Anthropology and Art (Tribal Art) and Moderism/Primitivism

Anthropology of art is a sub-field in social anthropology dedicated to the study of art in different cultural contexts. The anthropology of art focuses on historical, economic and aesthetic dimensions in non-Western art forms, including what is known as 'tribal art'.

The materials studied include sculpture, masks, paintings, textiles, baskets, pots, weapons, and the human body itself. Anthropologists are interested in the symbolic meanings encoded in such objects, as well as in the materials and techniques used to produce them.

 Anthropologists of art are more concerned with the role and status of the artist in the wider community.

 Primitivism -   this artistic primitivism dates from the 1890s when it appeared in the Tahitian paintings of Paul Gauguin, and quickly led to a trend among French and German artists of the Expressionist avant-garde.

   Artists employed tribal techniques and experimented with new shapes and lines. Cubism is associated with the movement.(picasso) Artists often strove to abandon formality and embrace, instead, a more human sincerity. Getting back to basics was an underlying theme for artists aligned with the movement.  Since many of the tribal societies featured in works of Primitivism lived closely within the context of their natural world, art works of the movement typically feature elements of the natural work–the sea, jungle, and natural materials used in the construction of home–thatched roofs, for example.

Henri Rousseau -  began teaching himself how to paint from the age of 40. Within two years he was a regular exhibitor at the annual Salon des Independants in Paris, and at the age of 49 he took early retirement to become a full-time painter. Unburdened by any knowledge of perspective or anatomy, Rousseau's primitivism was characterized nonetheless by vivid colour, great attention to detail, a wonderful imagination

the sleeping gypsy

 

I do like the way the objects in a work seem to be painted side by side, each feature hand picked for its own individual importance. Very child like in some ways.



Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun

UNCEDED TERRITORIES - a critical and impassioned melding of modernism, history, and Indigenous perspectives that records what the artist feels are the major issues facing Indigenous people today.

During the early 1900s, the aesthetics of traditional African sculpture became a powerful influence among European artists who formed an avant-garde in the development of modern art. Picasso himself was influenced by the artist's Paul Gauguin and Henri Matisse. I've found that many of the artists seem to be part of a cultural avant-garde, in which young artists were encouraged to express themselves.

Picasso - Guernica

 A powerful political statement, painted as an immediate reaction to the Nazi's devastating casual bombing practice on the Basque town of Guernica during Spanish Civil War.
This work shows the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians. The monochromantic style is said to be a photographic memory depiction and give a intense importance and meaning to the work.   Guernica is blue, black and white.







 Tribal art is most evident in the faces of three of the women on the artwork Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) , which are rendered as mask-like, suggesting that their sexuality is not just aggressive, but also primitive.

 a radically flattened picture plane that is broken up into geometric shards, which is said to be something Picasso borrowed in part from Paul Cezanne's brushwork.

head of a man

Herni Matisse

Matisse, Portrait of Madame Matisse (detail), 1913 and a Gabon Mask placed side by side, “Primitivism” Catalog

 “Young Men from Papua” by Emil Nolde

Paul Gauguin

"I am trying to put into these desolate figures the savagery that I see in them and which is in me too... Dammit, I want to consult nature as well but I don't want to leave out what I see there and what comes into my mind." Gauguin.


In 1890s, Gauguin developed a new style that married everyday observation with mystical symbolism, a style strongly influenced by the popular, so-called "primitive" arts of Africa, Asia, and French Polynesia.

I do feel that at this time in art history you can really start to see a new way of working. The works seem very child-like with vivid colour palettes. Unlike the more traditional styles of the past. Funny how they did get influences from the past also, but dragging into a new modern world. For me I do find it hard to decide what ism the works all fall under because of the similarity between that and things like surrealism and expressionism etc.