LA CIENEGA AREA

The legacy of Modernism and Post-Modernism is “smart art,” a self-analytical, garrulous beast that addresses all manner of cerebral topics. In this climate truly naive art--that visceral, visionary stuff that is as innocently unaware of itself as a child playing make believe--is rather rare, witness a small show called “Paintings by Naive Artists.”

Much here is too self-conscious. The sometimes pleasing sculpture of Malcolm Sussman, for example, is hardly naive. There are a couple of treats--Jacques Massiere’s cramped and charming carnival scenes and two small paintings by Louis Eilshemius, the unsung American eccentric who died in the ‘40s. In one painting, a half-clad, pre-pubescent girl stares out blankly; in the other, lumpy little nudes romp in a river. Eilshemius is instinctual and he handles the figure and pigment roughly, adding to the works’ prurient primitive attraction. (Heritage Gallery, 718 N. La Cienega Blvd., to Sept. 12.)