Ancient Futures and Neoprimitivism
Tim Hazell
Native art draws admiration for its eternal truths which can be found in all cultures. To the sensitive eye, these aesthetic qualities may appear to exist independently from their milieu. This assumption does not account for critical standards indigenous peoples apply to the products of their craftsmanship. Much of the criteria used by healers and shamans to evaluate works such as sand paintings and masks developed as the growing uniqueness of their vocations set them apart from community life. One of the artist’s practical objectives in any society is to communicate and arouse sympathetic response. In native tribes the artist’s freedom to conceptualize is restricted by forces of tradition and religion that modify vision to suit established doctrines and formulae. Within these limitations or perhaps because of them native art reveals an extraordinary degree of individuality.
When we encounter the artistic and intellectual products of ancient Old World cultures, particularly those of Egypt and Sumer, we are confronted with a perception of reality that differs vastly from our own. Native societies of the Americas share these characteristics. The indigenous view of the human animal in relationship with his fellow counterpart can be defined as ‘I and you,’ as opposed to ‘I and it.’ Holistic and analogical approaches confound Western minds, particularly when attempts are made to understand traditions, rituals and spirituality from a native perspective.
To appreciate the potential wealth to be culled from civilizations that flourished and continue to thrive in all their diversity and color, we have to reinvent our thinking. Dealing with indigenous visual arts, music, philosophy and literature, foundations of a completely valid view of cosmos emerge, independent of science, politics and innovations in post-Renaissance Europe. ‘Spirit Song,’ an overview of terra as a living being capable of experiencing pangs of injury and death in mortal combat powerfully conveys this alternative position.
Spirit Song
spirit in the sky
come down here
right away
bite the world to death
- Anonymous, North American Indian, 19th century
Neoprimitivism is limited to the conscious adaptions by sophisticated artists of authentic specimens of rustic and native craftsmanship. The first major artist to employ exotic patterns and motifs in his woodcuts and paintings was Paul Gauguin, and such works as his ‘Mahana No Atua,’ painted during his stay in Tahiti, clearly reflect native influences. Examples of Polynesian manufacture, such as oars, arrows and harpoons were collected by traders and shown at the Paris expositions of 1879 and 1889. Later expeditions to Africa brought back carved and inlaid wooden objects. Books on African sculpture began to appear, including the Golden Bough, a monumental 12-volume compendium of aboriginal folklore, magical practices and taboos.
Ancient and native peoples placed flora and fauna on an equal level to themselves; comparable, but different. Hunter-gatherers shared a symbiotic and ritualistic connection with the animals they killed for survival. A bond of respect and kinship between the stalker and his prey included prayer, incantations and rites. Failure to observe these ceremonies would result in an empty chase and starvation for the tribe. This poem by West Indian writer Eric Roach reflects the “I and you” concept as an unbroken bond, human animal to feral.
At Guaracara Park
The bronze god running,
beauty hurtling through the web of air,
motion fusing time and space exploding our applauses...
speed was survival there in the green heat
where the lithe hero dashed from the leopard’s leap,
fled to cover from the feral fang
or ran the antelope across the plains.
'Primitive' art, with its complete negation of progress, seemed to embody the promise of a new beginning. The animistic philosophy of carvers who divined the spirit of wood and stone was expressed in grains, textures and shapes of their materials. German Expressionists were fascinated by the strange forms and anti-intellectualism of the images. French artists such as Matisse found a justification for abstract designs in their simplified geometry. Amedeo Modigliani came to Paris as a young painter in 1906 and succumbed to the enchantment of the same Ivory Coast style that Picasso had adopted. In sculpture as in painting he made use of oval faces with elongated features.
The elemental simplicity of Brancusi’s sculpture had its formative inspiration in the power of rustic art and bold innovations of the Fauves, who were dubbed “wild beasts” by their critics. Seminal works such as ‘Bird in Space’ used bronze with such a high copper content that it approached the brilliance of gold. Like the Neoprimitives, Brancusi accepted his materials for what they were—marble for its polished smoothness and cast metal for structural versatility. Whatever the medium, the sculptor attempted to define its nature and realize its potential without forcing it to become something else.
Subjective interpretations of reality are confusing and often impenetrable aspects of indigenous art. An Egyptian official of high rank is shown in his tomb painting kneeling before a sacred date palm. In Mexico an Aztec warrior intones a greeting in Nahuatl and cries like a puma before drawing his bow and aiming at the deer he has tracked in the forest. Acceptance of other animals as peers in Old and New World lore is a common theme in literature, reliefs and paintings honoring the gods. Zoomorphic man-animals served as representations of deities, often with multiple identities. These hybrids performed miracles, feats outside of human capabilities. They were mentors whose task was to guide us in the maintenance of our planet and the universe. ‘The Eagle Above Us,’ a Cora tribe 19th century poem extols the supremacy of this majestic bird as Lord.
The Eagle Above Us
In the sky the eagle, there is his place, there far above us.
Now he appears there.
He holds his world fast in his talons.
The world has put on a grey dress, a beautiful, living, watery dress of clouds.
There he is, far above us in the middle of the sky.
There he waits for the words of Tetewan.
Shining, he looks down on his world.
He looks far into the west.
Shining, he looks down upon the water of life.
His countenance is full of terrible disaster.
His eye is glorious.
His feet are already dark red.
Neoprimitives emulated native artists goals to capture the essence of a thing seen. Tribal craftspersons understood that they could not draw or paint a tree with the perfection of the Creator. To attempt this would have been contrary to hierarchies and belief systems within their theocracies. The striving after semi-magical characteristics of forms in ambient holistic space imbued their creations. Art was a contemplation of the ideal. Sorcery had a principle function in carving and painting. Artists’ well being and care of the soul depended upon whether good spirits were embodied in the objects they created or evil forces that could bring about ruin. In a similar manner devotees of these traditions used the mysterious energies liberated in aboriginal art to capture and evoke their emotions, visions and mental impressions. They were after true significance behind the illusion of physical appearances. Movements that profoundly affected art and society such as Neoprimitivism advocated that ritual was as potent as innate talent and acquired skills.
When comparing folk and native aesthetics to sophisticated or fine art the object and its conversation with us has to stand alone. Training in aboriginal cultures was as rigorous and thorough as any to be found in First World academia. Many products of native origin show exceptional creativity and technical skill. Tribal artists demonstrated profound understanding of design, achieving true monumentality with simply articulated shape and form. Regional indigenous styles can be traced through specific chronological periods. Native artists borrowed freely from other cultures in distant lands as interaction between nations became increasingly sophisticated. The evolution of provincial expression shows historical continuity. Post Impressionists found new directions and fresh perspectives in old traditions that grew out of the need to control the supernatural world and explain natural phenomena in pre-industrial societies. Art is not present as a word in many aboriginal languages, having no separate existence from religion and philosophy. Native crafts cannot be segregated from a culture’s sympathetic vibration with other living things, including totems or animal representatives. Huichol traditions define the function of divinities and spirits as purveyors of wisdom. Chains of associations that the aboriginal mind makes when interpreting natural phenomena are completely foreign to westerners and difficult for them to grasp. Aimé Césaire is in touch with his environment, clairvoyant and sensitive to its external and internal aspects.
If there were nothing in the desert but
a single drop of water dreaming far below,
in the desert if there were nothing but
a wind born spore dreaming far above
it would suffice.
Apart from their symbolic value, works that survive to fire our imaginations today are reflections of artists’ personal involvement with their materials and desires to manifest in reality traces of dreams and deep emotions. This 19th century Inuit poem from the arctic tundra takes us back to basic sentiments.
it’s quiet in the house so quiet
outside the snowstorm wails
the dogs curl up noses under their tails
my little son sleeps on his back
his mouth open
his belly rises and falls
breathing
is it strange if I cry for joy