As I mentioned in the previous post, the conventional Academic art has started to be disturbing by the fresh ''otherness'' idea of ''primitive'' art.
Furthermore, Paul Gauguin's artworks started to provoke other artists to catch up and inspire by the colonial ''culture''. They surely expanded the knowledge by visiting nearest ethnographic museum. This order was persuaded by Pablo Picasso for instance. The peak of his career ideally represents paintings such as Les Demoiselles D’Avignon from 1907. On this particular period simplified human faces on the African masks, which he had come across in on of the museums. In general, next movements were based on the expantion culture discovers.
Indeed, African contribution ''deconstruct western aesthetic canons of balance and imitation to propose a more complex vision based on the juxtaposition of viewpoints, a new sense of balance and perspective, and a surprising raw beauty that emerged full of geometric rigor and material force.'' (Sanmiguel, 2020)
Therefore, I conduct several analysis regarding the influences in Primitivism sculptures.
In my 3D outcome, I want to emphasise the contextual connection with the theme. I discovered the simplified manner called ''back to basis'' where artists recalled the aesthetic from the encountered realm. The most frequent motif was usually underlined the facial features with strong simplification. As I mentioned the new reserves of easy accessed cultural inspiration, it took a subject of divagations. Representants of the outdated movements changed the interests. For instance, Picasso. His career is full of periods, such as blue etc. He formed a new ''trend'' in those times. Brancusi, Braque followed up the geometrical manner through the next years. The most interesting is the origin of this style. Many artists had their own interpretation of the overseas transitions. But the most breathtaking turned out to be cubism. The reason is in the subject complexity and the brand new attitude to managed thoughtfully the disproportions.
Surely, the purpose of the set project is to look at the Primitivism style. However, I reckon that the interpretation in the early stage is the same important as the original outcomes.
''The impact of African art’s intense expression, structural clarity, and simplified forms inspired these artists to create fragmented geometrical compositions full of overlapping planes'' (Sanmiguel, 2020). This citation can also explain the designing structure behind the process. That was a linear and systematic process.
The great influence for the cubist movement had masks. The malleable expressive sharp cuts split into several features allows to simultaneously review. The African sculptures favour creation the of three- or two- dimensional abstract forms.
Therefore, my sculpture will be characterised by the cubist's interpretation of African masks. The process will begin after finished 2D pieces. Because I would need to choose which character or object from my illustration I want to crave.
References:
National Galleries of Scotland Primitivism. [Online] www.nationalgalleries.org. Available from : https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/glossary-terms/primitivism.
Sanmiguel, C. (2020) African Art: The First Form of Cubism. [Online] TheCollector. Available from : https://www.thecollector.com/african-art-the-first-form-of-cubism/ [Accessed 10/04/21].
PICASSO, P. Bust of a woman. [Plaster] In: (1932)Private collection.
Clergue, L. (1956) Pablo Picasso with a Cigarette.
SOTHEBY. Lwalwa Mask. [Wooden] In: (1930)Democratic Republic of the Congo.
There are some really interesting research strands here that you can pursue in later posts, such as Picasso's use of African masks. There is a link to a review of an exhibition of Picasso's paintings here from 2006: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2006/mar/15/art
ReplyDeleteAlso a link here to the African art influence on Modern artists such as Picasso, Matisse etc.:
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/aima/hd_aima.htm