Customer Reviews

"Primitivism" in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern, in Two Volumes

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This was the text for a class in Primitivism in Modern Art. It is a detailed chronicle of how "Primitive" art influenced the artists of the early 20th century, such as Picasso and Gaughin. It has great pictures showing primitive art that these artists saw in museums at the time, that influenced paintings directly. Beautiful to just have.

Primitivism is not a paticularly ineresting art topic for me, but one of my students brought in the two volume set to show as it had relevance to an art project. Somehow I had gotten through art school without learning anything but the very basic references to Primitivism such as Picasso's use of some of it's images in "Les Demoiselles D'Avignon". With that in mind I started browsing through the first volume and was fascinated at the information, scope, and references to much Modern Art. Amazingly interesting, thoroughly researched, and a pleasure to read as the information keeps coming about many Contemporary and Modern artists and how they were influenced, and why. Valuable, relevant, and informative while being a good, interesting read. Highest recommendation.

This two volume set is a thing of wonder.

One gets...
- the archetypal/raw/authentic power of tribal ("primitive") art from Africa and Oceania
- the brilliance of the formal experimentation/gutsy splendor of 20th century artists, and
- the palpable excitement of a bunch of 20th century artists, theorists, and viewers as they ride the big wave we now know as Modernism.

This book claims to be "the first comprehensive, scholarly treatment of the subject in half a century and the first ever to illustrate and discuss tribal works collected by vanguard artists." Really. Really? Well, maybe in this big a package.

Beautiful layout, stunning images, and a straight-forward approach to organization, allows these books to be read in sequence, read out of sequence, or paged through. 688 pages in total with probably 600-700 illustrations in b&w and color, many of them full page. 19 essays and pages of bibliographic information.

The book begins with describing the arrival of authentic tribal art objects in the west, then moves to the "big 3" modernists who embraced tribal forms (Picasso, Gauguin, Matisse), and then covers Brancusi, Leger, Klee, Giacometti, Dada, Surrealism, Henry Moore, and a host of schools and individuals such as, no surprise, Abstract Impressionism.

If you feel any kinship with 20th century modern art, and are unaware of how deeply influential tribal artifacts have been, this two-volume set will be both a delight and a revelation. Suitable as an introduction to both, and useful for novices or connoisseurs.

Should you discover an interest in tribal art as a result, and would like to view the remarkable aesthetic range available through dozens of ethnic groups, I suggest you visit this site(I have no affiliation):
http://www.hamillgallery.com/index.html

This two volume set is a thing of wonder.

One gets...
- the archetypal/raw/authentic power of tribal ("primitive") art from Africa and Oceania
- the brilliance of the formal experimentation/gutsy splendor of 20th century artists, and
- the palpable excitement of a bunch of 20th century artists, theorists, and viewers as they ride the big wave we now know as Modernism.

This book claims to be "the first comprehensive, scholarly treatment of the subject in half a century and the first ever to illustrate and discuss tribal works collected by vanguard artists." Really. Really? Well, maybe in this big a package.

Beautiful layout, stunning images, and a straight-forward approach to organization, allows these books to be read in sequence, read out of sequence, or paged through. 688 pages in total with probably 600-700 illustrations in b&w and color, many of them full page. 19 essays and pages of bibliographic information.

The book begins with describing the arrival of authentic tribal art objects in the west, then moves to the "big 3" modernists who embraced tribal forms (Picasso, Gauguin, Matisse), and then covers Brancusi, Leger, Klee, Giacometti, Dada, Surrealism, Henry Moore, and a host of schools and individuals such as, no surprise, Abstract Impressionism.