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Primitivism in Art

             During the years of 1885 through 1914 some artists used a type of art known as Primitivism. This primitive aesthetic was designed to get away from the industrialized and urbanized subjects of pieces. Many artists traveled into uncivilized cultures to experience in full the connection between man and nature. After enlightened the artist would then be able to express thought through painting.
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             One of the most enthusiastic painters to travel to far away cultures was Paul Gauguin. He was considered to be the rebel against modern society. Gauguin loved the presence of nature and natural form and a longing to travel to far-away, exotic places. With that, he could reinvent what he saw and express what others couldn't see. .
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             Gauguin traveled to Tahiti in 1891 to experience the native ways. In Tahiti Gauguin was shocked to find that Western missionaries and colonials had infringed on the native culture life. A place once characteristically known to be settled with people, who mainly lived off the land, was known filled with French government officials. In addition, clothing trends had changed in the inhabitants as most women were now seen wearing long dresses as opposed to more revealing clothing. Tahiti also didn't have the native carvings or idols as it did before. So in turn Gauguin set out to make his own idols through his knowledge from Egyptian and Buddhist photos. .
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             Paul Gauguin's best known piece that personifies his love of natural culture is called Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? 1897-98. I think the title itself has primitive connotation because it brings us back to an earlier time asking why we were put on this earth and by whom, and so on. It is a very large and wide painting that seems to have a type of narrative to it. Pictured is a Tahitian paradise filled with females of all ages that are enjoying what nature has to offer. They are not wearing the ankle length dresses brought in by European civilization, nor are there any other signs of westernization.


Essays Related to Primitivism in Art

1. Gauguin

The term primitivism was first defined by the Websters Dictionary 1934 as a "belief" in the superioty of primitive life which, implies a " return to nature!" ... To look at Gauguin's influence of primitivism on modern art, it is important to understand that his focus was not to understand the primitive but more about his needs to reject western civilization. ... Gauguin's rejection of western Art is explained in his letter, " I have gone back, further back tehn the horses of the Parthenon..... as far back as Dado of my babyhood, the good rocking horse." ... The two artists spent ...

  • Word Count: 534
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Seurat

Seurat's " Une Baignade à Asnieres" shows in comparison the massive sense of form, which corresponded to the art of dividing and separating colors. ... Paul Gauguin's "Vision after the Sermon" show's the primitive and fundamental aspect of art. In defining primitivism when it resembles Gauguin's work, is that its overly simplified in every way the painting being simply made without the need of complete and thorough detail to explain the Gauguin's thought process of the spectator. ... This defines the idea of primitivism as it being in the fore corner against elegant...

  • Word Count: 448
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Art and Artists in the Dada Movement

Dada is a radical way of rethinking of art - how it's created and what are it's historical and ethical imperatives. ... The opening night was a success and Ball requested Huelsenbeck's presence (who then brought with him an interest in primitivism from Berlin). ... There was an emphasis on modernist works; the Cabaret was a focal point for the "newest art " (displayed inside). ... This becomes primitivism in a sense where it becomes detached from social purpose, untouched by the historical present, stirring primal memories. ... NY Dada was linked to German art (vast majority o...

  • Word Count: 1322
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

4. INVESTIGATING THE REPRESENTATION OF THE MOTHER AND CHILD THE

Moore as did other artists and sculptors of to the post-world war one era wished to reject complexity in there art which was commonly associated with fine art and reverted back to simple forms and primary emotions take from primitive and tribal art. This was known as evolutionary technique known as Primitivism relying on influences from tribal backgrounds and their art to encapsulate raw feeling and emotions. ... Each achieves their sculpture using different methods and materials; however each one shows influences taken from primitive art. ... Primitivism relates to each one of these pieces an...

  • Word Count: 2174
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

5. Mother and Child Sculpture

Moore as did other artists and sculptors of to the post-world war one era wished to reject complexity in there art which was commonly associated with fine art and reverted back to simple forms and primary emotions take from primitive and tribal art. This was known as evolutionary technique known as Primitivism relying on influences from tribal backgrounds and their art to encapsulate raw feeling and emotions. ... Each achieves their sculpture using different methods and materials; however each one shows influences taken from primitive art. ... Primitivism relates to each one of these pieces an...

  • Word Count: 2158
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

6. The Myth of Paul Gauguin

It is during these first few years that he began to present himself as a savage through correspondences with friends and in his art. ... Like other Symbolist artists of his time Gauguin started portraying their feelings of the opposite sex through their art. One of the most demoralizing virtues of Gauguin's primitive art are his depictions of his young Tahitian mistresses. ... While Gauguin's return to a primitive lifestyle was somewhat self-fabricated, artistically he did create a new style of painting and is thought of as the father of modernist primitivism. ...

  • Word Count: 440
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Literature - American Renaissance and Romantic

Matthiessen's American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman, written in 1941. ... Generally, romanticism marks a reaction in literature, philosophy, art, religion, and politics from the neoclassicism and formal orthodoxy of the preceding period. Although romanticism was not a clearly conceived system, it does tend to present certain characteristics: there is often a tendency toward primitivism, an interest in nature and the natural world, a pressuring of the past, and a foregrounding of the concerns of individualism. ...

  • Word Count: 917
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  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

8. Cubism: A History

Cubist's stylistic and technical innovations are easier to understand than its place in the Art History world as a concept. ... Art was no longer just an examination of the world around an artist; it was the result of intelligent, mobile investigation. ... Picasso's work for example has been linked mainly to Primitivism, especially African Sculpture. ... Art historians often make a clear distinction between Cubism executed before and after 1912. ... Picasso and Braque both show how Cubism came to be and how it would eventually be one of the most important art movements in the w...

  • Word Count: 1263
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

9. Freedom of Expressionism

Matisse's view of art was contrasted by that of Rouault. ... Die Brucke sought to revive German art and to this end they took up woodcuts, which they considered to be a true German art form. ... Heckel was influenced more by early German primitive art than by Durer. ... The primitivism used by Heckel is similar to another Brucke painter, Emil Nolde. ... Nolde used religious subjects and his art showed a sympathy for human suffering. ...

  • Word Count: 1527
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

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