Primitivism and modern art Colin Rhodes

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A fascination with the "primitive" lies at the heart of some of the most influential developments in Western art produced between 1890 and 1950 - a time that witnessed both the "heroic" period of modern art and the apogee and decline of the West's colonial power. Many groups have a times been labeled as primitive, including the so-called tribal peoples from Africa, Oceania and North America, but also prehistoric cultures, European peasants, the insane and children. Through the lens of their own society, many modern artists looked both to the art and to the world-view of the primitive as a means of challenging established beliefs, but the primitive to which they turned was as varied as the movements in modern art of which they were a part. Colin Rhodes breaks new ground, drawing on a wide and diverse range of material, from high art to popular entertainment, from Darwin to Freud; the critical overview he presents supersedes all previous studies on the subject. 179 illus., 28 in color.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Colin Rhodes ' research is primarily in the areas of 20th century and contemporary art history and theory. He has written and lectured widely on Modernism, especially Expressionism in its many forms, and Self-Taught and Outsider Art. His books include the influential Outsider Art: Spontaneous Alternatives (2000), which has also been published in Spanish, French and Finnish editions, and Primitivism and Modern Art (1994), which is also in French translation. He has a particular interest in the ways in which Western art and culture have interacted with that of their perceived others, and in those cultures of production that exist in the margins of the dominant art world. He is a regular contributor to Raw Vision, Création Franche and The Burlington Magazine . He has a keen commitment to drawing and exhibits his own art occasionally.