Naive copies of artistic masterpieces: On the problem of perception of a “naive” sign

Abstract

This paper examines the cultural phenomenon of naive copies of classical works of art that emerged as a common practice in the early Soviet years and functioned as a specific form of mass culture. One major issue with this kind of art, including naive paintings and folk art rugs, is to uncover how its artistic effect works. We suggest that it arises as the ludic effect of the “included middle” (the term suggested by Brian Massumi). It appears as a variative redundancy and may actualize itself (or not be actualized at all) in different ways, including but not limited to reattributing the perceived qualities of originality and uniqueness to banalized masterpieces. Using the conceptual frame of Charles Sanders Pierce we analyze the dynamic productive ability of a “naive” sign and also suggest an approach to the ambivalence of the perception of a “naive” sign based on the notion of twofoldness of a visual image. The study concludes that due to the specific authenticity of naive copies their artistic effect as a sign dynamic may serve as a case to reflect upon the possibility of art as a space for common forms of experience. It may also be considered as a trigger for the distinctive mode of perceiving subjectivity as an “occasion of experience”. The process of producing new, unstable, ambivalent modes of seeing and perception could be an important cultural function of Soviet naive copies in today's artworld.