Welcome to CIMAM, Croatian Museum of Naïve Art!
The Croatian Museum of Naïve Art was the first museum in the world to be devoted to this kind of art. It was founded in 1952, after the first generation of Croatian naïve artists had made their reputations and started to achieve important successes. It was founded as the Peasant Art Gallery, the aim of it being to collect, study and exhibit the works of the “peasant painters” or “peasant sculptors”, as naïve artists were called at that time. As there soon appeared the need to collect and study the works of working class artists, in 1956 the name of the gallery was changed to Gallery of Primitive Art. The term primitive was gradually, in an attempt to avoid pejorative connotations, increasingly replaced in theory and criticism with the term naïve, and from 1994 the museum has been operating under the name Croatian Museum of Naïve Art.
Naïve art, or, simply, the Naïve, is the work of self-taught artists who have never been to art school but who with their works have achieved a recognisable style and personal poetics as well as a high degree of artistic worth, which distinguishes them from amateurs and dilettantes and vernacular and folk painters and sculptors.
In its holdings the Croatian Museum of Naïve Art has more than 1900 artworks; about 80 of them are displayed in the permanent exhibition. The concept behind the permanent exhibition is that the classics of Croatian naïve art and their works should be shown; but foreign artists are also exhibited, if to a lesser extent.
About Institutional Membership
CIMAM's institutional membership allows member institutions to offer their professionals all the advantages of CIMAM's membership at interesting rates. Institutions can choose the number of membership cards they wish to purchase for the professionals in their institution from 3 to 8.
Institutional membership is available to museums, collections and organizations that are of museological relevance and have been open to the public for more than 5 years. They should be not for profit. They should demonstrate an appropriate governance structure in accordance with the ICOM definition of a museum, with key museum functions (collection, conservation, research, exhibition and mediation) undertaken by professionals.
CIMAM's institutional membership allows member institutions to offer their professionals all the advantages of CIMAM's membership at interesting rates. Institutions can choose the number of membership cards they wish to purchase for the professionals in their institution from 3 to 8.
Please read CIMAM’s membership criteria.