Primitivism and the development of novel artistic expression - Assignment Example

Primitivism Table of Contents I. Introduction II. Discussion A. Paul Gauguin Paul Gauguin: Two Nudes on a Tahitian Beach, 1891/1894 Paul Gauguin: Spirit of the Dead Watching, 1892 B. Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907 III. Conclusion References I. Introduction This paper explores and supports the assertion that primitivism fueled the development of novel artistic expression modes for artists in the 20th and 19th centuries. The focus is on the work of a few representative artists during this period, notably Pablo Picasso and Paul Gauguin. The Guggenheim Foundation states that primitivism, while being considered a modern form of art that sprang in the West in the 19th century, has for its major influences art forms that emanated outside of the West, and key among them in turn being tribalistic objects of art. In the general sense, one talks of primitivism more as an aesthetic sensibility that informs and underlies an artistic vision, as reflected in the works of the chosen artists for this paper. Primitive here has reference too to an idea during the time of primitivism’s first flowering of a more pristine, less corrupted and closer to paradise kind of sensibility that was supposed to be reflected in the art of less advanced societies. There is an element too in a return to the primitive to the artist’s rebellion against the loss of a more carefree, less repressed sexuality, among other things, with the effect too that in the works of some of the artists, such as Gauguin, there was an intentional focus on female sexuality and nudity among the artists’ subjects (The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation 2014). Other attributions to primitivism made in more contemporary definitions of the movement especially paint the movement in a positive light, more so during the 19th century, when the movement was identified with such attributions as regeneration, ancestors, and fertility. This, even as the movement itself came to refine its focus of interest to art from the Islands of the Pacific as well as Africa. Moreover, a more generalized emphasis on primitive societies among other social science disciplines in the 20th century generally gave the West more immediate access to those societies, sans the filtering mechanisms that the primitivism art movement first introduced. This latter more direct access by general Western society through the sciences to those primitive societies generally weakened the interest of the west on primitivism in general by the 20th century (Cardinal 2009). II. Discussion A. Paul Gauguin There is no better example of the kind of artistic creativity that primitivism enabled than Paul Gauguin, one can argue, given the profuse praise and iconic status of the man and his works and how the world has come to acknowledge him as the father and founder of what has come to be known as primitivist modernism. The works of the man are said to have opened a new avenue of expression and a new and fresh perspective on the possibilities of art during the time. He certainly made the most of a life, it is said, going away from the margins of western society and plunging deeply into the life of the savages of Polynesia for the better part of a decade, and out of this sojourn into the wild and rejection of contemporary society came a vital energy that he channeled into creating novel works of primitivist art. The fundamental idea espoused in key writings on Gauguin and his creative impulse for his primitivist works is that in essence, Gauguin chose to move away from established cultural and artistic norms in the West during his time to embrace instead a primitivist sensibility culled from direct contact and direct living with the cultures of the primitive societies that he then depicted in his works. In the process he elevated those primitive societies and gave them value and weight, in the wake of a movement in the west to colonialize those societies and effectively marginalize their cultures. The outcome is a vigorous new form of art that exploded with energy, enthusiasm and powerful beauty, as exemplified in the output of Gauguin (Eisenman 2000; Jolly 2000; Solomon-Godeau 1989; Mandziuk 2009; Gauguin 1892). Paul Gauguin: Two Nudes on a Tahitian Beach, 1891/1894 The work is dated 1891/1894, and the medium is oil on canvas. It is representative of primitivist modernism, with two nude Tahitian women on the beach, one facing Gauguin and the other with her body to the ocean and her back to Gauguin, with her face in profile. Here one can see that the work itself demonstrates a sensibility and a creativity that was without any forebears in western art prior to its arrival. As opposed to the value systems of the west, with its emphasis on material consumption and measurements and precision, Gauguin’s work was said to have been characterized by an emphasis on earthy sensibilities, and a kind of subjective, non-precise art that emphasized nature and the centrality of raw sexuality and energies. There is an emphasis on stark depiction rather than a reframing of the subjects along the filters and categories that were common in the West during this time, and the effect is a heightened emphasis on a new creative direction pioneered by Gauguin. One can see from this representative work of art that indeed, primitivism fueled a new creative drive and a novel direction that was prior to Gauguin non-existent in the Western world (Gauguin 1891; Gauguin 1892; Gauguin 1892b). Paul Gauguin: Spirit of the Dead Watching, 1892 Again in this work there is a heavy emphasis on elements of primitivist Tahitian culture as they inform not only the images that were included in the work but also the overall impact of the painting, and the actuations and emotions that are in exhibit and frozen for posterity in the painting. In this work, Spirit of the Dead Watching, dated 1892, Gauguin is said to have captured Tahitian cultural folklore pertaining to the spirit of the dead as they are believed to have existed in Tahitian communities during his time. The shock and terror of the nude girl in the center of the painting, depicted on her face, signify the strong belief among the natives in the reality of the dead natives. Again the overall import is that of Gauguin, leveraging a different kind of experience and sensibility, creating something new and powerful out of primitivism, as he lived and experienced it living among the natives in Tahiti. Further interpretations of the painting further enrich the overall impact of the work through its contextualization in the culture of the Tahiti people. The scary figure in black at the back provides a contrast to the young, vital and sensual figure at the center of the painting, nude and full of eroticism. That backdrop figure in black is interpreted as the spirit of the dead. The white blazing eyes denote watching, and in the context of the community this is said to be a reality at night in the village, where white lights are present due to either the spirits actually roaming, or natural phenomena such as glowing fungi that emit a white light in the dark. Whatever the reality is, the subjective power of the painting and the creative possibilities that were ignited by Gauguin in the work are evident. This work further emphasizes the validity of the thesis that primitivism sparked new modes of creative expression in Gauguin and other representative artists of the primitivist modernism movement (Pollitt 2014; Gauguin 1892; Gauguin 1892b). B. Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907 While it is true that Gauguin is considered the father of primitivism, Pablo Picasso on the other hand is considered its most important artist, arguably its best representative, and this is emphasized in various scholarly sources. The emphasis is on Picasso’s recognition of the value of primitivism in the modernist movement in general, and of the value of objects of primitivist art in spurring new avenues for creative exploration. The fundamental idea is that as has been the case with Gauguin, primitivism likewise fertilized Picasso’s artistic field so to speak, with the result being that Picasso was able to take off from such influences to create very powerful and beautiful works of art (Gikandi 2003; Leighten 1990; Picasso 1923). The literature refers to Picasso’s primitivist works as belonging to his so-called African Period, a time when he created powerful works of art taking off from his focus on sculptures of African origin. This was the period from 1907-1909, and is represented in his works by such seminal pieces as the damsels of Avignon, created in 1909, also known as “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”. It is in this particular work that the artist came to introduce elements of African influences in his paintings. This particular work, moreover, is important for being one of his most important masterpieces, incorporating the African elements in the two nude women on the right side of the painting. This period is noteworthy too, for showing just how much fertile ground primitivism provided to Picasso, enabling him to launch himself into creating one of his enduring masterpieces. It is noteworthy too that prior to this important work, Picasso had been immersing himself in African art and culture in general, so that appearance of African influences in his work came as the culmination of a period of gestation in his work and life as an artist (Picasso 1907; PabloPicasso.org 2014; Picasso 1923). III. Conclusion In the works of Picasso and Gauguin it is clear that primitivism has a central role in spurring new areas for creativity and in fertilizing the creative energies of important artists during this period (Picasso 1907; Gauguin 1892; Picasso 1923). References Cardinal, Roger. “Primitivism”. Oxford University Press/The Museum of Modern Art. 2009. Accessed 5 October 2014. http://www.moma.org/collection/details.php?theme_id=10176 Eisenman, Stephen. “(Anti) Imperial Primitivist: Paul Gauguin in Oceania”. Pacific Studies 23 1-2. March/June 2000. Accessed 5 October 2014. https://journals.lib.byu.edu/spc/index.php/PacificStudies/article/viewFile/10193/9839 Gauguin, Paul. “Two Nudes on a Tahitian Beach”. Honolulu Museum of Art. 1891. Accessed 5 October 2014. http://honolulumuseum.org/art/5387-two-nudes-on-a-tahitian-beacha_z Gauguin, Paul. “The Spirit of the Dead Watching”. Albright-Knox Art Gallery. 1892. Accessed 5 October 2014. http://www.albrightknox.org/collection/search/piece:511/ Gauguin, Paul. “Paul Gauguins Letter to Georges Daniel de Monfried”. The Letters of Paul Gauguin. 26-28. 11 March 1892. Accessed 19 October 2014. https://archive.org/stream/letterspaulgaug00gauggoog#page/n33/mode/2up Gikandi, Simon. “Picasso, Africa and the Schemata of Difference”. Modernism/Modernity 10 (3). September 2003. Accessed 5 October 2014. http://mtw160-198.ippl.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/modernism-modernity/v010/10.3gikandi.pdf Jolly, Margaret. “Fraying Gauguin’s Skirt: Gender, Race, and Liminality in Polynesia”. Pacific Studies 23 1-2. March/June 2000. Accessed 5 October 2014. https://ojs.lib.byu.edu/spc/index.php/PacificStudies/article/viewFile/10191/9837 Leighten, Patricia. “The White Peril and L’Art negre: Picasso, Primitivism, and Anticolonialism”. The Art Bulletin LXXXI (4). 1990. Accessed 5 October 2014. http://www.collegeart.org/pdf/artbulletin/Art%20Bulletin%20Vol%2072%20No%204%20Leighten.pdf Mandziuk, Natalie. “A Melange of Morals and Movements: The Anticlerical Paul Gauguin”. Meeting of Minds XVII: Journal of Undergraduate Research 11 University of Michigan. 2009. Accessed 5 October 2014. http://www.umflint.edu/sites/default/files/groups/Research_and_Sponsored_Programs/MOM/2009_journal.pdf#page=14 Miller, Joanna. “Synthesizing Gauguin: A Comparative Look at Cultural Contexts and Gauguin’s Tahitian Paintings”. Western Kentucky University TopScholar. Spring 2007. Accessed 5 October 2014. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1127&context=stu_hon_theses&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fscholar.google.com.ph%2Fscholar%3Fstart%3D60%26q%3Dprimitivism%2Bgauguin%26hl%3Den%26as_sdt%3D0%2C5#search=%22primitivism%20gauguin%22 PabloPicasso.org. “Picasso’ African-Influenced Period- 1907-1909”. PabloPicasso.org. Last modified 2009. Accessed 5 October 2014. http://www.pablopicasso.org/africanperiod.jsp Picasso, Pablo. “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”. The Museum of Modern Art. 1907. Accessed 5 October 2014. http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=79766 Picasso, Pablo. “Statement to Marius de Zayas”. The Arts, New York/ Columbia University. May 1923. Accessed 19 October 2014. http://www.learn.columbia.edu/monographs/picmon/pdf/art_hum_reading_49.pdf Pollitt, Ben. “Gauguin’s Spirit of the Dead Watching, 1892”. Smart History/Khan Academy. Last modified 2014. Accessed 5 October 2014. http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/gauguins-spirit-of-the-dead-watching-1892.html Solomon-Godeau, Abigail. “Going Native: Paul Gauguin and the Invention of Primitivist Modernism”. Art in America 77. 1989. Accessed 5 October 2014. https://www.msu.edu/course/ha/446/goingnative.pdf The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. “Movements: Primitivism”. Guggenheim.org. 2014. Accessed 5 October 2014. http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/movements/195232/description Read More