Primitivism

• 1. Defining Primitivism And Chronology

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  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. This movement proposes that people of a primitive society possess a morality and an ethics superior to the urban value system of civilized people. European art adopted techniques, motifs, and styles copied from Asian, African, and Australasian peoples perceived as primitive relative to Western Europe. The painter Paul Gauguin included Tahitian imagery in his oil paintings during the late 19th century. His work became a characteristic borrowing important for the development of Modern art between the 1860s and 1970s. As a genre, Primitivism reproduced racist stereotypes like the noble savage used by colonialists to justify white rule over non-white populations in Asia, Africa, and Australasia. The term also identifies painting techniques before the Avant-garde emerged. It describes styles of naïve art and folk art produced by amateur artists such as Henri Rousseau who painted for personal pleasure.

• 2. Enlightenment Roots And Philosophical Origins

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  During the Age of Enlightenment, intellectuals rhetorically used the idealization of indigenous peoples as political criticism of European culture. The Italian intellectual Giambattista Vico argued that lives of primitive non-Europeans were more attuned to Nature's aesthetic inspirations for poetry than arts of civilized modern man. He compared artistic merits of epic poetry from Homer and the Bible against modern literature written in vernacular language. In the Prolegomena to Homer published in 1795, scholar Friedrich August Wolf identified language of Homer's poetry and The Bible as examples of folk art transmitted orally. Ideas of Vico and Wolf developed at beginning of 19th century by Johann Gottfried Herder. Although influential in literature, ideas of Vico and Wolf slightly influenced visual arts. Western artists and intellectuals participated in conscious search in history for deeper expressive human nature during 18th century. They studied cultures of primitive peoples encountered by explorers while questioning Mediaeval assumptions about fixed nature of Man, society, and Nature. These encounters provoked philosophers to doubt social-class organization and mental strictures of Christianity by comparing civilization of Europe with way of life of uncivilized natural man living in harmony with Nature.

• 3. Gauguin Tahiti And Colonial Fantasies

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  The painter Paul Gauguin departed urban Europe to reside in French colony of Tahiti where he adopted primitive style of life unlike way of life in urban France. His search for primitive was search for sexual freedom from Christian constrictions of private life evident in paintings Spirit of the Dead Watching from 1892 and Parau na te Varua ino also from 1892. He painted Anna the Javanerin in 1893 and Te Tamari No Atua in 1896 before creating Cruel Tales in 1902. Gauguin's European perspective viewed Tahiti as sexual utopia free of religious sexual prohibitions aligning with pastoral art idealizing rural life better than city life. Similarities between Pastoralism and Primitivism appear in paintings Tahitian Pastoral from 1892 and Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? created between 1897 and 1898. Art historian George T.M. Shackelford noted that although Gauguin downplayed painting's relationship to murals of Puvis, formal terms showed his figured landscape could not escape comparison with timeless groves popularized by Puvis in museums in Lyon and Rouen. Artist Gauguin claimed his paintings celebrated Tahitian society while defending Tahiti against French colonialism. Postcolonial perspective of 20th century feminist art critics argued Gauguin taking adolescent mistresses voided claim of being anti-colonialist. As European man his sexual freedom derived from male gaze of colonist because artistic primitivism part of dense interweave of racial and sexual fantasies invented about Tahiti and Tahitians.

• 4. Picasso Cubism And African Masks

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  In 1905, 1906 period group of artists studied arts from Sub-Saharan Africa and from Oceania due to popularity of Gauguin paintings of Tahiti and Tahitians. Two posthumous retrospective exhibitions of Gauguin works held at Salon d'Automne in Paris during 1903 and another in 1906 influenced fauve movement artists including Maurice de Vlaminck, André Derain and Henri Matisse but also Pablo Picasso. Picasso studied Iberian sculpture, African sculpture, and African traditional masks alongside historical works like Mannerist paintings of El Greco. From aesthetic study Picasso painted Les Demoiselles d'Avignon in 1907 and invented Cubism. The three-hundred-year Age of Discovery between 15th and 17th centuries exposed western European explorers to peoples and cultures of Asia and Americas, Africa and Australasia. Explorers perspective of cultural difference led to colonialism. Spoils of European colonialism included works of art of colonized natives featuring primitive styles of expression and execution especially absence of linear perspective, simple outline, presence of hieroglyphs, distortions of figure, meaning communicated with repeated patterns of ornamentation. African and Australasian cultures provided answer to white Western preponderantly male quest for ideal of primitive whose desirability resides in form of distance and difference.

• 5. Russian Neo-primitivism And Folk Traditions

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  Neo-primitivism was Russian art movement taking name from 31-page pamphlet Neo-primitivizm by Aleksandr Shevchenko. It considered type of avant-garde movement proposed as new style modern painting fusing elements of Cézanne, Cubism, and Futurism with traditional Russian folk art conventions notably Russian icon and lubok. Movement replaced symbolist art of Blue Rose movement embraced due predecessor tendency to look back passing creative zenith. Conceptualization describes neo-primitivism as anti-primitivist Primitivism since it questions primitivist Eurocentric universalism. This view presents neo-primitivism as contemporary version repudiating previous primitivist discourses. Characteristics include bold colors original designs expressiveness demonstrated in Paul Gauguin works featuring vivid hues flat forms instead three-dimensional perspective. Igor Stravinsky another neo-primitivist known children pieces based on Russian folklore. Several neo-primitivist artists were previous members Blue Rose group including Mikhail Larionov Natalia Goncharova Marc Chagall Kasimir Malevich Ilya Mashkov Pavel Filonov David Burlyuk and Igor Stravinsky.

• 6. Anti-colonial Responses And Négritude

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  Primitivism usually regarded cultural phenomenon Western art yet structure primitivist idealism exists artworks non-Western anti-colonial artists. Nostalgia for idealized past when humans lived harmony Nature relates critiques negative cultural impact Western modernity upon colonized peoples. Primitivist works anti-colonial artists critique Western stereotypes about colonized peoples while yearning pre-colonial way life. Processes decolonization fuse reverse teleology Primitivism produce native works distinct from primitivist artworks by Western artists reinforcing colonial stereotypes true. As type artistic primitivism artworks Négritude movement tend nostalgia lost golden age begun 1930s francophone artists intellectuals both sides Atlantic Ocean readily adopted continental Africa African diaspora. In rejection Western rationalism European colonialism Négritude artists idealized pre-colonial Africa composed societies culturally united before Europeans arrived Africa. Notable among artists Négritude movement Cuban artist Wifredo Lam associated Picasso surrealists Paris during 1930s. Returning Cuba 1941 Lam emboldened create dynamic tableaux integrating human beings animals Nature. The Jungle painted 1943 created polymorphism fantastical jungle scene featuring African motifs among stalks sugar cane representing connection neo-African idealism Négritude history plantation slavery production table sugar.

• 7. Museum Exhibitions And Critical Re-evaluation

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  November 1910 Roger Fry organized exhibition titled Manet and the Post-Impressionists held Grafton Galleries London showcasing Paul Cézanne Paul Gauguin Henri Matisse Édouard Manet Pablo Picasso Vincent Van Gogh others. Exhibition meant showcase French art developed past three decades art critics London shocked seeing artwork called Fry mad crazy publicly displaying such artwork leading American scholar Marianna Torgovnick term debut primitivism London art scene. 1984 Museum Modern Art New York new exhibition focusing primitivism modern art instead pointing obvious issues celebrated use non-Western objects inspiration modern artists. Director William Rubin took Roger Fry exhibition step further displaying modern works juxtaposed non-Western objects themselves stating not interested pieces tribal art themselves wanted focus ways modern artists discovered art. Scholar Jean-Hubert Martin argued attitude effectively meant tribal art objects given status footnotes addenda Modernist avant-garde. Rubin exhibition divided four parts Concepts History Affinities Contemporary Explorations each section serving different purpose showing connections modern art non-Western art. 2017 Musée du Quai Branly Jacques Chirac collaboration Musée National Picasso Paris put on exhibition Picasso Primitif Yves Le Fur director stated wanted invite dialogue works Picasso major experiments aesthetic concepts those no less rich by non-Western artists. Resulting confrontation supposed reveal similar issues addressed nudity sexuality impulses loss through parallel plastic solutions. 2018 Montreal Museum Fine Arts had exhibition titled From Africa to the Americas Face-to-Face Picasso Past and Present adapting expanding Picasso Primitif bringing 300 works documents from Musée du Quai Branly Jacques Chirac Musée National Picasso Paris Nathalie Bondil saw issues ways Yves Le Fur presented Picasso work juxtaposed non-Western art objects found way respond headline offering new perspective inspiring rereading art history.