FAUVIST, GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST AND SURREALIST INTERPRETATIONS OF THE "PRIMITIVE" With European exploration and colonization of the "new world" nearing its end at the turn of the twentieth century, a collection and cataloguing of primitive objects became paramount, not only to researchers interested in other cultures but to governments wishing to strengthen public opinion regarding their colonial territories. To this end, museums displaying primitive objects became ubiquitous in western Europe, including exhibitions at the Exposition Universelle and the Muse Africain (Torgovnick 77). These expositions generally followed the ethnographic approach; items were displayed en masse and in no particular order and function was emphasized over form and beauty. The objects' inherent aesthetic value, however, was always implied through its display (Torgovnick 77).It was against this backdrop of European preoccupation with the "primitive" that modern artists began to look to primitive cultures for inspiration and ideas. The concept of "modern primitivism" emerged with Paul Gauguin and evolved throughout the twentieth century in an effort to achieve a purer and truer art form. Modern primitivism in and of itself, however, is not a movement; rather, it is a common theme that is present to varying degrees in certain artistic movements. In particular, the Fauvist, Die Brcke German Expressionist and Surrealist interpretations of the "primitive" are important as they illustrate the differing manners in which primitivism can be manifested in modern art.In their knowledge of primitive art, the Fauvists were unlike Gauguin in one major respect. While Gauguin was familiar with some Aztec sculpture and with the work in stone and wood of the South Seas, he knew of no other indigenous artistic tradition (Goldwater 80). The fauves added African sculpture, and, unaware of parallel findings of Die Brcke in Dresden, prided themselves upon being the first to...
