Charles Wentinck Knihy

The encounter with creations of primitive and tribal art at the beginning of the twentieth century had a profound significance for European and American artists. The plates provide telling and fascinating juxtapositions of works produced by exotic cultures, with paintings and sculptures by over thirty modern artists. The texts examines the rejuvenating influences of those remote artefacts upon the great masters of out time and enquires to what extent the obvious formal inspiration corresponded to kindred spiritual experiences.ContentsDialogue with the past -return to the ElementalThe Search for the PrimitiveAbstraction and EmpathyPicasso and Negro ArtMatisse or VlaminckProblems of Form: Derain, Modigliani, BrancusiEncounter or exchange of tecniquesThe exotic attraction of distant landsPrimitive art and German ExpressionismSurrealism and the art of the South Sea IslandsList of iluustrationsPlates