Naïve Art - Our history
The Jacques Ardies Gallery is located in Vila Mariana and occupies an old house completely renovated.
The gallery, which began its activities in August 1979, is dedicated to the dissemination and promotion of Brazilian naïve art.
Over these 42 years, many exhibitions were held, 120 individual exhibitions and more than 200 group shows, in their own space and also in Museums such as MAC in Campinas, MAM in Goiânia, Espace Art 4 in Paris, Espaço Cultural de FMI in Washington, Musée International de art Naïf Anatole Jakovski in Nice, Memorial da América Latina in São Paulo, to name but a few, and also in art galleries such as Galeria Jacqueline Bricard in southern France, Galeria pro Arte Kasper in Switzerland and the Gina Gallery in Tel-Aviv – Israel.
In 1998, Jacques Ardies launched the book Arte Naïf no Brasil with the collaboration of the critic Geraldo Edson de Andrade and in 2003, he published the book on the life and work of the artist from Pernambuco Ivonaldo, with text by the professor and art critic Jorge Anthonio e Silva. . In 2010, he launched the second book on Naïve Art in Brazil with text written by him and comments from 4 friends who are also passionate about this art. Four years later, this same book was published in a French version.
The gallery permanently exhibits paintings and sculptures by 80 artists selected and considered representative of the Brazilian naïve art movement.
Our story
BOOK A ART NAIF IN BRAZIL
And the dream came true. The publication of a book dedicated to Brazilian ARTE NAIF meets the desire to be able to present an informative and referential work of an essentially national artistic expression and representative of Brazilian culture.
Brazilian naïve painters have an enviable setting. Sunny beaches, joy of living, fertile lands, riches not yet explored, dynamism of a great country where a tolerant and optimistic people live together, coming from a complex mixture of several generations of Indians, Portuguese, Italians, Africans, Arabs, Jews, Japanese and others. It is true that Brazil's problems are proportional to its size, a country of the near future, a country also of warm welcome, a passionate country.
The great sensitivity of the Brazilian people, known worldwide through music, is also demonstrated in the field of plastic arts.
Anatole Jakovsky, a world famous expert on NAIF ART, wrote in 1969: “Brazil represents, together with France and Yugoslavia, one of the richest and most varied reservoirs of NAIF ART in the world”. But then why is Brazilian NAIF ART not so well known? First, it is a young movement that debuted in the 50s, whose appearance took place in France, at the end of the last century, with the emergence of the douanier Rousseau. Furthermore, it is not a style that interests official salons and museums. By definition, the naïve style does not require a formation in Fine Arts, and this characteristic causes the massive emergence of painters who serve the decorative and souvenir market, thus causing a distortion of the image of the naïve movement. Finally, the naïve style is rejected by the critics in general, which vetoes any space in the media and refuses to acknowledge its production.
We seek to offer a view of the production of artists who made or are still making the movement's history, complemented by younger artists struggling to conquer their space.
This selection is not intended to be exhaustive, and we apologize to all artists who are not in this book. We just needed to find the limits of what was possible, without starting a dictionary.
The realization of this book was only possible thanks to the complicity of the critic of even Geraldo Edson de Andrade, who is a deep connoisseur of this style. We also received enthusiastic support from collectors and all the people who gave their help and showed availability.
And we could not pass up this occasion without expressing our deep gratitude to all the artists who have placed their trust in us and have offered us their loyalty over the past 20 years.
It is necessary to develop the Brazilian character of our painting in order to assert ourselves outside and inside. It is necessary to cultivate the soul of the people so that we can cling to our roots and find the essence of existence.
(Jacques Ardies)
IVANALDO'S BOOK
Once upon a time there was a boy of modest origin who dreamed of becoming a painter.
Even without being aware of what this word implied, the dream turned into an obstinate challenge.
Ivonaldo was born in Caruaru, an arid region in the interior of Pernambuco, and lived with his parents and his eleven siblings until the age of twelve.
This book tells the story of his first steps to the height of his consecration, seeks to clarify the reasons for his shyness, his insecurity and also tells of the victories conquered throughout an intense and tumultuous life.
Of the few colors, but garish, from its beginning, it experiences the yellow of the arid region of the caatinga. The artist then travels to Europe, being influenced by the pastel tones of the old continent, and when he returns to Brazil he expresses himself with warmer tones, finally reaching the explosion of colors when he rediscovers his Pernambuco, from which he will probably never leave.
Ivonaldo has the privilege of amalgamating suitable ingredients to seek perfection: talent, intelligence, sensitivity and modesty. This last virtue led him to a constant search to “improve” creating new challenges at every stage of his career.
The artist's evolution silences those who insist that a naive painter is only worthy of interest in the early years, claiming that he later loses his spontaneity and consequently his authenticity. In the prejudiced opinion of some critics, NAIF ART carries a negative connotation and when the naive artist achieves notoriety, they invariably rush to bombard him with neo-any-ism, arguing that such an artist has transcended this classification. As if the naif “label” carried a kind of disease that the artist manages to get rid of. In any artistic expression there is the mediocre, the amateur, the opportunist, but also the genius, the talent, the personality.
For over 20 years, I have been following Ivonaldo's career. On many occasions, I witnessed radical transformations of people who, at a first meeting, commented on their rejection of the work, changing their opinion with each new look, to finally reach a diametrically opposite conclusion, acquiring paintings for their collections.
The time has come to document and legitimize this long journey through the publication of this book, which has the participation of professor and art critic Jorge Anthonio e Silva, who wrote an enlightening and complete text expressing his admiration for his great friend.
The selection of the works reproduced in this book encountered difficulties due to the fact that most of them were located outside Brazil. Difficulties that were overcome, however, thanks to the good will of collectors.
Ivonaldo's path shows that his restless search pushed his work towards a progressive and sure improvement, gaining self-confidence in his work, giving him access to a mastery of technique and an indisputable pictorial fluidity.
(Jacques Ardies)
BOOK A NAIF ART IN BRAZIL II
The new edition meets the need to update the content of the first one, which was published in 1998 and which is currently out of print. For Ardies, this book seeks to present an informative and referential work of an artistic expression of great interest with the participation of the fundamental artists who made the history of the movement and complemented by the active artists. The publication does not intend to exhaust a subject that, by its very essence, is very rich in interpretations and could have a broader scope. It seeks, in turn, to choose the most representative authors. There is also a desire to offer educational information about the artists found at the end of the book, where a summarized biography of the 79 selected artists is presented. To give an improvised but authentic touch, the author invited four people who were declared lovers of this style, willing to present a testimony, each in their own way, answering the question: "Why do you like naive art?"
(Jacques Ardies)