Main entry:

Connelly, Frances S., 1953-

Title & Author:

The sleep of reason : primitivism in modern European art and aesthetics, 1725-1907 / Frances S. Connelly.

Publication:

University Park, Pa. : Pennsylvania State University Press, ©1995.

Description:

xii, 154 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 133-149) and index.
Introduction: Framing the Question -- 1. The Sleep of Reason: "Primitive" Art as the Inverse of Classicism -- 2. Poetic Monsters and Nature Hieroglyphics: The Precocious Primitivism of Philipp Otto Runge -- 3. "Primitive" Ornament and the Arabesque: Paul Gauguin's Decorative Art -- 4. Grotesque and Monstrous Idols: Meryon's Stryge and Picasso's Demoiselles -- Conclusion: Modernist Appropriations of "Primitive" Arts.

Summary:

A comprehensive revision of our understanding of the phenomenon of primitivism and its impact on modern art, centering on the invention of the idea of "primitive" art.
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.
Based upon a close reading of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century sources, including voyage accounts, ethnographies, aesthetic theories, and popular journals, The Sleep of Reason establishes that the term "primitive" art did not refer so much to actual stylistic traditions but to a collection of visual attributes that Europeans construed to be universal characteristics of "primitive" expression, specifically the hieroglyph, the grotesque, and the ornamental. Further, these attributes show that "primitive" expression was constructed as the inverse of the classical ideal. Connelly provides case studies of artists and aestheticians who advocated, attempted, or realized the assimilation of these "primitive" characteristics, including some artists never before associated with primitivism as well as significant reevaluations of Gauguin and Picasso.
Connelly's study offers a more complex and historically grounded view of primitivism, making a timely and significant contribution to the renewed discussion of primitivism.

Resources:
Table of contents

ISBN:

0271013052 (alk. paper)
9780271013053 (alk. paper)
027101105X
9780271011059

Subject:

Gauguin, Paul 1848-1903
Meryon, Charles 1821-1868
Picasso, Pablo 1881-1973 Les demoiselles d'Avignon
Runge, Philipp Otto 1777-1810 Vier Zeiten
Blutiger Jupiter Musikgruppe Europa
Primitivism in art Europe.
Art, European.
Art européen.
Primitivism in art
Primitivismus
Volk
Kunst
Ästhetik
Beeldende kunsten.
Primitivisme.
Primitivisme (art)
Art 18e siècle Europe.
Art 19e siècle Europe.
Europe
Geschichte 1725-1907

Holdings:

Location: Library main 116407
Call No.: ID N6754.C63; ID:95-B1136
Status: Available