What Does Primitive Mean In The US?

Yes i agree,
In the furniture world primitive = country made pieces by someone who is not trained in cabinet making
In Fine Art= someone who has no professional training, primitive = Folk Art
In USA primitive =basically amateurs making objects for which they have had no formal training. Sometimes it comes off in a spectacular, wonderful fashion, more often it comes off as "what the heck is that?!"

 

just in case you heff a problem wiss se pronosiation.

 

everything locked again.

 

Having followed anything Darger since he was first shown by the late Phyllis Kind in Chicago in the 70s, I would never call him primitive. Outsider, definitely, and I still curse myself for never buying one. He remains my ultimate “picking” holy grail.

Personally, I think “primitive” is a relatively useless term subject to numerous interpretations.

 

There are, of course, a variety of opinions about the word "primitive." However, it is an art term and does have a generally accepted definition by art historians and critics.

Debora

 

I agree but just wanted to note that Darger was not a primitive artist. He was outsider. I do think the term primitive has little meaning today since people use it to describe everything from rustic to formally untrained. In my world the word is quintessentially descriptive of Grandma Moses.

 

Before we get even further off-track, the OP was asking about antiques, not art.

 

And that’s part of the issue with the use of the word as IMO art and antiques aren’t always easy to separate as categories and do cross over. Original intended use no longer always differentiates the two.

As an American who collects art (not antiques) and has an art history degree, IMO a primitive antique is an object of at least 100 years of age that was made by an untrained person using the simplest of tools.

 

I’ve heard the term “naive” art applied to non professionals but never primitive. Just sounded odd to my “British ears” . But I have learnt a lot from all the answers so it was well worth asking my naive question. Thanks.

 

Very true!

 

DH & I were talking about this and we decided we have had some primitive / farm pieces that are usually considered primitive. The first ones that come to mind are a couple of dry sinks - not pieces seen frequently today. They were primitively made but not unattractive in the scale and detail. The second was a farm table which had nice scale, also. Then we had a table out of a Mennonite church in Lititz, PA that was used for butchering behind the church. It was made of walnut and cleaned up beautifully but definitely had a primitive feel and look.

 

"Schteppenvolf?"

 

Growing up in the rural Midwest many of the auctioneers and antique dealers referred to primitives mostly as old rusty broken down farm implements and other things you would find on the farm like wooden crates, butter churns, baking molds, and stoneware. I think they defined primitive as from the increasingly forgotten farm and small town economy we used to have where life was simpler and looked back upon with fondness.

 

I would take it as Joe said. Furniture and implements that were made for use inrural areas like farms and not high end decor. I'd include paintings and textiles inthat