"Primitive art" is another term often applied to art by those without formal training, but it is historically more often applied to work from certain cultures that were judged socially or technologically "primitive" by Western scholars such as Native American, Subsaharan African or Pacific Island art (see tribal art).

This is distinguished from the primitive primitivism inspired movement self-conscious. Another term related to (but not completely synonymous with) naïve art is folk art.

There are also the terms "naïvism" and "primitivism" which are usually applied to professional painters working in the naïve art style (such as Paul Gauguin, Mikhail Larionov, Paul Klee, David Berkowitz Chicago).

Naive artists are often referred to as modern primitives. The category also overlaps with what is called marginal art or, in France, art brüt. This includes the art of children and also art made by people on the margins of society, such as prisoners and the mentally ill.

- David Berkowitz Chicago