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{{About|primitivism in the visual arts|the social movement|anarcho-primitivism|the American art style|Primitive decorating|art by self-taught artists|naïve art|other meanings of "primitivism" or "primitive"|Primitive (disambiguation){{!}}Primitive}}
{{About|primitivism in the visual arts|the social movement|anarcho-primitivism|the American art style|Primitive decorating|art by self-taught artists|naïve art|other meanings of "primitivism" or "primitive"|Primitive (disambiguation){{!}}Primitive}}
{{short description|Art movement}}
{{short description|Art movement}}
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[[File:Henri Rousseau - Combat of a Tiger and a Buffalo.jpg|thumb|300px|''In a Tropical Forest Combat of a Tiger and a Buffalo'' (1908–1909), by [[Henri Rousseau]]]]
{{Unencyclopedic tone|date=April 2021}}
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In the arts of the Western World, '''Primitivism''' is a mode of [[Idealization and devaluation|aesthetic idealization]] that means to recreate the experience of ''the primitive'' time, place, and person, either by emulation or by re-creation. In Western philosophy, Primitivism proposes that the people of a [[Urgesellschaft|primitive society]] possess a [[morality]] and an [[ethics]] that are superior to the urban value system of civilized people.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hirsch|first=Edward|title=A Poet's Glossary|publisher=HMH|year=2014|isbn=978-0-15-101195-7|location=New York|pages=485|language=en}}</ref>


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In European art, the aesthetics of primitivism included techniques, motifs, and styles copied from the arts of Asian, African, and [[Australasia|Australasian]] peoples perceived as primitive in relation to the urban civilization of western Europe. In that light, the painter [[Paul Gauguin]]'s inclusion of [[Tahiti|Tahitian]] imagery to his oil paintings was a characteristic borrowing of technique, motif, and style that was important for the development of [[Modern art]] (1860s–1970s) in the late 19th century.<ref>Atkins, Robert. ''Artspoke'' (1993) {{ISBN|978-1-55859-388-6}}</ref> As a genre of [[Western art]], Primitivism reproduced and perpetuated [[racist stereotypes]], such as the "[[noble savage]]", with which colonialists justified [[colonialism|white colonial rule]] over the non-white [[other (philosophy)|other]] in Asia, Africa, and Australasia.<ref>See: Marianna Torgovnick. ''Gone primitive: Savage Intellects, Modern Lives'' (Chicago: [[University of Chicago Press]], 1991); Ben Etherington, ''Literary Primitivism'' (Stanford: [[Stanford University Press]], 2018).</ref>


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Moreover, the term ''primitivism'' also identifies the techniques, motifs, and styles of painting that predominated [[Representation (arts)|representational painting]] before the emergence of the [[Avant-garde]]; and also identifies the styles of [[naïve art]] and of [[folk art]] produced by amateur artists, such as [[Henri Rousseau]], who painted for personal pleasure.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Camayd-Freixas|first=Erik|title=Primitivism and Identity in Latin America: Essays on Art, Literature, and Culture|last2=Gonzalez|first2=Jose Eduardo|publisher=University of Arizona Press|year=2000|isbn=978-0-8165-2045-9|location=Tucson|pages=16}}</ref>
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[[File:Henri Rousseau - Combat of a Tiger and a Buffalo.jpg|thumb|300px|'''Primitivist oil painting:''' ''In a Tropical Forest Combat of a Tiger and a Buffalo'' (1908–1909), by [[Henri Rousseau]].]]
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In the arts of the Western World, '''Primitivism''' is a mode of [[Idealization and devaluation|aesthetic idealization]] that means to recreate the experience of ''the primitive'' time, place, and person, either by emulation or by recreation. In Western philosophy, primitivism proposes that the people of a primitive society possess a [[Morality]] and an [[ethics]] that are superior to the urban value system of civilized people; thus, in art and in philosophy, Primitivism is [[nostalgia]] for a non-existent golden age in the [[Garden of Eden]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hirsch|first=Edward|title=A Poet's Glossary|publisher=HMH|year=2014|isbn=978-0-15-101195-7|location=New York|pages=485|language=en}}</ref>

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In European art, the aesthetics of primitivism included techniques, motifs, and styles copied from the arts of Asian, African, and [[Australasia|Australasian]] peoples perceived as primitive in relation to the urban civilization of western Europe. In that light, the painter [[Paul Gauguin]]'s inclusion of [[Tahiti|Tahitian]] imagery to his oil paintings was a characteristic borrowing of technique, motif, and style that was important to the development of [[Modern art]] (1860s–1970s) in the late 19th century.<ref>Atkins, Robert. ''Artspoke'' (1993) {{ISBN|978-1-55859-388-6}}</ref> As a genre of [[Western art]], Primitivism reproduced and perpetuated [[Racism|racist stereotypes]], such as “[[Noble Savage|The Noble Savage]]”, with which colonialists justified [[colonialism|white colonial rule]] over the non-white [[Other (philosophy)|Other]] in Asia, Africa, and Australasia.<ref>See: Marianna Torgovnick. ''Gone primitive: Savage Intellects, Modern Lives'' (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991); Ben Etherington, ''Literary Primitivism'' (Stanford: Stanford UP, 2018).</ref>

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Moreover, the term ''primitivism'' also identifies the techniques, motifs, and styles of painting that predominated [[Representation (arts)|representational painting]] before the emergence of the [[Avant-garde]]; and also identifies the styles of [[Naïve art]] and of [[folk art]] produced by amateur artists, such as [[Henri Rousseau]], who painted for personal pleasure.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Camayd-Freixas|first=Erik|title=Primitivism and Identity in Latin America: Essays on Art, Literature, and Culture|last2=Gonzalez|first2=Jose Eduardo|publisher=University of Arizona Press|year=2000|isbn=978-0-8165-2045-9|location=Tucson|pages=16}}</ref>



== Philosophy ==
== Philosophy ==
Primitivism is a [[utopian]] style of art that aspires to represent the physical world of Nature and humanity in the original [[state of nature]] that existed before society and civilization, as ''chronological primitivism'' and ''cultural primitivism''.<ref name="auto">Lovejoy, A. O. and Boas, George Boas. ''Primitivism and Related Ideas in Antiquity'' (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1935).</ref> In European antiquity, the superiority of primitive life was expressed in the myth of a [[Golden Age|golden age]] as depicted in the [[Pastoral]] genres of European poetry and representational art.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hamilton|first=Albert Charles|title=The Spenser Encyclopedia|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=1997|isbn=0-8020-2676-1|location=Toronto|pages=557|language=en}}</ref>
Primitivism is a [[utopian]] style of art that means to represent the physical world of Nature and humanity's original [[state of nature]] with two styles: (i) ''chronological primitivism'' and (ii) ''cultural primitivism''.<ref name="auto">Lovejoy, A. O. and Boas, George Boas. ''Primitivism and Related Ideas in Antiquity'' (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1935).</ref> In Europe, chronological primitivism proposes the moral superiority of a primitive way of life represented by the [[Golden Age|myth of a golden age]] of pre-societal harmony with Nature, as depicted in the [[Pastoral]] genres of European representational art and poetry.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hamilton|first=Albert Charles|title=The Spenser Encyclopedia|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=1997|isbn=0-8020-2676-1|location=Toronto|pages=557|language=en}}</ref>


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Notable examples of European cultural primitivism are the music of [[Igor Stravinsky]], the Tahitian paintings of [[Paul Gauguin]], and the [[Picasso's African Period|African period artworks]] of [[Pablo Picasso]]. Stravinsky's ''[[The Rite of Spring]]'' (1913) is primitivist [[program music]] about the subject of [[Paganism]], specifically the rite of [[human sacrifice]] in pre-christian Russia. Foregoing the [[Aesthetics|aesthetic]] and technical restraints of Western musical composition, in ''The Rite of Spring'' the composer employs harsh [[consonance and dissonance]] and loud, repetitive rhythms as a mode of [[Dionysian]] spontaneity in [[musical modernism]]. The critic Malcolm Cook said that "with its folk-music motifs and the infamous 1913 Paris riot securing its ''[[avant-garde]]'' credentials, Stravinsky's ''The Rite of Spring'' engaged in Primitivism in both form and practice" while remaining within the technical praxes of Western [[classical music]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cook|first=Malcolm|chapter-url=https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190469894.001.0001/acprof-9780190469894-chapter-3|chapter=A Primitivism of the Senses|date=2017-08-24|publisher=Oxford University Press|title=The Music and Sound of Experimental Film|editor1-last=Rogers|editor1-first=Holly|editor2-last=Barham|editor2-first=Jeremy|language=en|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190469894.003.0003}}</ref>
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During the [[Age of Enlightenment]], indtellectual used the [[idealization]] of indigenous peoples as a rhetorical device to criticize aspects of [[European culture]];<ref>Anthony Pagden, “The Savage Critic: Some European Images of the Primitive,” ''The Yearbook of English Studies'', 13 (1983), 32–45.</ref> however, in the field of aesthetics, as part of the [[Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns]], the Italian intellectual [[Giambattista Vico]] (1688–1744) was first to argue that primitive peoples were closer to the inspirational sources of poetry and the arts than the civilized modern man, included to the debates about the artistic merit of the poetry of [[Homer]] and the [[Bible]] against the modern literature written in vernacular language. Vico stressed the concept of human diversity that allows human beings to regard the same necessities of life from different perspectives.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bitterli|first=Urs|title=Cultures in Conflict: Encounters Between European and Non-European Cultures, 1492-1800|last2=Robertson|first2=Ritchie|publisher=Stanford University Press|year=1989|isbn=978-0-8047-2176-9|location=Stanford, CA|pages=12}}</ref>


;17th century
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In the 18th century, the German scholar [[Friedrich August Wolf]] identified the distinctive character of oral literature and located Homer and the Bible as examples of folk or oral tradition (''Prolegomena to Homer'', 1795). This was part of the literary appreciation of primitivism, along with the naturalness, passion, and bardic tradition in poetry as well as in the history of language.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Anttonen|first=Pertti|title=Oral Tradition and Book Culture|last2=Forselles|first2=Cecilia af|last3=Salmi-Niklander|first3=Kirsti|publisher=Finnish Literature Society|year=2018|isbn=978-951-858-007-5|location=Helsinki|pages=70|language=en}}</ref> Vico and Wolf's ideas were developed further at the beginning of the 19th century by [[Johann Gottfried Herder|Herder]].<ref>See Isaiah Berlin, ''Vico and Herder'' (New York: Viking, 1976).</ref> Nevertheless, although influential in literature, such arguments were known to a relatively small number of educated people and their impact was limited or non-existent in the sphere of visual arts.<ref>See [[William Rubin]], "Modernist Primitivism, 1984," p. 320 in ''Primitivism: Twentieth Century Art, A Documentary History'', Jack Flam and Miriam Deutch, editors.</ref>
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During the [[Age of Enlightenment]], intellectuals rhetorically used the [[idealization]] of indigenous peoples as political criticism of [[European culture]];<ref>Pagden, Anthony. "The Savage Critic: Some European Images of the Primitive", ''The Yearbook of English Studies'', 13 (1983), 32–45.</ref> however, as part of the [[Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns]], the Italian intellectual [[Giambattista Vico]] said that the lives of primitive non-Europeans were more attuned to Nature's aesthetic inspirations for [[poetry]] than the arts of civilized, modern man. From that perspective, Vico compared the artistic merits of the [[epic poetry]] of [[Homer]] and of the Bible against the modern literature written in vernacular language.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bitterli|first=Urs|title=Cultures in Conflict: Encounters Between European and Non-European Cultures, 1492-1800|last2=Robertson|first2=Ritchie|publisher=Stanford University Press|year=1989|isbn=978-0-8047-2176-9|location=Stanford, CA|pages=12}}</ref>


;18th century
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The 19th century saw for the first time the emergence of [[historicism]], or the ability to judge different eras by their own context and criteria. As a result of this, new schools of visual art arose that aspired to previously unprecedented levels of historical fidelity in setting and costumes. [[Neoclassicism]] in visual art and architecture was one result. Another such "historicist" movement in art was the [[Nazarene movement]] in Germany, which took inspiration from the so-called Italian "primitive" school of devotional paintings (i.e., before the age of [[Raphael]] and the discovery of [[oil painting]]).
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In the ''Prolegomena to Homer'' (1795), the scholar [[Friedrich August Wolf]] identified the language of Homer's poetry and the language of The Bible as examples of folk art communicated and transmitted by [[oral tradition]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Anttonen|first=Pertti|title=Oral Tradition and Book Culture|last2=Forselles|first2=Cecilia af|last3=Salmi-Niklander|first3=Kirsti|publisher=Finnish Literature Society|year=2018|isbn=978-951-858-007-5|location=Helsinki|pages=70|language=en}}</ref> Later, the ideas of Vico and Wolf were developed at the beginning of the 19th century by [[Johann Gottfried Herder]];<ref>Berlin, Isaiah. ''Vico and Herder'' (New York: Viking, 1976) p. 000.</ref> nevertheless, although influential in literature, the ideas of Vico and Wolf slightly influenced the [[visual arts]].<ref>Rubin, William, "Modernist Primitivism, 1984," p. 320, in ''Primitivism: Twentieth Century Art, A Documentary History'', Jack Flam and Miriam Deutch, editors.</ref>


;19th century
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Where conventional academic painting (after Raphael) used dark glazes, highly selective, idealized forms, and rigorous suppression of details, the Nazarenes used clear outlines, bright colors, and paid meticulous attention to detail. The school's artistic styles were similar in nature to the [[Pre-Raphaelites]], who were primarily inspired by the critical writings of [[John Ruskin]], who admired the painters before Raphael (such as [[Sandro Botticelli|Botticelli]]) and who also recommended painting outdoors, a practice then unheard of.
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The emergence of [[historicism]] — judging and evaluating different eras according to their historical context and criteria — resulted in new schools of visual art dedicated to historical fidelity of setting and costume, such as the art of [[Neoclassicism]] and the Romantic art of the [[Nazarene movement]] in Germany who were inspired by the primitive school of Italian devotional paintings, i.e. before [[Raphael]] and the discovery of [[oil painting]].


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Whereas academic painting (after Raphael) used dark glazes, idealized forms, and suppression of detail, the artists of the Nazarene movement used clear outlines, bright colors, and much detail. The artistic styles of the Nazarene movement were similar to the artistic styles of the [[Pre-Raphaelites]], who were inspired by the critical writings of [[John Ruskin]], who admired the painters before Raphael (e.g. [[Sandro Botticelli]]) and recommended that artists paint outdoors.
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Two developments shook the world of visual art in the mid-19th century. The first was the invention of the [[Camera|photographic camera]], which arguably spurred the development of [[Realism (arts)|Realism]] in art. The second was a discovery in the world of mathematics of [[non-Euclidean geometry]], which overthrew the 2000-year-old seeming absolutes of [[Euclidean geometry]] and threw into question conventional [[Renaissance]] perspective by suggesting the possible existence of multiple dimensional worlds and perspectives in which things might look very different.<ref>See [[Linda Dalrymple Henderson]], ''The Fourth Dimension and non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art'' (Princeton University Press, 19810).</ref>


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In the mid-19th century, the [[Camera|photographic camera]] and [[non-Euclidean geometry]] changed the visual arts; photography impelled the development of [[Realism (arts)|artistic Realism]] and non-Euclidean geometry voided the mathematic absolutes of [[Euclidean geometry]], and so challenged the conventional perspective of [[Renaissance]] art by suggesting the existence of multiple worlds in which things are different from the human world.<ref>Dalrymple Henderson, Linda, ''The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art'' (Princeton University Press, 19810) p. 000.</ref>
The discovery of possible new dimensions had the opposite effect of photography and worked to counteract realism. Artists, mathematicians, and intellectuals now realized that there were other ways of seeing things beyond what they had been taught in [[École des Beaux-Arts|Beaux Arts]] schools of [[Academic painting]], which prescribed a rigid curriculum based on the copying of idealized classical forms and held up [[Renaissance painting|Renaissance perspective painting]] as the culmination of civilization and knowledge.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jssgallery.org/Essay/Ecole_des_Beaux-Arts/Ecole_des_Beaux-Arts.htm|title=Ecole des Beaux-Arts|last=Natasha|website=www.jssgallery.org|access-date=9 May 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171106041532/http://www.jssgallery.org/Essay/Ecole_des_Beaux-Arts/Ecole_des_Beaux-Arts.htm|archive-date=6 November 2017}}</ref> Beaux Arts academies held onto the idea that non-Western peoples had no art or only inferior art.


==Modernist Primitivism==
In rebellion against this dogmatic approach, Western artists began to try to depict realities that might exist in a world beyond the limitations of the three-dimensional world of conventional representation mediated by classical sculpture. They looked to [[Japanese art|Japanese]] and [[Chinese art]], which they regarded as learned and sophisticated, and did not employ Renaissance one-point perspective. Non-Euclidean perspective and [[tribal art]] fascinated Western artists who saw in them the still-enchanted portrayal of the spirit world. They also looked to the art of untrained painters and to children's art, which they believed depicted interior emotional realities that had been ignored in conventional, cookbook-style academic painting.
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[[File:Fang mask Louvre MH65-104-1.jpg|thumb|200px|The stylistic influences of the African mask of the [[Fang people]] are noticeable in the painting ''[[Les Demoiselles d'Avignon]]'' (1907), by Pablo Picasso.]]


The three-hundred-year [[Age of Discovery]] (15th c.–17th c.) exposed western European explorers to the peoples and cultures of Asia and the Americas, of Africa and Australasia, but the explorers' perspective of [[Difference (philosophy)|cultural difference]] led to [[colonialism]].<ref>Diamond, S. ''In Search of the Primitive: A Critique of Civilization'', (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1974), pp. 215–217.</ref> During the [[Age of Enlightenment]], the explorers' encounters with the [[Other (philosophy)|non-European Other]] provoked philosophers to question the Mediaeval assumptions about the fixed nature Man, of society, and of [[Nature]], doubted the [[social class|social-class]] organization of society and the mental, moral, and intellectual strictures of Christianity, by comparing the civilization of Europe against the way of life of the uncivilized [[Noble savage|natural man]] living in harmony with Nature.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Diamond|first=Stanley|title=In Search of the Primitive: A Critique of Civilization|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2017|isbn=978-1-138-08779-8|location=Oxon|pages=159}}</ref>
Tribal and other non-European art also appealed to those who were unhappy with the repressive aspects of European culture, as [[pastoral]] art had done for millennia.<ref>Connelly, F, ''The Sleep of Reason'', (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999), p.5.</ref> Imitations of tribal or archaic art also fall into the category of nineteenth-century "historicism", as these imitations strive to reproduce this art in an authentic manner. Actual examples of tribal, archaic, and folk art were prized by both creative artists and collectors.


In the 18th century, Western artists and intellectuals participated in "the conscious search in history for a more deeply expressive, permanent human nature and cultural structure in contrast to the nascent modern realities", by studying the cultures of the primitive peoples encountered by explorers.<ref>Diamond 1974, p. 215.</ref> The spoils of European colonialism included the works of art of the colonized natives, which featured primitive styles of expression and execution, especially the absence of linear perspective, a simple outline, the presence of [[hieroglyph]]s, distortions of the figure, and the meaning communicated with repeated patterns of ornamentation.<ref>Goldwater, Robert, ''Primitivism in Modern Art'', Revised Edition (New York: Vintage, 1967) p. 0000.</ref> The African and Australasian cultures provided artists an answer to their "white, Western, and preponderantly male quest" for the ideal of the primitive, "whose very condition of desirability resides in some form of distance and difference."<ref>See Solomon-Godeau 1986, p. 314.</ref>
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The painting of [[Paul Gauguin]] and [[Pablo Picasso]] and the music of [[Igor Stravinsky]] is frequently cited as the most prominent examples of primitivism in art. Stravinsky's ''[[The Rite of Spring]]'' is "primitivist" insofar as its [[Program music|programmatic]] subject is a [[Paganism|pagan]] rite: a human sacrifice in pre-Christian Russia. It employs harsh [[Consonance and dissonance|dissonance]] and loud, repetitive rhythms to depict "[[Dionysian]]" [[Musical modernism|modernism]], i.e., abandonment of inhibition (restraint standing for civilization). Nevertheless, Stravinsky was a master of learned classical tradition and worked within its bounds. According to Malcolm Cook, “with its folk-music motifs and the infamous 1913 Paris riot securing its [[avant-garde]] credentials, Stravinsky's ''Le Sacre du printemps'' (''[[The Rite of Spring]]'', 1913) engaged in primitivism in both form and practice while remaining embedded within Western classical practices.”<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cook|first=Malcolm|chapter-url=https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190469894.001.0001/acprof-9780190469894-chapter-3|chapter=A Primitivism of the Senses|date=2017-08-24|publisher=Oxford University Press|title=The Music and Sound of Experimental Film|editor1-last=Rogers|editor1-first=Holly|editor2-last=Barham|editor2-first=Jeremy|language=en|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190469894.003.0003}}</ref> In his later work, he adopted a more "[[Apollonian]]" [[neoclassicism]], to use [[Nietzsche]]'s terminology, although in his use of [[serialism]] he still rejects 19th-century convention. In modern visual art, Picasso's work is also understood as rejecting Beaux Arts' artistic expectations and expressing primal impulses, whether he worked in a cubist, neo-classical, or tribal-art-influenced vein.


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==Paul Gauguin==
==Origins of modernist primitivism==
The painter [[Paul Gauguin]] departed urban Europe to reside in the French colony of [[Tahiti]], where he adopted a primitive style of life much unlike the way of life in urban France. Gauguin's search for the primitive was a search for sexual freedom from the Christian constrictions of private life, evident in the paintings ''[[Spirit of the Dead Watching]]'' (1892), ''[[Parau na te Varua ino]]'' (1892), and ''Anna the Javanerin'' (1893), ''[[Te Tamari No Atua]]'' (1896) and ''Cruel Tales'' (1902).
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[[File:Fang mask Louvre MH65-104-1.jpg|thumb|150px|African [[Fang people|Fang]] mask similar in style to those Picasso saw in Paris just prior to painting ''[[Les Demoiselles d'Avignon]]'']]
Primitivism gained momentum from anxieties about technological innovation but above all from the "[[Age of Discovery]]", which introduced the West to previously unknown peoples and opened the doors to [[colonialism]].<ref>Diamond, S: ''In Search of the Primitive'', (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1974), pp. 215-217.</ref> During the European [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], with the decline of [[feudalism]], philosophers started questioning many fixed medieval assumptions about human nature, the position of humans in society, and the strictures of Christianity, and especially Catholicism.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Diamond|first=Stanley|title=In Search of the Primitive: A Critique of Civilization|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2017|isbn=978-1-138-08779-8|location=Oxon|pages=159}}</ref> They began questioning the nature of humanity and its origins through a discussion of the natural man, which had intrigued theologians since the European encounter with the [[New World]].


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[[File:Paul Gauguin- Manao tupapau (The Spirit of the Dead Keep Watch).JPG|thumb|right|350px|''Spirit of the Dead Watching'' (1892), by Paul Gauguin]]
From the 18th century, Western thinkers and artists continued to engage in the retrospective tradition, that is "the conscious search in history for a more deeply expressive, permanent human nature and cultural structure in contrast to the nascent modern realities".<ref>Diamond 1974, p. 215.</ref> Their search led them to parts of the world that they believed constituted alternatives to modern civilization.


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Gauguin's European perspective of Tahiti as a sexual utopia free of the religious sexual prohibitions is in line with the perspective of [[pastoral]] art, which idealizes rural life as better than city life. The similarities between Pastoralism and Primitivism are evident in the paintings ''Tahitian Pastoral'' (1892) and ''[[Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?]]'' (1897–1898).<ref>About the painting ''Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?'' (1897–1898), the art historian George T.M. Shackelford said: "Although, [Gauguin] downplayed the painting's relationship to the murals of Puvis, on the grounds of procedure and intention, in formal terms he cannot have hoped that his figured landscape — for all its apparent rejection of classical formulas and execution — could escape comparison with the timeless groves that Puvis had popularized in murals for the museums in Lyon and Rouen, as well as the great hemicycle of the Sorbonne."</ref>
The invention of the steamboat and other innovations in global transportation in the 19th century brought the indigenous cultures of the European colonies and their artifacts' into the metropolitan centers of the empire. Many Western-trained artists and connoisseurs were fascinated by these objects, attributing their features and styles to "primitive" forms of expression; especially the perceived absence of linear perspective, simple outlines, the presence of symbolic signs such as the [[hieroglyph]], emotive distortions of the figure, and the perceived energetic rhythms resulting from the use of repetitive ornamental pattern.<ref>Robert Goldwater, ''Primitivism in Modern Art'', rev. ed. (New York: Vintage, 1967).</ref> According to recent cultural critics, it was primarily the cultures of [[Africa]] and the [[Oceanic islands]] that provided artists an answer to what these critics call their "white, Western, and preponderantly male quest" for the "elusive ideal" of the primitive, "whose very condition of desirability resides in some form of distance and difference."<ref>See Solomon-Godeau 1986, p. 314.</ref> These energizing stylistic attributes, present in the visual arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Indians of the Americas, could also be found in the archaic and peasant art of Europe and Asia, as well.


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The artist Gauguin said that his paintings celebrated Tahitian society, and that he was defending Tahiti against French colonialism; nonetheless, from the [[postcolonial]] perspective of the 20th century, feminist art critics said that Gauguin's taking adolescent mistresses voids his claim of being an anti-colonialist.<ref>Solomon-Godeau 1986, p.324.</ref> As a European man, his sexual freedom derived from the [[male gaze]] of the colonist, because Gauguin's artistic primitivism is part of the "dense interweave of [[Racism|racial]] and sexual fantasies and [[Power (social and political)|power]], both colonial and [[Patriarchy|patriarchal]]", which French colonialists invented about Tahiti and the Tahitians;<ref>Solomon-Godeau 1986, p.315.</ref> European fantasies invented in "effort to [[Essentialism|essentialize]] notions of primitiveness", by [[Other (philosophy)|Othering]] non-European peoples into colonial [[Subaltern (postcolonialism)|subordinates]].
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==Paul Gauguin==
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[[File:Paul Gauguin- Manao tupapau (The Spirit of the Dead Keep Watch).JPG|thumb|right|300px|'''Primitivism:''' ''Spirit of the Dead Watching'' (1892), by Paul Gauguin.]]
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Painter [[Paul Gauguin]] left the technologic society of Europe to reside in the French colony of [[Tahiti]], where he adopted a primitive style of life unlike that of urban France. Gauguin's search for the primitive was a search for sexual freedom from the Christian constrictions of private life in France; evident in the paintings ''[[Spirit of the Dead Watching]]'' (1892), ''[[Parau na te Varua ino]]'' (1892), and ''Anna the Javanerin'' (1893), ''[[Te Tamari No Atua]]'' (1896) and ''Cruel Tales'' (1902). Gauguin's view of Tahiti as a sexual utopia free of the complications ingrained in the urban West is in line with the perspective of [[pastoral]] art, which idealises rural life as better than city life. Similarities between Pastoralism and Primitivism are evident in the Gauguin paintings ''Tahitian Pastoral'' and ''[[Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?]]'' (1897–1898).<ref>About the painting ''Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?'' (1897–1898), the art historian George T.M. Shackelford said: "Although, [Gauguin] downplayed the painting's relationship to the murals of Puvis, on the grounds of procedure and intention, in formal terms he cannot have hoped that his figured landscape — for all its apparent rejection of classical formulas and execution — could escape comparison with the timeless groves that Puvis had popularized in murals for the museums in Lyon and Rouen, as well as the great hemicycle of the Sorbonne."</ref>

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Gauguin said that his work celebrated Tahitian society, and that, as such, he was defending Tahiti against European colonialism; nonetheless, from the [[postcolonial]] perspective, feminist art critics said that Gauguin's taking adolescent mistresses voids his anti-colonialist claim.<ref>Solomon-Godeau 1986, p.324.</ref> Like the European men of his time, Gauguin saw sexual freedom exclusively from the perspective of the [[male gaze]] of the colonizer, because Gauguin's artistic primitivism includes the "dense interweave of racial and sexual fantasies and [[power]], both colonial and patriarchal" created by the French about the Tahitians,<ref>Solomon-Godeau 1986, p.315.</ref> which fantasies are "an effort to [[Essentialism|essentialize]] notions of primitiveness" by [[Other (philosophy)|Othering]] the non-European peoples into [[Subaltern (postcolonialism)|subordinate]] peoples.


==Fauves and Pablo Picasso==
==Fauves and Pablo Picasso==
⚫
[[File:Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.jpg|thumb|left|''[[Les Demoiselles d'Avignon]]''. The two figures on the right are the beginnings of [[Picasso|Picasso's]] African-inspired period.]]
{{see also|Picasso's African Period}}
{{see also|Picasso's African Period}}
⚫
[[File:Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.jpg|thumb|right|300px|In the painting ''[[Les Demoiselles d'Avignon]]'' (1907) the two figures at the right indicate the stylistic origin of Pablo Picasso's African period]]
In 1905–06, a small group of artists began to study art from [[Sub-Saharan Africa]] and [[Oceania]], in part because of the compelling works of [[Paul Gauguin]] that were gaining visibility in Paris{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}}. Gauguin's powerful posthumous retrospective exhibitions at the [[Salon d'Automne]] in Paris in 1903 and an even larger one in 1906 exerted a strong influence. Artists including [[Maurice de Vlaminck]], [[André Derain]], [[Henri Matisse]], and [[Pablo Picasso]] grew increasingly intrigued and inspired by the select objects they encountered.


[[Pablo Picasso]], in particular, explored [[Iberian sculpture]], [[African sculpture]], [[African traditional masks]], and other historical works including the [[Mannerism|Mannerist paintings]] of [[El Greco]], resulting in his masterpiece ''[[Les Demoiselles D'Avignon]]'' and, eventually, the invention of [[Cubism]].<ref name="Cooper, 24">Cooper, 24</ref>
In 1905–1906 period, a group of artists studied the arts from [[Sub-Saharan Africa]] and from [[Oceania]], because of the popularity of the Gauguin paintings of Tahiti and the Tahitians. Two posthumous, retrospective exhibitions of Gauguin's works of art in Paris, one at the [[Salon d'Automne]] in 1903, and the other in 1906, influenced [[fauvism|fauve movement]] artists such as [[Maurice de Vlaminck]], [[André Derain]] and [[Henri Matisse]], but also [[Pablo Picasso]]. In particular, Picasso studied [[Iberian sculpture]], [[African sculpture]], and [[African traditional masks]], and historical works such as the [[Mannerism|Mannerist paintings]] of [[El Greco]], from which aesthetic study Picasso painted ''[[Les Demoiselles d'Avignon]]'' (1907), and invented [[Cubism]].<ref name="Cooper, 24">Cooper, 24</ref>

The generalizing term "primitivism" tends to obscure the distinct contributions to modern art from these various visual traditions.<ref>Cohen, Joshua I. “Fauve Masks: Rethinking Modern 'Primitivist' Uses of African and Oceanic Art, 1905-8.” The Art Bulletin 99, no. 2 (June 2017): 136-65.</ref>


==Anti-colonial primitivism==
==Anti-colonial primitivism==
Although primitivism in art is usually regarded as a Western phenomenon, the structure of primitivist idealism can be found in the work of non-Western and specifically anti-colonial artists. The desire to recover a notional and idealized past when humans had been one with nature is connected to the critique of the impact of Western modernity on colonized societies. These artists often critique Western stereotypes about "primitive" colonized peoples while at the same time yearning to recover pre-colonial modes of experience. [[Decolonization|Anticolonialism]] fuses with primitivism's reverse teleology to produce art that is distinct from the primitivism of Western artists which usually reinforces rather than critiques colonial stereotypes.<ref>See Ben Etherington, ''Literary Primitivism'' (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2018).</ref>
Primitivism in art is usually regarded as a cultural phenomenon of Western art, yet the structure of primitivist idealism is in the art works of non-Western and anti-colonial artists. The nostalgia for an idealized past when humans lived in harmony with Nature is related to critiques of the negative cultural impact of Western modernity upon colonized peoples. The primitivist works of anti-colonial artists are critiques of the Western stereotypes about colonized peoples, while also yearning for the pre-colonial way of life. The processes of [[decolonization]] fuse with the reverse [[teleology]] of Primitivism to produce native works of art distinct from the primitivist artworks by Western artists, which reinforce colonial stereotypes as true.<ref>Etherington, Ben. ''Literary Primitivism'' (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2018) p. 000.</ref>

As a type of artistic primitivism, the artworks of the [[Négritude]] movement tend to nostalgia for a lost [[golden age]]. Begun in the 1930s, by [[Geographical distribution of French speakers|francophone]] artists and intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, the Négritude movement was readily adopted throughout continental Africa and by the [[African diaspora]]. In rejection of Western [[rationalism]] and European colonialism, the Négritude artists idealized pre-colonial Africa with works of art that represent pre-colonial Africa as composed of societies who were more culturally united before the Europeans arrived to Africa.


The work of artists connected with the [[Négritude]] movement in particular demonstrates this tendency. Négritude was a movement of neo-African idealism and political agitation that was begun by [[Geographical distribution of French speakers|francophone]] intellectuals and artists on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1930s, and which spread across Africa and the [[African diaspora]] in subsequent years. They self-consciously idealized pre-colonial Africa, something that took many forms. This typically consisted in rejecting overweening European rationalism and the associated ravages of colonialism while positing pre-colonial African societies as having had a more communal and organic basis. The work of the Cuban artist [[Wifredo Lam]] is particularly notable among the visual artists of Négritude. Lam met Pablo Picasso and the European surrealists while living in Paris in the 1930s.<ref>Lowery Stokes Sims. Wifredo Lam and the international avant-garde, 1923-1982. University of Texas Press, 2002.</ref> When he returned to Cuba in 1941, Lam was emboldened to create images in which humans, animals, and nature combined in lush and dynamic tableaux. In his iconic work of 1943, ''The Jungle'', Lam's characteristic polymorphism recreates a fantastical jungle scene with African motifs between stalks of cane. It vividly captures the way in which Négritude's neo-African idealism is connected to a history of plantation slavery centered on the production of sugar.
Notable among the artists of the Négritude movement is the Cuban artist [[Wifredo Lam]] who was associated with Picasso and the [[Surrealism|surrealists]] in Paris, in the 1930s.<ref>Stokes Sims, Lowery. ''Wifredo Lam and the International Avant-garde, 1923–1982'', University of Texas Press, 2002 p. 000.</ref> On returning to Cuba in 1941, Lam was emboldened to create dynamic tableaux that integrated human beings, animals, and Nature. In ''The Jungle'' (1943), Lam's polymorphism creates a fantastical jungle scene featuring African motifs among the stalks of sugar cane to represent the connection between the neo-African idealism of Négritude and the history of plantation slavery for the production of [[Sugar|table sugar]].


==Neo-primitivism==
==Neo-primitivism==
'''Neo-primitivism''' was a Russian [[art movement]] that took its name from the 31-page pamphlet ''Neo-primitivizm'', by [[Aleksandr Shevchenko|Aleksandr]] {{harvtxt|Shevchenko|1913}}. It is considered a type of avant-garde movement and is proposed as a new style of modern painting which fuses elements of [[Cézanne]], [[Cubism]], and [[futurism (art)|Futurism]] with traditional Russian '[[folk art]]' conventions and motifs, notably the [[Russian icon]] and the [[lubok]].
'''Neo-primitivism''' was a Russian [[art movement]] that took its name from the 31-page pamphlet ''Neo-primitivizm'', by [[Aleksandr Shevchenko|Aleksandr]] {{harvtxt|Shevchenko|1913}}. It is considered a type of avant-garde movement and is proposed as a new style of modern painting which fuses elements of [[Cézanne]], [[Cubism]], and [[futurism (art)|Futurism]] with traditional Russian '[[folk art]]' conventions and motifs, notably the [[Russian icon]] and the [[lubok]].


Neo-primitivism replaced the symbolist art of the [[Blue Rose (art group)|Blue Rose movement]]. The nascent movement was embraced due to its predecessor's tendency to look back so that it passed its creative zenith.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bowlt|first=John E.|title=Russian Art, 1875-1975: A Collection of Essays|publisher=MSS Information Corporation|year=1976|isbn=0-8422-5262-2|location=New York, NY|pages=94}}</ref> A conceptualization of neo-primitivism describes it as anti-primitivist Primitivism since it questions the primitivist's [[Eurocentrism|Eurocentric]] [[universalism]].<ref name=":0a">{{Cite book|last=Li|first=Victor|title=The Neo-primitivist Turn: Critical Reflections on Alterity, Culture, and Modernity|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=2006|isbn=0-8020-9111-3|location=Toronto|pages=ix, 18, 19}}</ref> This view presents neo-primitivism as a contemporary version that repudiates previous primitivist discourses.<ref name=":0a" /> Some characteristics of neo-primitivist art include the use of bold colors, original designs, and expressiveness.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bachus|first=Nancy|title=The Modern Piano: The Influence of Society, Style, and Musical Trends on the Great Piano Composers|last2=Glover|first2=Daniel|publisher=Alfred Music Publishing|year=2006|isbn=0-7390-4298-X|location=Los Angeles, CA|pages=26|language=en}}</ref> These are demonstrated in the works of [[Paul Gauguin]], which feature vivid hues and flat forms instead of a three-dimensional perspective.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bachus|first=Nancy|title=Beyond the Romantic Spirit 1880-1922|last2=Glover|first2=Daniel|publisher=Alfred Music Publishing|year=2003|isbn=978-0-7390-3217-6|location=Los Angeles, CA|pages=24}}</ref> [[Igor Stravinsky]] was another neo-primitivist known for his children's pieces, which were based on Russian folklore.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Foxcroft|first=Nigel H.|title=The Kaleidoscopic Vision of Malcolm Lowry: Souls and Shamans|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2019|isbn=978-1-4985-1657-0|location=Lanham, MD|pages=22}}</ref> Several neo-primitivist artists were also previous members of the Blue Rose group.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brooker|first=Peter|title=The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines, Volume III|last2=Thacker|first2=Andrew|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2013|isbn=978-0-19-968130-3|location=Oxon|pages=1289}}</ref>
Neo-primitivism replaced the symbolist art of the [[Blue Rose (art group)|Blue Rose movement]]. The nascent movement was embraced due to its predecessor's tendency to look back so that it passed its creative zenith.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bowlt|first=John E.|title=Russian Art, 1875-1975: A Collection of Essays|publisher=MSS Information Corporation|year=1976|isbn=0-8422-5262-2|location=New York, NY|pages=94}}</ref> A conceptualization of neo-primitivism describes it as anti-primitivist Primitivism since it questions the primitivist's [[Eurocentrism|Eurocentric]] [[universalism]].<ref name=":0a">{{Cite book|last=Li|first=Victor|title=The Neo-primitivist Turn: Critical Reflections on Alterity, Culture, and Modernity|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=2006|isbn=0-8020-9111-3|location=Toronto|pages=ix, 18, 19}}</ref> This view presents neo-primitivism as a contemporary version that repudiates previous primitivist discourses.<ref name=":0a" /> Some characteristics of neo-primitivist art include the use of bold colors, original designs, and expressiveness.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bachus|first=Nancy|title=The Modern Piano: The Influence of Society, Style, and Musical Trends on the Great Piano Composers|last2=Glover|first2=Daniel|publisher=Alfred Music Publishing|year=2006|isbn=0-7390-4298-X|location=Los Angeles, CA|pages=26|language=en}}</ref> These are demonstrated in the works of [[Paul Gauguin]], which feature vivid hues and flat forms instead of a three-dimensional perspective.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bachus|first=Nancy|title=Beyond the Romantic Spirit 1880-1922|last2=Glover|first2=Daniel|publisher=Alfred Music Publishing|year=2003|isbn=978-0-7390-3217-6|location=Los Angeles, CA|pages=24}}</ref> [[Igor Stravinsky]] was another neo-primitivist known for his children's pieces, which were based on Russian folklore.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Foxcroft|first=Nigel H.|title=The Kaleidoscopic Vision of Malcolm Lowry: Souls and Shamans|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2019|isbn=978-1-4985-1657-0|location=Lanham, MD|pages=22}}</ref> Several neo-primitivist artists were also previous members of the [[Blue Rose (art group)|Blue Rose group]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brooker|first=Peter|title=The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines, Volume III|last2=Thacker|first2=Andrew|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2013|isbn=978-0-19-968130-3|location=Oxon|pages=1289}}</ref>


===Neo-primitive artists===
===Neo-primitive artists===
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==Museum exhibitions on primitivism in modern art==
==Museum exhibitions on primitivism in modern art==
In November 1910, [[Roger Fry]] organized the exhibition titled ''Manet and the Post-Impressionists'' held at the Grafton Galleries in London. This exhibition showcased works by [[Paul Cézanne]], [[Paul Gauguin]], [[Henri Matisse]], [[Édouard Manet]], [[Pablo Picasso]], and [[Vincent van Gogh|Vincent Van Gogh]], among others. This exhibition was meant to showcase how French art had developed over the past three decades; however, art critics in London were shocked by what they saw. Some called Fry “mad” and “crazy” for publicly displaying such artwork in the exhibition.<ref>Frances Spalding, “Roger Fry and His Critics in a Post-Modernist Age,” The Burlington Magazine 128, no. 1000 (1986): 490.</ref> Fry's exhibition called attention to primitivism in modern art even if he did not intend for it to happen; leading American scholar Marianna Torgovnick to term the exhibition as the "debut" of primitivism on the London art scene.<ref>Marianna Torgovnick, Gone Primitive: Savage Intellects, Modern Lives, Nachdr. (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1990), 104.</ref>
In November 1910, [[Roger Fry]] organized the exhibition titled ''Manet and the Post-Impressionists'' held at the [[Grafton Galleries]] in London. This exhibition showcased works by [[Paul Cézanne]], [[Paul Gauguin]], [[Henri Matisse]], [[Édouard Manet]], [[Pablo Picasso]], and [[Vincent van Gogh|Vincent Van Gogh]], among others. This exhibition was meant to showcase how French art had developed over the past three decades; however, art critics in London were shocked by what they saw. Some called Fry "mad" and "crazy" for publicly displaying such artwork in the exhibition.<ref>Frances Spalding, "Roger Fry and His Critics in a Post-Modernist Age," The Burlington Magazine 128, no. 1000 (1986): 490.</ref> Fry's exhibition called attention to primitivism in modern art even if he did not intend for it to happen; leading American scholar Marianna Torgovnick to term the exhibition as the "debut" of primitivism on the London art scene.<ref>Marianna Torgovnick, Gone Primitive: Savage Intellects, Modern Lives, Nachdr. (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1990), 104.</ref>


In 1984, [[The Museum of Modern Art]] in [[New York City|New York]] had a new exhibition focusing on primitivism in modern art. Instead of pointing out the obvious issues, the exhibition celebrated the use of non-Western objects as inspiration for modern artists. The director of the exhibition, [[William Rubin]], took Roger Fry's exhibition one step further by displaying the modern works of art juxtaposed to the non-Western objects themselves. Rubin stated, “That he was not so much interested in the pieces of ‘tribal’ art in themselves but instead wanted to focus on the ways in which modern artists ‘discovered’ this art.”<ref>William Rubin et al., eds., “Primitivism” in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern (New York : Boston: Museum of Modern Art ; Distributed by New York Graphic Society Books, 1984).</ref> He was trying to show there was an ‘affinity’ between the two types of art. Scholar [[Jean-Hubert Martin]] argued this attitude effectively meant that the ‘tribal’ art objects were “given the status of not much more than footnotes or addenda to the Modernist avant-garde.”<ref>Jean-Hubert Martin, The Whole Earth Show, interview by Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, July 1989.</ref> Rubin's exhibition was divided into four different parts: Concepts, History, Affinities, and Contemporary Explorations. Each section is meant to serve a different purpose in showing the connections between modern art and non-Western ‘art.’
In 1984, [[The Museum of Modern Art]] in [[New York City|New York]] had a new exhibition focusing on primitivism in modern art. Instead of pointing out the obvious issues, the exhibition celebrated the use of non-Western objects as inspiration for modern artists. The director of the exhibition, [[William Rubin]], took Roger Fry's exhibition one step further by displaying the modern works of art juxtaposed to the non-Western objects themselves. Rubin stated, "That he was not so much interested in the pieces of 'tribal' art in themselves but instead wanted to focus on the ways in which modern artists 'discovered' this art."<ref>William Rubin et al., eds., "Primitivism" in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern (New York : Boston: Museum of Modern Art ; Distributed by New York Graphic Society Books, 1984).</ref> He was trying to show there was an 'affinity' between the two types of art. Scholar [[Jean-Hubert Martin]] argued this attitude effectively meant that the 'tribal' art objects were "given the status of not much more than footnotes or addenda to the Modernist avant-garde."<ref>Jean-Hubert Martin, The Whole Earth Show, interview by Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, July 1989.</ref> Rubin's exhibition was divided into four different parts: Concepts, History, Affinities, and Contemporary Explorations. Each section is meant to serve a different purpose in showing the connections between modern art and non-Western 'art.'


In 2017, the [[Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac]] in collaboration with the Musée National Picasso – Paris, put on the exhibition ''Picasso Primitif''. Yves Le Fur, the director, stated he wanted this exhibition to invite a dialogue between “the works of Picasso – not only the major works but also the experiments with aesthetic concepts – with those, no less rich, by non-Western artists."<ref>Yves Le Fur, “Picasso Primitif,” Exhibition Leaflet, Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, 2017, 2.</ref> ''Picasso Primitif'' meant to offer a comparative view of the artist's works with those of non-Western artists. The resulting confrontation was supposed to reveal the similar issues those artists have had to address such as nudity, sexuality, impulses and loss through parallel plastic solutions.
In 2017, the [[Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac]] in collaboration with the Musée National Picasso – Paris, put on the exhibition ''Picasso Primitif''. Yves Le Fur, the director, stated he wanted this exhibition to invite a dialogue between "the works of Picasso – not only the major works but also the experiments with aesthetic concepts – with those, no less rich, by non-Western artists."<ref>Yves Le Fur, "Picasso Primitif," Exhibition Leaflet, Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, 2017, 2.</ref> ''Picasso Primitif'' meant to offer a comparative view of the artist's works with those of non-Western artists. The resulting confrontation was supposed to reveal the similar issues those artists have had to address such as nudity, sexuality, impulses and loss through parallel plastic solutions.


In 2018, the [[Montreal Museum of Fine Arts]] had an exhibition titled ''From Africa to the Americas: Face-to-Face Picasso, Past and Present''. The MMFA adapted and expanded on ''Picasso Primitif'' by bringing in 300 works and documents from the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac and the Musée National Picasso – Paris. [[Nathalie Bondil]] saw the issues with the ways in which Yves Le Fur presented Picasso's work juxtaposed to non-Western art and objects and found a way to respond to it. The headline of this exhibition was, “A major exhibition offering a new perspective and inspiring a rereading of art history.”<ref>“From Africa to the Americas: Face-to-Face Picasso, Past and Present,” The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, accessed December 3, 2018.</ref> The exhibition looked at the transformation in our view of the arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas from the end of the 19th century to the present day. Bondil wanted to explore the question about how ethnographic objects come to be viewed as art. She also asked, “How can a Picasso and an anonymous mask be exhibited in the same plane?”<ref>Ian McGillis, “MMFA Show Shines a Light on How Picasso Tapped into Africa to Redefine Art in the 20th Century,” Montreal Gazette, May 4, 2018.</ref>
In 2018, the [[Montreal Museum of Fine Arts]] had an exhibition titled ''From Africa to the Americas: Face-to-Face Picasso, Past and Present''. The MMFA adapted and expanded on ''Picasso Primitif'' by bringing in 300 works and documents from the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac and the Musée National Picasso – Paris. [[Nathalie Bondil]] saw the issues with the ways in which Yves Le Fur presented Picasso's work juxtaposed to non-Western art and objects and found a way to respond to it. The headline of this exhibition was, "A major exhibition offering a new perspective and inspiring a rereading of art history."<ref>"From Africa to the Americas: Face-to-Face Picasso, Past and Present," The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, accessed December 3, 2018.</ref> The exhibition looked at the transformation in our view of the arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas from the end of the 19th century to the present day. Bondil wanted to explore the question about how ethnographic objects come to be viewed as art. She also asked, "How can a Picasso and an anonymous mask be exhibited in the same plane?"<ref>Ian McGillis, "MMFA Show Shines a Light on How Picasso Tapped into Africa to Redefine Art in the 20th Century," Montreal Gazette, May 4, 2018.</ref>


==See also==
==See also==
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*[[Folk art]]
*[[Folk art]]
*[[Medievalism]]
*[[Medievalism]]
*[[Naïve art]]
*[[State of nature|Natural state]]
*[[State of nature|Natural state]]
*[[Negrophilia]]
*[[Noble savage]]
*[[Noble savage]]
*[[Racial fetishism]]
*[[Racial fetishism]]
*[[Romantic racism]]
*[[Romantic racism]]
*[[Orientalism]]
*[[Orientalism]]
*[[Other (philosophy) | Othering]]
*[[Outsider art]]
*[[Outsider art]]
*[[State of nature]]
*[[State of nature]]
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*Antliff, Mark and Patricia Leighten, "Primitive" in ''Critical Terms for Art History'', R. Nelson and R. Shiff (Eds.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996 (rev. ed. 2003).
*Antliff, Mark and Patricia Leighten, "Primitive" in ''Critical Terms for Art History'', R. Nelson and R. Shiff (Eds.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996 (rev. ed. 2003).
*[[Anthony Blunt|Blunt, Anthony]] & Pool, Phoebe. ''Picasso, the Formative Years: A Study of His Sources''. Graphic Society, 1962.
*[[Anthony Blunt|Blunt, Anthony]] & Pool, Phoebe. ''Picasso, the Formative Years: A Study of His Sources''. Graphic Society, 1962.
*Connelly, S. Frances. ''The Sleep of Reason: Primitivism in Modern European Art and Aesthetics, 1725-1907''. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999.
*Connelly, S. Frances. ''The Sleep of Reason: Primitivism in Modern European Art and Aesthetics, 1725–1907''. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999.
* {{cite news|last=del Valle|first= Alejandro.|title=Primitivism in the Art of Ana Mendieta|url=https://repositori.upf.edu/handle/10230/27026|access-date=8 July 2017|year=2015|publisher=Tesis doctoral. Universitat Pompeu Fabra}}
* {{cite news|last=del Valle|first= Alejandro.|title=Primitivism in the Art of Ana Mendieta|url=https://repositori.upf.edu/handle/10230/27026|access-date=8 July 2017|year=2015|publisher=Tesis doctoral. Universitat Pompeu Fabra}}
*[[Douglas Cooper (art historian)|Cooper, Douglas]] ''The Cubist Epoch'', [[Phaidon Press|Phaidon]] in association with the [[Los Angeles County Museum of Art]] & the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], London, 1970, {{ISBN|0-87587-041-4}}
*[[Douglas Cooper (art historian)|Cooper, Douglas]] ''The Cubist Epoch'', [[Phaidon Press|Phaidon]] in association with the [[Los Angeles County Museum of Art]] & the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], London, 1970, {{ISBN|0-87587-041-4}}

Latest revision as of 20:39, 2 July 2024

This article is about primitivism in the visual arts. For the social movement, see anarcho-primitivism. For the American art style, see Primitive decorating. For art by self-taught artists, see naïve art. For other meanings of "primitivism" or "primitive", see Primitive.
In a Tropical Forest Combat of a Tiger and a Buffalo (1908–1909), by Henri Rousseau

In the arts of the Western World, Primitivism is a mode of aesthetic idealization that means to recreate the experience of the primitive time, place, and person, either by emulation or by re-creation. In Western philosophy, Primitivism proposes that the people of a primitive society possess a morality and an ethics that are superior to the urban value system of civilized people.[1]

In European art, the aesthetics of primitivism included techniques, motifs, and styles copied from the arts of Asian, African, and Australasian peoples perceived as primitive in relation to the urban civilization of western Europe. In that light, the painter Paul Gauguin's inclusion of Tahitian imagery to his oil paintings was a characteristic borrowing of technique, motif, and style that was important for the development of Modern art (1860s–1970s) in the late 19th century.[2] As a genre of Western art, Primitivism reproduced and perpetuated racist stereotypes, such as the "noble savage", with which colonialists justified white colonial rule over the non-white other in Asia, Africa, and Australasia.[3]

Moreover, the term primitivism also identifies the techniques, motifs, and styles of painting that predominated representational painting before the emergence of the Avant-garde; and also identifies the styles of naïve art and of folk art produced by amateur artists, such as Henri Rousseau, who painted for personal pleasure.[4]

Philosophy[edit]

Primitivism is a utopian style of art that means to represent the physical world of Nature and humanity's original state of nature with two styles: (i) chronological primitivism and (ii) cultural primitivism.[5] In Europe, chronological primitivism proposes the moral superiority of a primitive way of life represented by the myth of a golden age of pre-societal harmony with Nature, as depicted in the Pastoral genres of European representational art and poetry.[6]

Notable examples of European cultural primitivism are the music of Igor Stravinsky, the Tahitian paintings of Paul Gauguin, and the African period artworks of Pablo Picasso. Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring (1913) is primitivist program music about the subject of Paganism, specifically the rite of human sacrifice in pre-christian Russia. Foregoing the aesthetic and technical restraints of Western musical composition, in The Rite of Spring the composer employs harsh consonance and dissonance and loud, repetitive rhythms as a mode of Dionysian spontaneity in musical modernism. The critic Malcolm Cook said that "with its folk-music motifs and the infamous 1913 Paris riot securing its avant-garde credentials, Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring engaged in Primitivism in both form and practice" while remaining within the technical praxes of Western classical music.[7]

17th century

During the Age of Enlightenment, intellectuals rhetorically used the idealization of indigenous peoples as political criticism of European culture;[8] however, as part of the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns, the Italian intellectual Giambattista Vico said that the lives of primitive non-Europeans were more attuned to Nature's aesthetic inspirations for poetry than the arts of civilized, modern man. From that perspective, Vico compared the artistic merits of the epic poetry of Homer and of the Bible against the modern literature written in vernacular language.[9]

18th century

In the Prolegomena to Homer (1795), the scholar Friedrich August Wolf identified the language of Homer's poetry and the language of The Bible as examples of folk art communicated and transmitted by oral tradition.[10] Later, the ideas of Vico and Wolf were developed at the beginning of the 19th century by Johann Gottfried Herder;[11] nevertheless, although influential in literature, the ideas of Vico and Wolf slightly influenced the visual arts.[12]

19th century

The emergence of historicism — judging and evaluating different eras according to their historical context and criteria — resulted in new schools of visual art dedicated to historical fidelity of setting and costume, such as the art of Neoclassicism and the Romantic art of the Nazarene movement in Germany who were inspired by the primitive school of Italian devotional paintings, i.e. before Raphael and the discovery of oil painting.

Whereas academic painting (after Raphael) used dark glazes, idealized forms, and suppression of detail, the artists of the Nazarene movement used clear outlines, bright colors, and much detail. The artistic styles of the Nazarene movement were similar to the artistic styles of the Pre-Raphaelites, who were inspired by the critical writings of John Ruskin, who admired the painters before Raphael (e.g. Sandro Botticelli) and recommended that artists paint outdoors.

In the mid-19th century, the photographic camera and non-Euclidean geometry changed the visual arts; photography impelled the development of artistic Realism and non-Euclidean geometry voided the mathematic absolutes of Euclidean geometry, and so challenged the conventional perspective of Renaissance art by suggesting the existence of multiple worlds in which things are different from the human world.[13]

Modernist Primitivism[edit]

The stylistic influences of the African mask of the Fang people are noticeable in the painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), by Pablo Picasso.

The three-hundred-year Age of Discovery (15th c.–17th c.) exposed western European explorers to the peoples and cultures of Asia and the Americas, of Africa and Australasia, but the explorers' perspective of cultural difference led to colonialism.[14] During the Age of Enlightenment, the explorers' encounters with the non-European Other provoked philosophers to question the Mediaeval assumptions about the fixed nature Man, of society, and of Nature, doubted the social-class organization of society and the mental, moral, and intellectual strictures of Christianity, by comparing the civilization of Europe against the way of life of the uncivilized natural man living in harmony with Nature.[15]

In the 18th century, Western artists and intellectuals participated in "the conscious search in history for a more deeply expressive, permanent human nature and cultural structure in contrast to the nascent modern realities", by studying the cultures of the primitive peoples encountered by explorers.[16] The spoils of European colonialism included the works of art of the colonized natives, which featured primitive styles of expression and execution, especially the absence of linear perspective, a simple outline, the presence of hieroglyphs, distortions of the figure, and the meaning communicated with repeated patterns of ornamentation.[17] The African and Australasian cultures provided artists an answer to their "white, Western, and preponderantly male quest" for the ideal of the primitive, "whose very condition of desirability resides in some form of distance and difference."[18]

Paul Gauguin[edit]

The painter Paul Gauguin departed urban Europe to reside in the French colony of Tahiti, where he adopted a primitive style of life much unlike the way of life in urban France. Gauguin's search for the primitive was a search for sexual freedom from the Christian constrictions of private life, evident in the paintings Spirit of the Dead Watching (1892), Parau na te Varua ino (1892), and Anna the Javanerin (1893), Te Tamari No Atua (1896) and Cruel Tales (1902).

Spirit of the Dead Watching (1892), by Paul Gauguin

Gauguin's European perspective of Tahiti as a sexual utopia free of the religious sexual prohibitions is in line with the perspective of pastoral art, which idealizes rural life as better than city life. The similarities between Pastoralism and Primitivism are evident in the paintings Tahitian Pastoral (1892) and Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897–1898).[19]

The artist Gauguin said that his paintings celebrated Tahitian society, and that he was defending Tahiti against French colonialism; nonetheless, from the postcolonial perspective of the 20th century, feminist art critics said that Gauguin's taking adolescent mistresses voids his claim of being an anti-colonialist.[20] As a European man, his sexual freedom derived from the male gaze of the colonist, because Gauguin's artistic primitivism is part of the "dense interweave of racial and sexual fantasies and power, both colonial and patriarchal", which French colonialists invented about Tahiti and the Tahitians;[21] European fantasies invented in "effort to essentialize notions of primitiveness", by Othering non-European peoples into colonial subordinates.

Fauves and Pablo Picasso[edit]

See also: Picasso's African Period
In the painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) the two figures at the right indicate the stylistic origin of Pablo Picasso's African period

In 1905–1906 period, a group of artists studied the arts from Sub-Saharan Africa and from Oceania, because of the popularity of the Gauguin paintings of Tahiti and the Tahitians. Two posthumous, retrospective exhibitions of Gauguin's works of art in Paris, one at the Salon d'Automne in 1903, and the other in 1906, influenced fauve movement artists such as Maurice de Vlaminck, André Derain and Henri Matisse, but also Pablo Picasso. In particular, Picasso studied Iberian sculpture, African sculpture, and African traditional masks, and historical works such as the Mannerist paintings of El Greco, from which aesthetic study Picasso painted Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), and invented Cubism.[22]

Anti-colonial primitivism[edit]

Primitivism in art is usually regarded as a cultural phenomenon of Western art, yet the structure of primitivist idealism is in the art works of non-Western and anti-colonial artists. The nostalgia for an idealized past when humans lived in harmony with Nature is related to critiques of the negative cultural impact of Western modernity upon colonized peoples. The primitivist works of anti-colonial artists are critiques of the Western stereotypes about colonized peoples, while also yearning for the pre-colonial way of life. The processes of decolonization fuse with the reverse teleology of Primitivism to produce native works of art distinct from the primitivist artworks by Western artists, which reinforce colonial stereotypes as true.[23]

As a type of artistic primitivism, the artworks of the Négritude movement tend to nostalgia for a lost golden age. Begun in the 1930s, by francophone artists and intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, the Négritude movement was readily adopted throughout continental Africa and by the African diaspora. In rejection of Western rationalism and European colonialism, the Négritude artists idealized pre-colonial Africa with works of art that represent pre-colonial Africa as composed of societies who were more culturally united before the Europeans arrived to Africa.

Notable among the artists of the Négritude movement is the Cuban artist Wifredo Lam who was associated with Picasso and the surrealists in Paris, in the 1930s.[24] On returning to Cuba in 1941, Lam was emboldened to create dynamic tableaux that integrated human beings, animals, and Nature. In The Jungle (1943), Lam's polymorphism creates a fantastical jungle scene featuring African motifs among the stalks of sugar cane to represent the connection between the neo-African idealism of Négritude and the history of plantation slavery for the production of table sugar.

Neo-primitivism[edit]

Neo-primitivism was a Russian art movement that took its name from the 31-page pamphlet Neo-primitivizm, by Aleksandr Shevchenko (1913). It is considered a type of avant-garde movement and is proposed as a new style of modern painting which fuses elements of Cézanne, Cubism, and Futurism with traditional Russian 'folk art' conventions and motifs, notably the Russian icon and the lubok.

Neo-primitivism replaced the symbolist art of the Blue Rose movement. The nascent movement was embraced due to its predecessor's tendency to look back so that it passed its creative zenith.[25] A conceptualization of neo-primitivism describes it as anti-primitivist Primitivism since it questions the primitivist's Eurocentric universalism.[26] This view presents neo-primitivism as a contemporary version that repudiates previous primitivist discourses.[26] Some characteristics of neo-primitivist art include the use of bold colors, original designs, and expressiveness.[27] These are demonstrated in the works of Paul Gauguin, which feature vivid hues and flat forms instead of a three-dimensional perspective.[28] Igor Stravinsky was another neo-primitivist known for his children's pieces, which were based on Russian folklore.[29] Several neo-primitivist artists were also previous members of the Blue Rose group.[30]

Neo-primitive artists[edit]

Russian artists associated with Neo-primitivism include:

Museum exhibitions on primitivism in modern art[edit]

In November 1910, Roger Fry organized the exhibition titled Manet and the Post-Impressionists held at the Grafton Galleries in London. This exhibition showcased works by Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse, Édouard Manet, Pablo Picasso, and Vincent Van Gogh, among others. This exhibition was meant to showcase how French art had developed over the past three decades; however, art critics in London were shocked by what they saw. Some called Fry "mad" and "crazy" for publicly displaying such artwork in the exhibition.[31] Fry's exhibition called attention to primitivism in modern art even if he did not intend for it to happen; leading American scholar Marianna Torgovnick to term the exhibition as the "debut" of primitivism on the London art scene.[32]

In 1984, The Museum of Modern Art in New York had a new exhibition focusing on primitivism in modern art. Instead of pointing out the obvious issues, the exhibition celebrated the use of non-Western objects as inspiration for modern artists. The director of the exhibition, William Rubin, took Roger Fry's exhibition one step further by displaying the modern works of art juxtaposed to the non-Western objects themselves. Rubin stated, "That he was not so much interested in the pieces of 'tribal' art in themselves but instead wanted to focus on the ways in which modern artists 'discovered' this art."[33] He was trying to show there was an 'affinity' between the two types of art. Scholar Jean-Hubert Martin argued this attitude effectively meant that the 'tribal' art objects were "given the status of not much more than footnotes or addenda to the Modernist avant-garde."[34] Rubin's exhibition was divided into four different parts: Concepts, History, Affinities, and Contemporary Explorations. Each section is meant to serve a different purpose in showing the connections between modern art and non-Western 'art.'

In 2017, the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac in collaboration with the Musée National Picasso – Paris, put on the exhibition Picasso Primitif. Yves Le Fur, the director, stated he wanted this exhibition to invite a dialogue between "the works of Picasso – not only the major works but also the experiments with aesthetic concepts – with those, no less rich, by non-Western artists."[35] Picasso Primitif meant to offer a comparative view of the artist's works with those of non-Western artists. The resulting confrontation was supposed to reveal the similar issues those artists have had to address such as nudity, sexuality, impulses and loss through parallel plastic solutions.

In 2018, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts had an exhibition titled From Africa to the Americas: Face-to-Face Picasso, Past and Present. The MMFA adapted and expanded on Picasso Primitif by bringing in 300 works and documents from the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac and the Musée National Picasso – Paris. Nathalie Bondil saw the issues with the ways in which Yves Le Fur presented Picasso's work juxtaposed to non-Western art and objects and found a way to respond to it. The headline of this exhibition was, "A major exhibition offering a new perspective and inspiring a rereading of art history."[36] The exhibition looked at the transformation in our view of the arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas from the end of the 19th century to the present day. Bondil wanted to explore the question about how ethnographic objects come to be viewed as art. She also asked, "How can a Picasso and an anonymous mask be exhibited in the same plane?"[37]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Hirsch, Edward (2014). A Poet's Glossary. New York: HMH. p. 485. ISBN 978-0-15-101195-7.
  2. ^ Atkins, Robert. Artspoke (1993) ISBN 978-1-55859-388-6
  3. ^ See: Marianna Torgovnick. Gone primitive: Savage Intellects, Modern Lives (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991); Ben Etherington, Literary Primitivism (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2018).
  4. ^ Camayd-Freixas, Erik; Gonzalez, Jose Eduardo (2000). Primitivism and Identity in Latin America: Essays on Art, Literature, and Culture. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-8165-2045-9.
  5. ^ Lovejoy, A. O. and Boas, George Boas. Primitivism and Related Ideas in Antiquity (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1935).
  6. ^ Hamilton, Albert Charles (1997). The Spenser Encyclopedia. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. 557. ISBN 0-8020-2676-1.
  7. ^ Cook, Malcolm (2017-08-24). "A Primitivism of the Senses". In Rogers, Holly; Barham, Jeremy (eds.). The Music and Sound of Experimental Film. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190469894.003.0003.
  8. ^ Pagden, Anthony. "The Savage Critic: Some European Images of the Primitive", The Yearbook of English Studies, 13 (1983), 32–45.
  9. ^ Bitterli, Urs; Robertson, Ritchie (1989). Cultures in Conflict: Encounters Between European and Non-European Cultures, 1492-1800. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-8047-2176-9.
  10. ^ Anttonen, Pertti; Forselles, Cecilia af; Salmi-Niklander, Kirsti (2018). Oral Tradition and Book Culture. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society. p. 70. ISBN 978-951-858-007-5.
  11. ^ Berlin, Isaiah. Vico and Herder (New York: Viking, 1976) p. 000.
  12. ^ Rubin, William, "Modernist Primitivism, 1984," p. 320, in Primitivism: Twentieth Century Art, A Documentary History, Jack Flam and Miriam Deutch, editors.
  13. ^ Dalrymple Henderson, Linda, The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art (Princeton University Press, 19810) p. 000.
  14. ^ Diamond, S. In Search of the Primitive: A Critique of Civilization, (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1974), pp. 215–217.
  15. ^ Diamond, Stanley (2017). In Search of the Primitive: A Critique of Civilization. Oxon: Taylor & Francis. p. 159. ISBN 978-1-138-08779-8.
  16. ^ Diamond 1974, p. 215.
  17. ^ Goldwater, Robert, Primitivism in Modern Art, Revised Edition (New York: Vintage, 1967) p. 0000.
  18. ^ See Solomon-Godeau 1986, p. 314.
  19. ^ About the painting Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897–1898), the art historian George T.M. Shackelford said: "Although, [Gauguin] downplayed the painting's relationship to the murals of Puvis, on the grounds of procedure and intention, in formal terms he cannot have hoped that his figured landscape — for all its apparent rejection of classical formulas and execution — could escape comparison with the timeless groves that Puvis had popularized in murals for the museums in Lyon and Rouen, as well as the great hemicycle of the Sorbonne."
  20. ^ Solomon-Godeau 1986, p.324.
  21. ^ Solomon-Godeau 1986, p.315.
  22. ^ Cooper, 24
  23. ^ Etherington, Ben. Literary Primitivism (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2018) p. 000.
  24. ^ Stokes Sims, Lowery. Wifredo Lam and the International Avant-garde, 1923–1982, University of Texas Press, 2002 p. 000.
  25. ^ Bowlt, John E. (1976). Russian Art, 1875-1975: A Collection of Essays. New York, NY: MSS Information Corporation. p. 94. ISBN 0-8422-5262-2.
  26. ^ a b Li, Victor (2006). The Neo-primitivist Turn: Critical Reflections on Alterity, Culture, and Modernity. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. ix, 18, 19. ISBN 0-8020-9111-3.
  27. ^ Bachus, Nancy; Glover, Daniel (2006). The Modern Piano: The Influence of Society, Style, and Musical Trends on the Great Piano Composers. Los Angeles, CA: Alfred Music Publishing. p. 26. ISBN 0-7390-4298-X.
  28. ^ Bachus, Nancy; Glover, Daniel (2003). Beyond the Romantic Spirit 1880-1922. Los Angeles, CA: Alfred Music Publishing. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-7390-3217-6.
  29. ^ Foxcroft, Nigel H. (2019). The Kaleidoscopic Vision of Malcolm Lowry: Souls and Shamans. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 22. ISBN 978-1-4985-1657-0.
  30. ^ Brooker, Peter; Thacker, Andrew (2013). The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines, Volume III. Oxon: Oxford University Press. p. 1289. ISBN 978-0-19-968130-3.
  31. ^ Frances Spalding, "Roger Fry and His Critics in a Post-Modernist Age," The Burlington Magazine 128, no. 1000 (1986): 490.
  32. ^ Marianna Torgovnick, Gone Primitive: Savage Intellects, Modern Lives, Nachdr. (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1990), 104.
  33. ^ William Rubin et al., eds., "Primitivism" in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern (New York : Boston: Museum of Modern Art ; Distributed by New York Graphic Society Books, 1984).
  34. ^ Jean-Hubert Martin, The Whole Earth Show, interview by Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, July 1989.
  35. ^ Yves Le Fur, "Picasso Primitif," Exhibition Leaflet, Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, 2017, 2.
  36. ^ "From Africa to the Americas: Face-to-Face Picasso, Past and Present," The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, accessed December 3, 2018.
  37. ^ Ian McGillis, "MMFA Show Shines a Light on How Picasso Tapped into Africa to Redefine Art in the 20th Century," Montreal Gazette, May 4, 2018.

References[edit]

  • Antliff, Mark and Patricia Leighten, "Primitive" in Critical Terms for Art History, R. Nelson and R. Shiff (Eds.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996 (rev. ed. 2003).
  • Blunt, Anthony & Pool, Phoebe. Picasso, the Formative Years: A Study of His Sources. Graphic Society, 1962.
  • Connelly, S. Frances. The Sleep of Reason: Primitivism in Modern European Art and Aesthetics, 1725–1907. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999.
  • del Valle, Alejandro. (2015). "Primitivism in the Art of Ana Mendieta". Tesis doctoral. Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Retrieved 8 July 2017.
  • Cooper, Douglas The Cubist Epoch, Phaidon in association with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art & the Metropolitan Museum of Art, London, 1970, ISBN 0-87587-041-4
  • Diamond, Stanley. In Search of the Primitive: A Critique of Civilization. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1974.
  • Etherington, Ben. Literary Primitivism. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2018.
  • Flam, Jack and Miriam Deutch, eds. Primitivism and Twentieth-Century Art Documentary History. University of California Press, 2003.
  • Goldwater, Robert. Primitivism in Modern Art. Belnap Press. 2002.
  • Lovejoy, A. O. and George Boas. Primitivism and Related Ideas in Antiquity. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1935 (With supplementary essays by W. F. Albright and P. E. Dumont, Baltimore and London, Johns Hopkins U. Press. 1997).
  • Redfield, Robert. "Art and Icon" in Anthropology and Art, C. Otten (Ed.). New York: Natural History Press, 1971.
  • Rhodes, Colin. Primitivism and Modern Art. London: Thames and Hudson, 1994.
  • Shevchenko, Aleksandr. 1913. Neo-primitivizm: ego teoriia, ego vozmozhnosti, ego dostizheniia. Moscow: [s.n.].
  • Solomon-Godeau, Abigail. "Going Native: Paul Gauguin and the Invention of Primitivist Modernism" in The Expanded Discourse: Feminism and Art History, N. Broude and M. Garrard (Eds.). New York: Harper Collins, 1986.

External links[edit]

Further reading on Neo-primitivism[edit]

  • Cowell, Henry. 1933. "Towards Neo-Primitivism". Modern Music 10, no. 3 (March–April): 149–53. Reprinted in Essential Cowell: Selected writings on Music by Henry Cowell, 1921–1964, edited by Richard Carter (Dick) Higgins and Bruce McPherson, with a preface by Kyle Gann, 299–303. Kingston, NY: Documentext, 2002. ISBN 978-0-929701-63-9.
  • Doherty, Allison. 1983. "Neo-Primitivism". MFA diss. Syracuse: Syracuse University.
  • Floirat, Anetta. 2015a. "Chagall and Stravinsky: Parallels Between a Painter and a Musician Convergence of Interests", Academia.edu (April).
  • Floirat, Anetta. 2015b. "Chagall and Stravinsky, Different Arts and Similar Solutions to Twentieth-Century Challenges". Academia.edu (April).
  • Floirat, Anetta. 2016. "The Scythian Element of the Russian Primitivism, in Music and Visual arts. Based on the Work of Three Painters (Goncharova, Malevich and Roerich) and Two Composers (Stravinsky and Prokofiev)". Academia.edu.
  • Garafola, Lynn. 1989. "The Making of Ballet Modernism". Dance Research Journal 20, no. 2 (Winter: Russian Issue): 23–32.
  • Hicken, Adrian. 1995. "The Quest for Authenticity: Folkloric Iconography and Jewish Revivalism in Early Orphic Art of Marc Chagall (c. 1909–1914)". In Fourth International Symposium Folklore–Music–Work of Art, edited by Sonja Marinković and Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman, 47–66. Belgrade: Fakultet Muzičke Umetnosti.
  • Nemirovskaâ, Izol'da Abramovna [Немировская, Изольда Абрамовна]. 2011. "Музыка для детей И.Стравинского в контексте художественной культуры рубежа XIX-ХХ веков" [Stravinsky's Music for Children and Art Culture at the Turn of the Twentieth Century]. In Вопросы музыкознания: Теория, история, методика. IV [Problems in Musicology: Theory, History, Methodology. IV], edited by Ûrij Nikolaevic Byckov [Юрий Николаевич Бычков] and Izol'da Abramovna Nemirovskaâ [Изольда Абрамовна Немировская], 37–51. Moscow: Gosudarstvennyj Institut Muzyki im. A.G. Snitke. ISBN 978-5-98079-720-1.
  • Sharp, Jane Ashton. 1992. "Primitivism, 'Neoprimitivism', and the Art of Natal'ia Gonchrova, 1907–1914". Ph.D. diss. New Haven: Yale University.
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