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

<strong>The</strong> myth <strong>of</strong> primitivism 74
that is indifferent to the total unity <strong>of</strong> man…. <strong>The</strong> subjective aura <strong>of</strong> the
product also disappears in relation to the consumer because the
commodity is now produced independently <strong>of</strong> him. 21
<strong>The</strong> search for authenticity, felt to be lacking in the art and life-style <strong>of</strong> their own times,
guided the expressionists to the art <strong>of</strong> non-European peoples. In 1906, when Nolde joined
briefly the artistic circles gathered around the Folkwang Museum, he would have seen
displayed in the Jugendstil interior Osthaus’s collection <strong>of</strong> modern European art
alongside non-European art and artefacts. 22 Since the opening <strong>of</strong> the museum in 1902, the
display <strong>of</strong> non-European art, consisting mainly <strong>of</strong> oriental and Indian examples before
1912, was presented to guide modern art and design with examples <strong>of</strong> ‘unalienated’
artefacts. Osthaus’s commitment to Jugendstil involved a belief in reform and rebirth;
and non-European cultures seemed to <strong>of</strong>fer a model for a more ‘whole’ and integrated
relationship between art and society. Such idealistic representations <strong>of</strong> non-European
societies had provided Europeans since the eighteenth century with a counter-image to
the fractures and transform a-tions under way in the modern world, avoiding all
discussion about the realities <strong>of</strong> historical change wrought by colonial exploitation. As far
as Nolde was concerned, the aesthetic display <strong>of</strong> non-European art in the Folkwang
Museum provided a welcome alternative to the ‘scientific’ criteria <strong>of</strong> the ethnographic
museums, and this context for his early encounter with non-European art guided the
forms <strong>of</strong> his later interest. 23
Although Nolde was aware <strong>of</strong> non-European art by the early years <strong>of</strong> the century, it
was not until 1911, following the Secession row, that he began to use tribal artefacts as a
visual model. To some extent this was a sign <strong>of</strong> solidarity with the expressionist
Secession, which asserted its identity through the use <strong>of</strong> primitivist references. As we
have already observed, the splitting-<strong>of</strong>f <strong>of</strong> the old and new Secessions constituted a crisis
within German modernism that we find reflected in the thematic alternatives in Nolde’s
paintings <strong>of</strong> the period. In 1910 and 1911, Nolde continued to work on his religious
works, beginning in the summer <strong>of</strong> 1911 a series <strong>of</strong> paintings which he assembled into
the nine-part polyptych <strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> Christ early in 1912. <strong>The</strong>se were the continuation <strong>of</strong>
the spiritual, inner direction in Nolde’s work, and, coinciding in terms <strong>of</strong> subject if not
style with aspects <strong>of</strong> conservative, volkish ideology, they can be seen as his antidote to
the fragmentations <strong>of</strong> modernity. 24 Nolde shared with the conservative wing in the
debates around national identity and modernity, a deep-seated mistrust <strong>of</strong> change in the
countryside: he fought against the introduction <strong>of</strong> customs-houses, pumping stations, and
dykes into the North Schleswig countryside, where he was born in 1867 and spent the
summer months <strong>of</strong> his working year. But his attitudes to the city did not fall into the
classic conservative mould, and he approached Berlin with mixed feelings <strong>of</strong> fascination
and distrust. 25 Since 1902, Nolde had spent the winter months in Berlin, which provided
important opportunities to learn about the international modern movement and to make
known his own art.
Concurrent to his religious paintings, Nolde began a second group <strong>of</strong> works. During
the thick <strong>of</strong> the Secession row, as if to reassert his commitment to modernity, Nolde
began a sustained series addressing the kaleidoscope <strong>of</strong> city life. In his drawings,
graphics, and then paintings, we find scenes drawn from the cabaret, cafés, and theatre,
favoured by other New Secession artists, and unique to this phase <strong>of</strong> Nolde’s oeuvre.