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PRIMITIVISM
AND MODERN ART "Rhodes
should be commended for defining "primitivism" clearly, broadly,
and in context . . . Intelligent, concise, and up-to-date."
—Choice
"Although
Rhodes's argument is rigorously academic in subject and style,
it is firmly anchored to its (always engaging) visual base. In
the style of an art historian's double-screen slide lecture, it
moves narratively from one illustrative image to the next, as
if the author were helping his readers move from one steppingstone
to another in a moving stream."
—African Arts ISBN 0-500-20276-1 · 179 illustrations |
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A
fascination with the "primitive" lies at the heart of some of the
most influential developments in Western art produced between 1890
and 1950 — a time that witnessed both the "heroic" period of
modern art and the apogee and decline of the West's political power.
Many groups have at times been labeled as primitive, including the
so-called tribal peoples from Africa, Oceania, and North America,
but also prehistoric cultures, European peasants, children and the
insane. Through the lens of their own society, many modern artists
looked both to the art and to the world-view of the primitive as a
means of challenging established beliefs, but the primitive to which
they turned was as varied as the movements in modern art of which
they were a part. Colin Rhodes breaks new ground, drawing on a wise
and diverse range of material, from high art to popular entertainment,
from Darwin to Freud; the critical overview he presents supersedes
all previous studies on the subject.