The Sleep of Reason: Primitivism in Modern European Art and Aesthetics
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
A comprehensive revision of our understanding of primitivism and its impact on modern art, centering on the invention of the idea of “primitive” art.
"Concentrating on the development of the intellectual concept of primitivism in thought and art, this study adds much to the discourse on the meaning of modernism-e.g., in its usage by art or architectural historians-and of the avant-garde. . . . It is a valuable addition to the literature stemming from R. Goldwater's Primitivism in Modern Painting (1938) and extending to the controversial Museum of Modern Art's New York exhibition “Primitivism in Twentieth-Century Art” (1984). -Choice
"Connelly's study is much needed and deserves a place in the literature of modernist primitivism. The Sleep of Reason will undoubtedly inspire further research into a field that has itself suffered from neglect on the periphery of academic scholarship."-Studies in the Decorative Arts
Art historians have in the past narrowly defined primitivism, limiting their inquiry to examples of direct stylistic borrowing from African, Oceanic, or Native American imagery. The drawbacks of such an approach have become increasingly apparent, the most problematic being its perpetuation of the notion that certain traditions are indeed “primitive.” Frances Connelly argues that “primitive” art was not a style at all but a cultural construction by modern Europeans, a cluster of concepts principally forged during the Enlightenment concerning the nature of the origins of artistic expression. She contends that, instead of the paintings of Gauguin, the publication of Vico's New Science in 1725 lies much closer to the origins of primitivism because it first articulated the essential framework of ideas through which Europeans would understand “primitive” expression.
About the Author
Frances S. Connelly is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Missouri, Kansas City.
The Sleep of Reason: Primitivism in Modern European Art and Aesthetics,Frances S. Connelly,Pennsylvania State University Press,0271018275,Art,Art & Art Instruction,Esthetics,European,History - General,Modern Art
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