Abstract art before Colombus
Tipologia Fonte testuale
Datazione
- Data (da)
- 01/05/1957
- Data (a)
- 30/05/1957
Tipologia di fonte
- Primaria
Tipologia di testo
- Testo critico
Livello di catalogazione
- Nuovo
Responsabilità
- Azione
- Inserimento
- Data
- 26/09/2025
- Compilatore
- Rachele Zanone
Sede
- Monografia
Titolo
- Abstract art before Colombus
Tipologia titolo
- originale
Descrizione
Il volume è incentrato sullo studio delle astrazioni e dei motivi decorativi dell'arte precolombiana nelle sue molteplici declinazioni. Il testo è stato pubblicato da Andre Emmerich Gallery nel 1957 a New York. L'autrice è la storica dell'arte Dore Ashton, la prefazione del testo è di André Emmerich e le fotografie di Lee Boltin.
Data (testuale)
- maggio 1957
Tipologia data
- originale
Analisi fonte testuale (AI)
- 1) Arcaico: "Typical of the art of this Archaic Period are the small votive female figurines found at Tlatilco. Though these date from the dawn of archaeologically documented history, they have a sophistication rarely approached by later cultures." | "The theory that primitive art begins in geometric or symmetrical forms is invalidated by the fact that among the oldest known works of pre-Columbian art—the so-called 'archaic' figurines—are of such high quality that they must have been the product of a long-established civilization." | "It is used far too loosely to evoke the arts of either archaic or exotic cultures. The objects in this book are nearly all products of highly organized civilizations and do not fit into the nineteenth-century conception of primitive art. They would more aptly be termed 'archaic.'" | "And they feed the resentment of the so-called 'humanist' estheticians who keep moaning that the modern artist, in turning his back on 'subject matter,' exhibits atavistic tendencies. These are the men who think of primitive and archaic art as 'barbaric.'" | Archetipale: "The French art historian Henri Focillon observed in his remarkable book, The Life of Forms, that certain prototypal forms regularly recur in the history of art: 'Forms tend to manifest themselves with extraordinary vigor.' He cited as examples the interlace and arabesque." | Atavico: "And they feed the resentment of the so-called 'humanist' estheticians who keep moaning that the modern artist, in turning his back on 'subject matter,' exhibits atavistic tendencies. These are the men who think of primitive and archaic art as 'barbaric.'" | Esotico: "The most inquisitive among us, the artists, may be largely credited with extending artistic horizons to include the strange, the exotic, the works of artists who have no official history." | "It is because of the artists' instinctive understanding of form, and their ability to interpret for the world at large, that the arts of the distant past are available to us." | "The romantic revolution generated by mid-nineteenth century poets helped to prepare the ground for our acceptance of exotic art." | Etnico: "It can be no accident that within one decade, between 1900 and 1910, artists all over the western world came upon the arts of far-removed ethnic groups. Vlaminck and Derain founded the Trocadero Museum and were joined in their enthusiasm around 1907 by Picasso." | Magico: "It is true, as the anthropologists have pointed out, that many ancient societies used art principally for magical, ritualistic and religious purposes. And it is true that there is no incontrovertible evidence that some so-called primitive art was created for the fulfillment of the artist." | Naturale: "Like Miró in his recent ceramic sculptures, the Colima potters sought to elaborate or abstract the essence of natural forms such as vegetable marrows. They were not afraid to allow their fancies free play, showing a considerable wit in their exaggerated forms." | "Although, like other German art historians, Worringer supposed that abstraction was the refuge of bewildered primitives who needed to wrench abstract (pure) forms from the flux of nature and whose anxiety in the face of natural phenomena led them to create a stable world of symmetrical forms." | "He feels that his perceptions and intuitions of natural law can be stated only in terms of abstraction. Since abstraction transcends time, and even place; since it is the only common language which survives centuries." | Precolombiano: "This is commonly known as the Classic Period, and it produced the greatest architectural monuments of pre-Columbian art—the pyramid temples at Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico, the cities of the Maya, and the daringly conceived temple-city of Monte Alban." | "PRE-COLUMBIAN FORMS. The ancient art of the Americas considered in this book represents a mosaic of cultures that are bewilderingly varied. The objects reproduced range over a period of 2,000 years." | "There is, in short, a rich lexicon of abstract forms and styles in pre-Columbian art. Baroque, additive art existed; severe 'purist' art existed; decorative art based on nature such as bowls, with animal motifs and decorative art for its own sake." | "Some experts on pre-Columbian art insist that since it was a symbolic or ritual art, it cannot be assessed by the criteria used for twentieth-century abstract art." | Primario: "It was not the vegetal organism itself but its structural law that men carried over into art. . . . The primary element is not the natural model but the law abstracted from it." | Primitivo: "So much is still unknown about pre-Columbian history that it is difficult to determine 'primitive' phases. The theory that primitive art begins in geometric or symmetrical forms is invalidated." | "In the early nineteenth century the word 'primitive' connoted ineptness, inability on the part of the artist to achieve naturalistic perfection. But the poet could not be satisfied with such a materialistic canon for art." | "Within roughly the same period art historians were also beginning to think in terms of 'abstract' and 'primitive' art. Among the first to 'see' primitive art was Wilhelm Worringer, whose premise was that 'the urge to abstraction stands at the beginning of every art.'" | "They do not understand that it was not the crude, primitive production which attracted the modern artist, but rather the sophisticated objects in which could be felt an interpretation of the world." | "The forms created by the abstract artist today are as richly endowed with significance as the forms of the primitive artist." | Selvaggio: "André Malraux, whose relation to primitive art is often ambiguous, has more than once spoken of the appeal of the 'savage arts' for the modern artist as 'demonic, anti-humanistic.'" | Tradizionale: "In the region of the present-day states of Colima, Jalisco, Nayarit and Michoacan the traditions of the Archaic Period continued into later times. An extraordinarily imaginative, often humorous sculptural tradition developed, progressing from simple, flat clay figurines." | "But in our time we have made perhaps the most important discovery of all: the realization that the art of the ancient American cultures is truly great art, that it is the peer of the art of the Mediterranean world from which our own traditions stem."