Primitivism (art)

Primitivism is an artistic movement that looks to early human history and non-Western or children's art for inspiration and makes use of themes or stylistic elements from prehistory and tribal cultures. Paul Gauguin (painting) and early Igor Stravinsky (music) are two of the important representatives of this movement. A prime example of primitivism in music is Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, whose "Dionysian" modernism he abandoned for a more "Apollonian" neo-classicism.

Primitivism and racism

It should be stressed that primitivism was the construction of outside observers searching for solutions to the problems of their own society. The image created of Africa as the dark seething cauldron of sex and superstition - the so called Dark continent - was one which exaggerated, oversimplified or ignored large swathes of the cultures it was meant to evoke. There was at the time a very prevalent racism in European affairs, not limited towards people of African extraction, and a cultural chauvinism which was directed at far more than "primitive" cultures. Many features of primitivism's origin can be traced to the sense of superiority that Europeans felt towards those that they had only recently conquered, and at the same time the insecurities prevalent about their own culture, and its potential to fall into a "degenerate" state. Many of the criticisms levelled by Edward Said about "orientalism" have been echoed at primitivism as well: a romanticised cultural construct which is overloaded both with negative images of other cultures, and negative images of European culture.

Related Topics:
Dark continent - Edward Said

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