Child-like Art - Child with Bull Horns in Boat with a Fish

Paul Rand is remembered as one of history's greatest and most famous graphic designers. He was also a painter. The fact that Paul Rand used Naïve Art in much of his corporate identity to represent the world's most influential companies could have pigeonholed him as only a commercial artist rather than a fine artist.
In 1952, consideration of Naïve Art as Fine Art was restricted to just a few artists, such as Henri Rousseau, Picasso, and Paul Klee. Yet the present work "Child with Bull Horns in Boat with a Fish" exhibits a similar level of sophistication in its childlike simplicity that one could find in any of the more recognized Naïve Artists. Notice how Rand separates above and below sea level with just a simple line. The inclusion of a friendly fish is more than charming.
Signed and Dated lower right 12 8 52, Unframed,

Paul Rand once wrote, “Good design adds value of some kind, gives meaning, and, not incidentally, can be sheer pleasure to behold.” Rand produced good design for six decades, creating magazine layouts, posters, children’s books, book covers, and the branding for many of America’s most recognizable corporate identities, all of which embody the visual clarity and dynamic compositions for which he is known. Rand’s best-known designs are celebrated for their visual wit. For the UPS logo he designed in 1961, Rand set a neatly tied package atop a shield bearing the company’s name, juxtaposing the whimsy of the parcel against the pomposity of the coat of arms. Rand also famously developed a graphic program for IBM in 1956, supplementing it in 1981 with the brilliant Eye-Bee-M poster, which reimagined the company’s logo as a rebus. “I steered towards humorous things,” Rand said. “People who don’t have a sense of humor really have serious problems.”