We explain what primitive art is, its characteristics and some examples. Also, why it is a controversial concept.
What is primitive art?
Historically, primitive art was called artistic expressions that were peripheral or old from the point of view of Western art historiography.
Today the idea of “primitive art” is out of use because it is outdated and impertinent, since it is related to “backwardness” or lack of complexity and development. The “primitive” was a category produced by European culture between the 15th and 19th centuries to value itself above the rest of the world's cultures.
This category could arbitrarily group artistic manifestations as distant from each other as a bronze from the Yoruba people from the 12th century, a pre-Columbian ceramic or a cave painting.
Nowadays, however, the “primitive” concept is still used to talk about the “primitive” or “primitivist” stages of European painters such as Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) or Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), who refer to the phases of his career influenced by African and Asian plastic arts.
The notion of “primitive art” becomes problematic when it is used to designate non-Western manifestations that have been considered “primitive”, immature or insufficiently developed, from the Eurocentric colonialist perspective.
For some authors, primitive art is the art of the so-called “primitive cultures” of prehistory and applies to Paleolithic works. Seen this way, primitive art is the art of primitive or prehistoric peoples around the world.
The term “primitive” is also used in painting to refer to the first masters of an artistic tradition of Europe as is the case of the Flemish and Italian primitives of the Late Middle Ages and early Renaissance.
Characteristics of primitive art
It is difficult to define universal characteristics of primitive art, since it is a very broad, outdated and highly questioned category in the history of art. The authors who used the term “primitive art” from the 19th century onwards agreed on the following:
- These were art forms far from the traditional Western artistic canon or outside the history of Western art. Either because they dated from very remote times or from very distant cultures, or because they were the result of the “wild” talent of a self-taught artist (that is, without academic training).
- Ancient, naive, childish, thoughtless or popular forms were attributed to it. In the event that these gestures were deliberately pursued, they spoke of “primitivism.” Thus, an established painter could have had a “primitivist” stage in which he tried to “recover” the “primitive” or “pure” forms of expression of ancient humanity or pre-modern peoples, as was the case of Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso. or the Moscow group of painters known as Jack of diamonds (1909).
- The pieces of “primitive art” have been understood as anthropological documents (that is, as cultural testimonies) and their evaluation has been more scientific than artistic.
- “Primitive” productions have been seen as objects with specific functions, such as representing mythical scenes, serving as ritual and cult elements, tools or utilitarian items. Despite this, they have been cataloged and exhibited under the name of works of “primitive art”, to circulate them in the art or design market.
Origin of the term “primitive art”
(Paul Gauguin. Rupe rupe, 1899)
The category of “primitive art” began to be used in colonial Europe. For this reason, from the beginning it was impregnated with a contemptuous connotation: what was primitive was typical of “backward” peoples.
This is how the Europe of mercantilism and the Industrial Revolution understood the territories from which it extracted raw materials.
At the end of the 19th century, two pictorial schools, unrelated to the idea of “primitive art,” became known as primitivism. They are:
- The stage of Western painting that involves painters such as Paul Gaugin, Pablo Picasso and Mijaíl Larionov (1881-1964).
- The oriental school born in Russia around the movement known as the Jack of Diamonds. It was considered a movement against the French influence on European painting at the time.
The problem of “primitive art”
The category of “primitive art” is highly criticized and rejected. The concept of primitive art reveals a problematic aspect about the way art history has been written: the enormous influence of Europe on the understanding of artistic expressions.
The entire history of art, from the origin of humanity until today, has been written and thought about in Europe.
Even primitivism, that sought to revalue peripheral expressions, exotic for the West, was reflected in his desire to “return to basics” the idea that “civilized” was only European. His intention was to renew art from a “primary” source, thereby assuming that being inspired by non-European art was taking a temporary trip back.
Examples of primitive art
The following works have been considered “primitive art” because they are foreign to modern Western culture:
- Cave paintings found in the Altamira cave in Spain (about 36,000 years old)
- Spirit mask from Point-Lena, Alaska (1825-1875)
- Cook Islands fisherman god sculpture (18th century)
- Mask of the Marka-Dafing people, Burkina Faso (mid-20th century)
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References
- Myers, F. (2006). “Primitivism”, Anthropology, and the Category of “Primitive Art”. Handbook of Material Culture.
- Nelson, R.S. (2011). Critical terms for art history. University Of Chicago Press.
