"Primitivism" in 20th century art1984

The crucial influence of the tribal arts--especially those of Africa and Oceania--on modern painters and sculptors has long been recognized. Yet surprisingly, this book is 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. In this visually stunning and intellectually provocative work, nineteen heavily illustrated essays by fifteen scholars confront complex aesthetic, art-historical, and sociological problems posed by this dramatic chapter in the history of modern art. The long introductory essay by William Rubin, while defining the parameters of modernist primitivism, sketches the history of western attitudes toward primitive peoples and, in particular, toward their art,...