Can modern and primitive art be compared? Art of the primitive world

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

It's no secret that the art of our days often causes a fair amount of bewilderment and even indignation among ordinary people who are not particularly familiar with art history. Of course, if you compare modern paintings with Raphael or Aivazovsky, the difference will be obvious, and today's sculpture has very little in common with antique.

However, contemporary art has a number of its own characteristics, and even virtues that just need to be understood.

Modern culture

If you pay closer attention to the cultural process of our days, you will notice that it is significantly different from what we are used to seeing. If the canvases and sculptures of the exhibitions of the world's leading museums are original and beautiful in themselves, then almost all contemporary art requires some explanation, addition.

In this case, we mean the fact that almost any work of modernity requires the presentation, explanation of the concept, the basic principle underlying it. This art is performative in the first place.queue.

Art and man of today

Before proceeding to a comparative description, it is necessary to determine what is the attitude of today's person to various types of art. It is no secret that for the majority of the population, classical art has already become a kind of sign of good taste. In this case, it means that the ability to distinguish the works of Rubens from the works of Brueghel is necessary for humanity not for enjoyment, but for classifying oneself as a certain class, no matter how strange it may sound.

Art in the life of a modern person has begun to function as a marker of culture, selectivity and elitism. Of course, in this case one cannot speak of an absolute number, but for the most part, the attitude towards cultural heritage is just that.

As for contemporary art, in this case people are divided into two camps: categorical opponents of this kind of creativity and supporters who admire it. The latest art in the life of modern man often becomes incomprehensible rather than delightful.

As already mentioned, the latest works of art require description. Let's try to figure out what is the peculiarity of the creativity of our time.

Secrets of contemporary art

If you pay closer attention to the works of our time, you can easily find some patterns. For example, the fact that today's creations are mostly minimalistic and even somewhat sloppy. Sometimes one gets the impression that the artist orthe sculptor practically did not put any effort into this. Also, the work of contemporary authors definitely gravitates towards simplicity and even primitivism.

To a person who is more or less familiar with the cultural process, this will definitely remind something, namely the art of primitive man (if, of course, it can be called art in full). However, more on that later.

Before you know whether modern and primitive art can be compared, you should dot the "i" in the matter of intentional primitivization. There is only one question to ask: "What is it really for?"

And this is necessary so that as many meanings as possible can be put into a specific image. If in classical aesthetics an object carries only one concept, under which it is directly executed, then modern and primitive art work differently. Remember only the famous "Black Square" by Malevich - how many interpretations of this phenomenon exist?

The simpler the image, the more likely it is to be filled with multiple meanings. And now let's turn to the art of our distant, distant ancestors to find out if it is possible to compare modern and primitive art.

Features of primitive creativity

First of all, it should be noted that what, thanks to the efforts of archaeologists, has come down to our days, is not fully art. Various rock paintings, utensils, jewelry, and so on - initially did not represent any value at all. They hadsignificance of a completely different order, namely sacred. All the art of the primitive world was directed not towards beauty, but towards mystery, unity with nature, the possibility of conquering it.

Of course, this is what gave impetus to the development of aestheticism in the life of mankind. However, if you list the types of primitive art, its practical value becomes more obvious.

What was the art of primitive people

First of all, of course, these are images of animals. Of course, primitive man did not depict mammoths or tigers in order to capture the magnificence of nature and the grace of these wonderful animals. The thing is that by means of depiction (or modeling, which is clearly described by the layout hypothesis), primitive man in some way hoped to take away the strength of the animal he was hunting. On the other hand, the same actions are also associated with the beginnings of totemism - the belief that this or that animal is the basis of the genus, however, the image of animals received this particular meaning much later.

As for the shards of pottery found during the excavations, and especially those decorated with various ornaments, in this case we are also talking about the sacred, magical meaning of the depicted things. In this case, we were not talking about simple decoration.

Later versions could also mean that objects belong to a specific genus or territory in which they were made.

Resemblances to modern times

Can modern and primitive art be compared? The answer is yes. Can. In fact, you can compare anything, and even more so those phenomena that really have certain intersection points.

First of all, it is, of course, primitiveness and minimalism in execution. Like it or not, almost all contemporary art is exactly like that, which provides the prerequisites for comparison.

Besides, as mentioned earlier, it is conceptual in its essence and without being introduced into the context, without its explanation, it loses its value.

Finally, it should be noted that, of course, the creators of today, of course, rely on the experience of distant ancestors, imitate them in many ways. Moreover, quite a lot of works of art, starting from such a direction as abstractionism, are turned and based precisely on primitive art.

Major differences

So now that we've found out whether modern and primitive art can be compared based on their similarities, let's take a look at the notable differences.

First of all, it is worth paying attention to the fact that the art of a person who existed at the dawn of time had a very specific focus and did not allow any other interpretations, had no other meanings, while modern art is completely subordinated to the will of the beholder and explainer.

Furthermore, primitive art was intended to be practical, while today's creations exist for their own sake or expressionany idea. This art is speaking, performing, outrageous.

Thus, we can say that there are definitely some similarities between primitive and modern art, but there are no less significant differences.