Like a child

This triptych created by Emil Nolde portray the story of Saint Mary of Egypt (the story from the link is about half-way down the page.) The religious reference of the subject is mirrored in the use of a triptych, or 3 paneled work, which was traditionally used for alter pieces. See here or here for examples of traditional triptychs

Saint Mary of Egypt, Emil Nolde,

Emil Nolde participated in an art movement called Die Bruke, or "the Bridge". They wanted to bridge the past and the future of art and culture. Color played a large role in their artwork pieces, and they tended to include primitiveness. This idea can be seen in the child-like rendering of images shown above this paragraph. Emil Nolde wanted to maintain as close a rendering to what an innocent and untainted mind would portray. Children and less industrialized nations were viewed by many artists as having some sort of intrinsic truth.
The style reminded me of many comments I have heard about modern art, ones that specifically use the words "my 5-year old could have made that".
Jean-Michel Basquiat, for example, painted in a very colorful style with obvious brush strokes, like Nolde did. He referenced spiritual topics, like the crown of thorns pictured in the piece below, and he painted in a primitive style similar to that of tiki's or African masks. Some people thought he was always inhibited by some substance and couldn't therefor make more academic art. Some critics simply did not like his style. This article discusses Basquiat's life and the thoughts of some of his critics.

I have also heard that several people's 5-year olds could have made Pollock's or  Mondrain's paintings. Often these critics would find that it would take a lot more than a 5-year old to reproduce some of those popular pieces of art. Additionally, art isn't always about the skill used to produce something at which we look, but it sometimes is about the skill used to change the way we look at something.