In discussions of Einar Jolin, the word "naive" seems to come up a lot. And there's something to that. His faces tend to be cartoony, for one thing.
But if he remained crude in some ways, he was a curious artist and truly applied himself. His pictures have a snap to them and make an impact.
"At the Circus", above, is a nifty composition. It uses its space well. And the horses are gorgeous in their simplicity. You can see why the audience members nearest us are so rapt in attention.
1 comment:
This is a very interesting and attractive image - not at all like a real circus but it has the elements of a big top. Playful elegance, a phrase I've read that exemplifies Einar Jolin's work, is a very apt term. I wasn't familiar with his paintings previously but now I've had time to explore a bit further I get the impression his images are elegantly refined and deliberately so. His fastidious drawing technique and the subtle palette he uses describe a pure and gentile reality.
Since descriptions of his style mention 'primitive' I thought I'd take another look at the paintings of America's most famous primitive artist, Grandma Moses. Her images, bursting with life and color, have nothing to do with a sophisticated vision and everything to do with the immediacy of life and how she remembers history as she experienced it.
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