Hiller - The Myth of Primitivism. Perspectives on Art - Esoteric Online

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From primitivism to ethnic arts 149 monolith. But as this rationality began to falter by the end <strong>of</strong> the nineteenth century and there appeared cracks on the surface <strong>of</strong> the monolith, it seems that other cultures poured out <strong>of</strong> its repressed interior, its unconscious. This indeed fascinated the western artist, the avantgarde <strong>of</strong> the world, who is always present on such historic occasions. What poured out <strong>of</strong> the cracks, with all the exotic forms and colours, was something that had been deliberately kept hidden away from him all those years. Overwhelmed by his new ‘discovery’, he cursed all those who put him into the chains <strong>of</strong> rationality, deprived him <strong>of</strong> the sensuous pleasures <strong>of</strong> the unconscious, and thus prevented him from becoming a free and complete man. Dazzled as he was with his new insight into humanity, he began to play with his newly discovered material. His new-found creativity turned the material into patchwork that covered the whole pyramid. <strong>The</strong> history <strong>of</strong> these patchworks is the history <strong>of</strong> twentieth-century modern art with all its radicalism and internationalism. But under these patchworks, we see the same order, same hierarchy, same Eurocentric ideas, values, and attitudes. It is no wonder that the History <strong>of</strong> Modern Art remains an exclusive territory <strong>of</strong> the west, accessible only to the children <strong>of</strong> the Enlightenment. <strong>The</strong> Other remains perpetually outside history. <strong>The</strong> great monolith is now covered with patchworks <strong>of</strong> every conceivable form and colour, shape and material, high technology intermingling with the material from socalled ‘primitive’ cultures, forming a great spectacle which is as fascinating to watch as <strong>The</strong> Triumph <strong>of</strong> the West. 25 Even before the final episode <strong>of</strong> this BBC film, its narrator has already said that we in the west have perhaps failed in the ideas <strong>of</strong> the Enlightenment and the real triumph will perhaps be in the east. 26 What he is suggesting is to me another slippery slope. <strong>The</strong> idea <strong>of</strong> building wedges into the cracks looks more interesting. NOTES This chapter was a paper delivered as part <strong>of</strong> the ‘Primitivisim’ series <strong>of</strong> seminars organized by Susan <strong>Hiller</strong> at the Slade School <strong>of</strong> Art (University <strong>of</strong> London) in winter 1985–6, and was published initially in Third Text, no. 1, autumn 1987. 1 I am indeed grateful to Susan <strong>Hiller</strong> for this invitation. 2 <strong>The</strong> idea <strong>of</strong> ‘Ethnic Arts’ was first suggested by Naseem Khan in her book (1976) <strong>The</strong> Art Britain Ignores, London: jointly sponsored by the Commission for Community Relations, the Gulbenkian Foundation, and the Arts Council <strong>of</strong> Great Britain. 3 Edward W.Said (1978) Orientalism, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Said here refers to the work <strong>of</strong> Harry Bracken (Winter 1973) ‘Essence, accident and race’, Hermathena 116. 4 David Dabydeen has pointed to the ambivalence <strong>of</strong> black images in Hogarth’s work in his book (1985) Hogarth’s Blacks: Images <strong>of</strong> Blacks in Eighteenth-Century English Art, Denmark/England: Dangaroo Press. 5 ‘<strong>Primitivism</strong>’ in 20th Century Art, New York, Museum <strong>of</strong> Modern Art. A massive catalogue (two volumes) under the same title was published to accompany the exhibition (1984). 6 Masculine gender here is deliberately used to emphasize the (white) male domination <strong>of</strong> modernist discourse. 7 I have particularly in mind Frantz Fanon, Edward Said, Gayatri C.Spivak, and Homi Bhabha. 8 <strong>The</strong> sculptures are Mumuye from Nigeria, Dogan from Mali, Boyo from Zaire, Luba from Zaire, reproduced in the MOMA catalogue (n. 5) on pp. 43, 50, 56, and 161 respectively. 9 Said, op. cit.
<strong>The</strong> myth <strong>of</strong> primitivism 150 10 I am thinking particularly <strong>of</strong> the achievements <strong>of</strong> Egyptian, Chinese, Indian, and Islamic civilizations. 11 I am not proposing an essentialist view. My remarks should be read in the context <strong>of</strong> modern capitalism. 12 Robert Nisbet (1980) History <strong>of</strong> the Ideas <strong>of</strong> Progress, London: Heinemann. Nisbet here refers to the work <strong>of</strong> George L.Mosse, Towards the Final Solution: A History <strong>of</strong> European Racism. 13 Partha Mitter (1977) Much Maligned Monsters, Oxford: Clarendon Press. 14 ibid. 15 Nisbet, op. cit. 16 <strong>The</strong> word ‘black’ is used throughout this chapter for people <strong>of</strong> both African and Asian origins, who live in the west and whose status is <strong>of</strong>ten determined by white racism. 17 Drawing as basic to good painting or sculpture is not Fuller’s own original idea. It is an accepted fact in western art; and an emphasis on freehand drawing can also be found in the early writing <strong>of</strong> John Berger. However, what Peter Fuller is now proposing is for the development <strong>of</strong> nationalist British art which is grounded in the experience <strong>of</strong> English pastoral traditions and which is free from foreign influences, in total disregard <strong>of</strong> the reality <strong>of</strong> a multicultural British society. Fuller, in fact, represents a pathetic aspect <strong>of</strong> a common English phenomenon which begins its intellectual life with extreme left and ends with extreme right. 18 Some <strong>of</strong> the towns and cities where open confrontation between the police and black communities took place in recent years, resulting in street riots. 19 Rasheed Araeen (1984) Making Myself Visible, London: Kala Press. 20 See Jenny Bourne’s essay (1984) ‘Cheerleaders and ombudsman: the sociology <strong>of</strong> race relations in Britain’, Race & Class XXI, 4. 21 Homi Bhabha (November/December 1983) ‘<strong>The</strong> other question—the stereotype and colonial discourse’, Screen 24. 22 Araeen, op. cit. 23 Martin Barker (1981) <strong>The</strong> New Racism: Conservatives and the Ideology <strong>of</strong> the Tribe, London: Junction Books. 24 Most art institutions and funding bodies now recognize and support the category <strong>of</strong> ‘Ethnic Arts’, but the GLC’s initiative and support in this respect is worth special attention. A large amount <strong>of</strong> public money was dispensed by merely employing a staff <strong>of</strong> black functionaries (under the policy <strong>of</strong> positive discrimination) who had nothing to do with the arts; in fact, the money was wasted through gross ignorance, inefficiency, and nepotism, and in many cases preference was given in support <strong>of</strong> community projects which were meant to enhance the Labour Party’s electoral position in the black community. 25 <strong>The</strong> Triumph <strong>of</strong> the West, a BBC film series written and narrated by the historian J.M.Roberts, which traced the history <strong>of</strong> western civilization going back to the Greeks. 26 His reference here is to Japan’s post-war economic success.
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PART I Contents List of</st
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Illustrations Display case, Berlin
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PART I
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15 Locality fails IMANTS TILLERS Al
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16 Aboriginal representation and ki
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17 Born from sharp rocks Edgar Heap
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Notes on contributors 294 P.S.122.
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Index aboriginality, as Australian
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Brecht, Bertholdt 53, 56 Breton, An
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Index 300 Eurocentrism 14-15, 21, 8
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Kirchner, Ernst Ludwig 99, 144, 240
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Index 306 ‘soft
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