is all about.
May 2007
Photo : midan.org
