Henri Rousseau - Combat of a Tiger and a Buffalo

Primitivism is a mode of aesthetic idealization that either emulates or aspires to recreate a "primitive" experience. It is also defined as a philosophical doctrine that considers "primitive" peoples as nobler than civilized peoples and was an offshoot of nostalgia for a lost Eden or Golden Age. In

Western art The art of Europe, or Western art, encompasses the history of visual art in Europe. European prehistoric art started as mobile Upper Paleolithic rock and cave painting and petroglyph art and was characteristic of the period between the Paleol ...

, primitivism typically has borrowed from non-Western or prehistoric people perceived to be "primitive", such as

Paul Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinct fr ...

's inclusion of

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austr ...

an motifs in paintings and ceramics. Borrowings from "primitive" or non-Western art have been important to the development of

modern art Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradi ...

. Primitivism has often been critiqued for reproducing the racist stereotypes about non-European peoples used by Europeans to justify colonial conquest. The term "primitivism" is often applied to the painting styles that pervaded prior to the

Avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

. It also refers to the style of

naïve Naivety (also spelled naïvety), naiveness, or naïveté is the state of being naive. It refers to an apparent or actual lack of experience and sophistication, often describing a neglect of pragmatism in favor of moral idealism. A ''naïve'' may b ...

folk art Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative art, decorative. The makers of folk art a ...

produced by amateurs like

Henri Rousseau Henri Julien Félix Rousseau (; 21 May 1844 – 2 September 1910)
at the

Philosophy

Primitivism is a

utopian A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island society ...

idea that is distinctive from its opposite,

teleology Teleology (from and )Partridge, Eric. 1977''Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English'' London: Routledge, p. 4187. or finalityDubray, Charles. 2020 912Teleology" In ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'' 14. New York: Robert Appleton ...

. The utopian end toward which primitivists aspire usually lies in a notional "state of nature" in which their ancestors existed (chronological primitivism), or in the supposed natural condition of the peoples that live beyond "civilization" (cultural primitivism).A. O. Lovejoy and George Boas, ''Primitivism and Related Ideas in Antiquity'' (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1935). The desire of the "civilized" to be restored to a "state of nature" is as longstanding as civilization itself. In antiquity, the superiority of "primitive" life principally found expression in the so-called Myth of the

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during ...

, depicted in the genre of European poetry and visual art known as the

Pastoral A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depicts ...

. Primitivist idealism gained new impetus with the onset of industrialization and the European encounter with hitherto unknown peoples after the colonization of the Americas, the Pacific, and other parts of what would become the modern imperial system. During the Enlightenment, the idealization of indigenous peoples was chiefly used as a rhetorical device to criticize aspects of

European society European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe a ...

. In the realm of aesthetics, however, the eccentric Italian philosopher, historian, and jurist

Giambattista Vico Giambattista Vico (born Giovan Battista Vico ; ; 23 June 1668 – 23 January 1744) was an Italian philosopher, rhetorician, historian, and jurist during the Italian Enlightenment. He criticized the expansion and development of modern rationali ...

(1688–1744) was the first to argue that primitive peoples were closer to the sources of poetry and artistic inspiration than the "civilized" or modern man. Vico was writing in the context of the celebrated contemporary debate known as the great

Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns The quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns (french: link=no, querelle des Anciens et des Modernes) began overtly as a literary and artistic debate that heated up in the early 17th century and shook the ''Académie Française''. Origins of the ...

. This included debates over the merits of the poetry of Homer and the Bible against modern vernacular literature. Vico stressed the concept of human diversity, which he said allows all humans to regard the same utilities or necessities of human life from different points of view. It challenged the Enlightenment's notion that human nature is basically uniform and recognized the capacity of the primitive peoples - like the modern peoples - to gradually deepen their understanding of the world and themselves. In the 18th century, the German scholar

Friedrich August Wolf Friedrich August Wolf (; 15 February 1759 – 8 August 1824) was a German classicist and is considered the founder of modern philology. Biography He was born in Hainrode, near Nordhausen. His father was the village schoolmaster and organist ...

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. Vico and Wolf's ideas were developed further at the beginning of the 19th century by

Herder A herder is a pastoral worker responsible for the care and management of a herd or flock of domestic animals, usually on open pasture. It is particularly associated with nomadic or transhumant management of stock, or with common land grazing. ...

. 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. The 19th century saw for the first time the emergence of

historicism Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying their history, that is, by studying the process by which they came about. The term is widely u ...

, 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 hitherto unprecedented levels of historical fidelity in setting and costumes.

Neoclassicism Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism was ...

in visual art and architecture was one result. Another such "historicist" movement in art was the

Nazarene movement The epithet Nazarene was adopted by a group of early 19th-century German Romantic painters who aimed to revive spirituality in art. The name Nazarene came from a term of derision used against them for their affectation of a biblical manner of c ...

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). 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 The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

, who were primarily inspired by the critical writings of

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and politi ...

, who admired the painters before Raphael (such as Botticelli) and who also recommended painting outdoors, hitherto unheard of. Two developments shook the world of visual art in the mid-19th century. The first was the invention of the photographic camera, which arguably spurred the development of

Realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: *Classical Realism *Literary realism, a move ...

in art. The second was a discovery in the world of mathematics of

non-Euclidean geometry In mathematics, non-Euclidean geometry consists of two geometries based on axioms closely related to those that specify Euclidean geometry. As Euclidean geometry lies at the intersection of metric geometry and affine geometry, non-Euclidean geo ...

, 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. 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 Beaux Arts Schools of

Academic painting Academic art, or academicism or academism, is a style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of European academies of art. Specifically, academic art is the art and artists influenced by the standards of the French Académie ...

, which prescribed a rigid curriculum based on the copying of idealized classical forms and held up Renaissance perspective painting as the culmination of civilization and knowledge. Beaux Arts academies held that non-Western peoples had no art or only inferior art. 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 Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

and

Chinese art Chinese art is visual art that originated in or is practiced in China, Greater China or by Chinese artists. Art created by Chinese residing outside of China can also be considered a part of Chinese art when it is based in or draws on Chinese ...

, which they regarded as learned and sophisticated, and did not employ Renaissance one-point perspective. Non-Euclidean perspective and

tribal art Tribal art is the visual arts and material culture of indigenous peoples. Also known as non-Western art or ethnographic art, or, controversially, primitive art, Dutton, Denis, Tribal Art'. In Michael Kelly (editor), ''Encyclopedia of Aesthetics. ...

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, cook-book-style academic painting. Tribal and other non-European art also appealed to those who were unhappy with the repressive aspects of European culture, as

pastoral A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depicts ...

art had done for millennia. 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. The painting of

and

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

and the music of

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...

are frequently cited as the most prominent examples of primitivism in art. Stravinsky's ''

The Rite of Spring ''The Rite of Spring''. Full name: ''The Rite of Spring: Pictures from Pagan Russia in Two Parts'' (french: Le Sacre du printemps: tableaux de la Russie païenne en deux parties) (french: Le Sacre du printemps, link=no) is a ballet and orchestral ...

'' is "primitivist" in so far as its programmatic subject is a pagan rite: a human sacrifice in pre-Christian Russia. It employs harsh dissonance and loud, repetitive rhythms to depict "

Dionysian The Apollonian and the Dionysian are philosophical and literary concepts represented by a duality between the figures of Apollo and Dionysus from Greek mythology. Its popularization is widely attributed to the work ''The Birth of Tragedy'' by Fri ...

modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

, 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 The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

credentials, Stravinsky's ''Le Sacre du printemps'' (''

'', 1913) engaged in primitivism in both form and practice while remaining embedded within Western classical practices.” In his later work, he adopted a more "

Apollonian The Apollonian and the Dionysian are philosophical and literary concepts represented by a duality between the figures of Apollo and Dionysus from Greek mythology. Its popularization is widely attributed to the work ''The Birth of Tragedy'' by Fri ...

neoclassicism Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism was ...

, to use

Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, Prose poetry, prose poet, cultural critic, Philology, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philo ...

's terminology, although in his use of

serialism In music, serialism is a method of Musical composition, composition using series of pitches, rhythms, dynamics, timbres or other elements of music, musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, thou ...

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.

Origins of modernist primitivism

Primitivism gained a new impetus from anxieties about technological innovation but above all from the "

Age of Discovery The Age of Discovery (or the Age of Exploration), also known as the early modern period, was a period largely overlapping with the Age of Sail, approximately from the 15th century to the 17th century in European history, during which seafarin ...

", which introduced the West to previously unknown peoples and opened the doors to

colonialism Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...

. During the European Enlightenment, with the decline of

feudalism Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...

, philosophers started questioning many fixed medieval assumptions about human nature, the position of humans in society, and the strictures of Christianity, and especially Catholicism. 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 The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...

. 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". Their search led them to parts of the world that they believed constituted alternatives to modern civilization. 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 A hieroglyph ( Greek for "sacred carvings") was a character of the ancient Egyptian writing system. Logographic scripts that are pictographic in form in a way reminiscent of ancient Egyptian are also sometimes called "hieroglyphs". In Neoplatoni ...

, emotive distortions of the figure, and the perceived energetic rhythms resulting from the use of repetitive ornamental pattern. According to recent cultural critics, it was primarily the cultures of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and the

Oceanic islands Oceanic may refer to: *Of or relating to the ocean *Of or relating to Oceania ** Oceanic climate ** Oceanic languages **Oceanic person or people, also called "Pacific Islander(s)" Places * Oceanic, British Columbia, a settlement on Smith Island ...

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." 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.

Paul Gauguin

Painter

sought to escape European

civilization A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system). Ci ...

and technology, taking up residence in the French colony of

and adopting a stripped-back lifestyle that he felt to be more natural than was possible in Europe. Gauguin's search for the primitive was manifestly a desire for sexual freedom, and this is reflected in such paintings as '' The Spirit of the Dead Keeps Watch'' (1892), '' Parau na te Varua ino'' (1892), ''Anna the Javanerin'' (1893), ''

Te Tamari No Atua ''Te tamari no atua'' (Polynesian for ''The Son of God'') or ''The Birth'' is an 1896 oil on canvas painting by Paul Gauguin, now in the Neue Pinakothek in Munich. It forms a Nativity in Polynesian guise. References {{DEFAULTSO ...

'' (1896), and ''Cruel Tales'' (1902), among others. Gauguin's view of Tahiti as an earthly

Arcadia Arcadia may refer to: Places Australia * Arcadia, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney * Arcadia, Queensland * Arcadia, Victoria Greece * Arcadia (region), a region in the central Peloponnese * Arcadia (regional unit), a modern administrative un ...

of free love, a gentle climate, and naked nymphs is quite similar, if not identical, to that of the classical

of academic art, which has shaped Western perceptions of rural life for millennia. One of his Tahitian paintings is called "Tahitian Pastoral" and another is " Where Do We Come From". In this way, Gauguin extended the academic pastoral tradition of Beaux Arts schools which had hitherto been based solely on idealized European figures copied from Ancient Greek sculpture to include non-European models. According to Gauguin, he himself was celebrating Tahitian society and defending the Tahitians against European colonialism. Feminist

postcolonial Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is a ...

critics, however, denounce this, stating the fact that Gauguin took adolescent mistresses, one of them as young as thirteen. These critics also state that like many European men of his time and later, Gauguin saw freedom, especially sexual freedom, strictly from the male colonizer's point of view. Using Gauguin as an example of what is "wrong" with primitivism, these critics conclude that, in their view, elements of primitivism include the "dense interweave of racial and sexual fantasies and power both colonial and patriarchal". To these critics, primitivism such as Gauguin's demonstrates fantasies about racial and sexual difference in "an effort to essentialize notions of primitiveness" with "

Other Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack * ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...

ness". Thus, they contend, primitivism becomes a process analogous to

Exoticism Exoticism (from "exotic") is a trend in European art and design, whereby artists became fascinated with ideas and styles from distant regions and drew inspiration from them. This often involved surrounding foreign cultures with mystique and fantas ...

and

Orientalism In art history, literature and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. In particular, Orientalist p ...

, as critiqued by

Edward Said Edward Wadie Said (; , ; 1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American professor of literature at Columbia University, a public intellectual, and a founder of the academic field of postcolonial studies.Robert Young, ''White ...

, in which European

imperialism Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...

and monolithic and degrading views of the "East" by the "West" defined colonized peoples and their cultures.

Fauves and Pablo Picasso

In 1905–06, a small group of artists began to study art from

Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...

and

Oceania Oceania (, , ) is a region, geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern Hemisphere, Eastern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of ...

, in part because of the compelling works of

that were gaining visibility in Paris. Gauguin's powerful posthumous retrospective exhibitions at the

Salon d'Automne The Salon d'Automne (; en, Autumn Salon), or Société du Salon d'automne, is an art exhibition held annually in Paris, France. Since 2011, it is held on the Champs-Élysées, between the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, in mid-October. The ...

in Paris in 1903 and an even larger one in 1906 exerted a strong influence. Artists including

Maurice de Vlaminck Maurice de Vlaminck (4 April 1876 – 11 October 1958) was a French painter. Along with André Derain and Henri Matisse, he is considered one of the principal figures in the Fauve movement, a group of modern artists who from 1904 to 1908 w ...

André Derain André Derain (, ; 10 June 1880 – 8 September 1954) was a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse. Biography Early years Derain was born in 1880 in Chatou, Yvelines, Île-de-France, just outside Paris. I ...

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...

, and

grew increasingly intrigued and inspired by the select objects they encountered.

, in particular, explored

Iberian sculpture Iberian sculpture, a subset of Iberian art, describes the various sculptural styles developed by the Iberians from the Bronze Age up to the Roman conquest. For this reason it is sometimes described as Pre-Roman Iberian sculpture. Almost all ext ...

African sculpture Most African sculpture was historically in wood and other organic materials that have not survived from earlier than at most a few centuries ago; older pottery figures are found from a number of areas. Traditional African masks, Masks are importa ...

African traditional masks Traditional African masks play an important role in certain traditional African rituals and ceremonies. Masks serve an important role in rituals or ceremonies with varied purposes like ensuring a good harvest, addressing tribal needs in times ...

, and other historical works including the

Mannerist paintings Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, ...

El Greco Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos ( el, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco ("The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El G ...

, resulting in his masterpiece ''

Les Demoiselles D'Avignon ''Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'' (''The Young Ladies of Avignon'', originally titled ''The Brothel of Avignon'') is a large oil painting created in 1907 by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. The work, part of the permanent collection of the Museum o ...

'' and, eventually, the invention of

Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

.Cooper, 24 The generalizing term "primitivism" tends to obscure the distinct contributions to modern art from these various visual traditions.

Anticolonial 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 especially anticolonial artists. The desire to recover a notional and idealized past in which humans had been at one with nature is here connected to a critique of the impact of Western modernity on colonized societies. These artists often critique Western stereotypes about "primitive" colonized peoples at the same time as they yearn to recover pre-colonial modes of experience. 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. The work of artists connected with the

Négritude ''Négritude'' (from French "Nègre" and "-itude" to denote a condition that can be translated as "Blackness") is a framework of critique and literary theory, developed mainly by francophone intellectuals, writers, and politicians of the African ...

movement in particular demonstrates this tendency. ''Négritude'' was a movement of neo-African idealism and political agitation that was begun by 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 Wifredo Óscar de la Concepción Lam y Castilla (; December 8, 1902 – September 11, 1982), better known as Wifredo Lam, was a Cuban artist who sought to portray and revive the enduring Afro-Cuban spirit and culture. Inspired by and in conta ...

is particularly notable among the visual artists of negritude. Lam met Pablo Picasso and the European surrealists while living in Paris in the 1930s. 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 negritude's neo-African idealism is connected to a history of plantation slavery centered on the production of sugar.

Neo-primitivism

Neo-primitivism was a Russian

art movement An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a specific period of time, (usually a few months, years or decades) or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defin ...

that took its name from the 31-page pamphlet ''Neo-primitivizm'', by

Aleksandr Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

. It is considered a type of avant-garde movement and is proposed as a new style of modern painting which fuses elements of Cézanne,

, and

Futurism Futurism ( it, Futurismo, link=no) was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy, and to a lesser extent in other countries, in the early 20th century. It emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such ...

with traditional Russian '

' conventions and motifs, notably the

Russian icon The use and making of icons entered Ancient Rus' following its conversion to Orthodox Christianity in AD 988. As a general rule, these icons strictly followed models and formulas hallowed by Byzantine art, led from the capital in Constantinople. A ...

and the

lubok A ''lubok'' (plural ''lubki'', Cyrillic: russian: лубо́к, лубо́чная картинка) is a Russian popular print, characterized by simple graphics and narratives derived from literature, religious stories, and popular tales. Lubki ...

. 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. A conceptualization of neo-primitivism describes it as anti-primitivist Primitivism since it questions the primitivist's

Eurocentric Eurocentrism (also Eurocentricity or Western-centrism) is a worldview that is centered on Western civilization or a biased view that favors it over non-Western civilizations. The exact scope of Eurocentrism varies from the entire Western world ...

universalism Universalism is the philosophical and theological concept that some ideas have universal application or applicability. A belief in one fundamental truth is another important tenet in universalism. The living truth is seen as more far-reaching th ...

. This view presents neo-primitivism as a contemporary version that repudiates previous primitivist discourses. Some characteristics of neo-primitivist art include the use of bold colors, original designs, and expressiveness. These are demonstrated in the works of

, which feature vivid hues and flat forms instead of a three-dimensional perspective.

was another neo-primitivist known for his children's pieces, which were based on Russian folklore. Several neo-primitivist artists were also previous members of the Blue Rose group.

Neo-primitive artists

Russian artists associated with Neo-primitivism include: * David Burlyuk *

Marc Chagall Marc Chagall; russian: link=no, Марк Заха́рович Шага́л ; be, Марк Захаравіч Шагал . (born Moishe Shagal; 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with se ...

Pavel Filonov Pavel Nikolayevich Filonov ( rus, Па́вел Никола́евич Фило́нов, p=ˈpavʲɪl nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ fʲɪˈlonəf, a=Pavyel Nikolayevich Filonov.ru.vorb.oga; January 8, 1883 – December 3, 1941) was a Russian avant-gar ...

Natalia Goncharova Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova (russian: Ната́лья Серге́евна Гончаро́ва, p=nɐˈtalʲjə sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvnə ɡənʲtɕɪˈrovə; 3 July 188117 October 1962) was a Russian avant-garde artist, painter, costume designe ...

Mikhail Larionov Mikhail Fyodorovich Larionov (Russian: Михаи́л Фёдорович Ларио́нов; June 3, 1881 – May 10, 1964) was a Russian avant-garde painter who worked with radical exhibitors and pioneered the first approach to abstract Rus ...

Kasimir Malevich Kazimir Severinovich Malevich ; german: Kasimir Malewitsch; pl, Kazimierz Malewicz; russian: Казими́р Севери́нович Мале́вич ; uk, Казимир Северинович Малевич, translit=Kazymyr Severynovych ...

Aleksandr Shevchenko Aleksandr Vasilievich Shevchenko ( uk, Олександр Васильович Шевченко; 24 May 1882, Kharkiv – 28 August 1948, Moscow) was a Ukrainian modernist painter and sculptor. Biography From 1890 to 1898, he took private dr ...

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, Vincent Van Gogh, and other artists. 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. 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. In 1984,

The Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of the ...

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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.” 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.” 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 Jacques René Chirac (, , ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. Chirac was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988, as well as Ma ...

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." 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.” 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?”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.

Notes

References

*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 Anthony Frederick Blunt (26 September 1907 – 26 March 1983), styled Sir Anthony Blunt KCVO from 1956 to November 1979, was a leading British art historian and Soviet spy. Blunt was professor of art history at the University of London, dire ...

& 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. * * Cooper, Douglas ''The Cubist Epoch'', Phaidon in association with the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...

& the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, London, 1970, *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. * *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

*John Zerzan, ''Telos'' 124, ''Why Primitivism?''. New York: Telos Press Ltd., Summer 2002.
Telos Press
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Articles on Primitivism
Primitivism, or anarcho-primitivism, is an anarchist critique of the origins and progress of civilization. Primitivists argue that the shift from hunter-gatherer to agricultural subsistence gave rise to social stratification, coercion, and alienation. "
Research Group in Primitive Art and Primitivism (CIAP-UPF)
* Ben Etherington
"The New Primitives"
''Los Angeles Review of Books'', May 24, 2018.