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An Exhibition featuring members of
The Association of British Naive Artists
Noel Barker, Hannah Dosanjh, Alan Furneaux, Gabrielle Hawkes
Judy Joel, Roger Lowry, Christian May, Sarah Sloan

The Association of British naïve Artists
ABNA stands for the Association of British Naïve Artists. It was formed in 2002 by Peter Denham aka “MISTER DENHAM” who had an article published in a leading art magazine in February 2003. The article prompted some hitherto unknown naïve painters as well as some better known naïve painters to write and ask about membership of the new Association.
All people’s tastes are different – and thank goodness, because it would be a dull world indeed if everyone thought exactly the same as the next person.
Peter once said that “most would agree that the international art arena has room enough for every conceivable genre, “ism” and opinion to be expressed without rancour”. However he did think that it was a little strange that despite the fact that in sale rooms and galleries naïve art passes hands regularly with five and six figure sums, it still appears to have no mainstream legitimacy in England and is rarely given much gallery attention or space within the popular art press, and is still not taken seriously by some trained artists of different styles.
Alan Bowness, who used to be at the Tate before Serroto, once said about Naïve art…..”Naïve painting is the discovery of the twentieth century. Naïve artists make an appearance when art becomes too precious and too clever. Someone with a natural gift, untrained, comes along and overturns everybody’s preconceived notions, and makes us rethink and return to a pre-renaissance naturalism”
Peter Denham had a dream which was to bring naïve art more credibility in the art world, and to strive for having a museum for British Naïve Art somewhere in the British Isles. He had made much progress and was hoping that by 2004 things would fall into place. Sadly Peter became ill in the Summer and died on Christmas Day of the same year. He had so much still to achieve and so the members – now numbering over 40, have been trying to make the dream a reality. ABNA members have had exhibitions in the Clare White Gallery in Yorkshire, and twice at The Crypt Gallery in St Ives, in Cornwall, Selected members have also exhibited in Putney in London, and in Lisbon in Portugal. The website of the Association is www.britishnaives.co.uk where most of the members have paintings to view. This will be the first time members of the Association have been invited to exhibit at the Rainyday Gallery in Penzance.

Naïve Art
Naïve artists, whether or not they have had formal training, are outside the current movements and fashions of the fine art world. Their paintings are created out of love, even obsession, for their subjects.They present a fresh and startling perception – often of a visionary or dreamlike quality – of the world. During the last few years there has been a growing world-wide interest in naïve and primitive paintings, and in the United States and in Europe many public galleries have devoted special sections to this genre. Many artists dislike the terms “naive” and “primitive” to describe their work, which is often of a great visual subtlety and sophisticated design, but the other terms for this genre – folk, popular, innocent, self-taught artists etc. are equally unsatisfactory. If one things of “naive” as describing the straightforward and honest quality to be found in these paintings, and “primitive” as the direct response that they arouse in the viewer, then perhaps the terms are more acceptable