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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}}
{{short description|Art movement}}
[[File:Henri Rousseau - Combat of a Tiger and a Buffalo.jpg|thumb|300px|
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
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
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 [[
▲[[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]].]]
▲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>
▲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>
▲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 ==
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
;17th century
During the [[Age of Enlightenment]], intellectuals rhetorically used the [[idealization]] of indigenous peoples as political criticism of [[European culture]];<ref>Pagden, Anthony.
;18th century
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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
In the 18th century, Western artists and intellectuals participated in
==Paul Gauguin==
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).
[[File:Paul Gauguin- Manao tupapau (The Spirit of the Dead Keep Watch).JPG|thumb|right|350px|
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
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]].
==Fauves and Pablo Picasso==
{{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
In
==Anti-colonial primitivism==
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
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
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]].
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'''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 (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===
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==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
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,
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
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,
==See also==
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*[[Folk art]]
*[[Medievalism]]
*[[Naïve art]]
*[[State of nature|Natural state]]
*[[Negrophilia]]
*[[Noble savage]]
*[[Racial fetishism]]
*[[Romantic racism]]
*[[Orientalism]]
*[[Other (philosophy) | Othering]]
*[[Outsider art]]
*[[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).
*[[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,
* {{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}}
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