I

E l FEATURE

The Early DaysAlfred StieglitzThe impact of tribal art on photography began

to be felt during the second decade of the twen-

tietli century. The first exhibition of Africansculpture in the Ulnited States took place in 1914

at New York's photo-secessionist Gallery 291."The show featured eighteen masks and sculp-

tures from Cote-d'Ivoire and Gabon, courtesy of

Parisian dealer Paul Guillaume. In keeping withthe gallery's new approach to African sculpture,

which it showed solely from the perspective of

art, photographer and gallery director Alfred

Stieglitz produced two portraits of Georgia

O'Keeffe in 1918 that show her with a Guro/Bete

figural spoon from Cote d'lvoire, which he had

kept for his own collection after the exhibition

closed. These images are part of a large group ofportraits that he shot of O'Keeffe, herself a

painter who later became his wife. The portraits

were intended to reveal her inner strength and

her fundamentally creative nature as an artist, aswell as the deep bonds that united the two

artists. The expression of concentration on herface. her gaze that is directed skyward echoing

the positioning of the spoon visage, and the

diaphanous fabric that forms part of the back-ground of the image combine to suggest a

detachment from rationalism and a quest forspirituality that is functionally amplified by the

African sculpture.

80 tribalarts

PRIMITIVISM

FIG. 6: Alfred Stieglitz,Claudia O'Keeffe, 1922.Silver emulsion test print.

17.7 x 23.2 cm.

© Board of Trustees, National

Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred

Stieglitz Collection Image.1949.3.518 [D-518].

FIG. 6a: Mask.

Baule/Yaure,C6te-d'lvoire.Wood and pigments. H: 24.1 cm.© Fisk University Galleries,

Nashville, Tennessee, Alfred Stieglitz

Collection,

tribalarts 81

E FEATUREFIG. 8: Man Ray, Black

and White, 1924.Illustrated on cover of no. XVIII,July 1, 1924, of the periodical 391,published from 1917 to 1924 by

Francis Picabia.0 SABAM, Belgium, 2006.

FIG. 8a: Hermaphroditic

figure.Baule, Cote-d'lvoire.

Wood. H: 33 cm.© Museum of Ethnography,Budapest [58.87.1].

FIG. 9: Hannah Hbch,Masken, from the series

"Aus einem

ethnographischenMuseum, 1929.Collage and photomontage.25 x 16 cm.Eva-Maria and Heinrich Rossner-H11ch collection, Backnang,Germany.© SABAM, Belgium, 2006.

!Amg

Association by PhotographThe Man Bay Dialectics different when the objects and human elements Above:

Stieglitz produced other portraits in a similar vein share common origins (as in the African works of FIG. 9a: Bowl with an

and such photographic associations that pair Rotimi Fani-Kavode and Alex Hirst, or the Asian equestrian figure.Yoruba, Nigeria.

human subject with masks and sculptures from images by Gao Bo), these still frequently express Published in Sydow, 1921, pl. 7.

other continents inspired countless photographers concepts that are not reliant on a precise under- Ex v. Harvens Gallery, Hanover.All rights reseived.

throughout the twentieth century. Based on various standing of the circumstances in which the sculp-

dialectics-object/subject, inert/animate, black/ tures were produced. This relationship has prolifer- FIG. 9b: Totem pole

white, permanence/change--photography became ated as an analogous perception in which human from the NorthwesternZ!.. . . United States, the

the stage for associations involving human faces and object radiate complementary natures. Man photographic source of

and sculptures in a network of relationships, move- Ray explored this theme in many of his photo- the Hach cutout.mnents, and reversals bv such notables as German gaphs, including the famous Noire et Blanche Published in Der Querschnitt July

b s1925, p. 579. All rights reserved.

dadaist Erwin Blumenfeld, U.S. surrealist Clarence (1926). In these works, he linked the images of

John Laughlin., and the more recent Pascal many of the women with whom he shared his emo-

Houdart. While the visual discourse is structurally tional, intellectual, cultural, and artistic life-Kiki,

82 tribalarts

Nancy Cunard, Yvonne George, Simone Kahn-Breton. Titaiana, Adrienne Fidelin, Juliet Browner-Man Ray, among many others-with those ofsculptures from the Baule (Cote d'Ivoire), Fang(Gabon), Bangwa (Cameroon), Nias (Indonesia),and Vanuatu (Melanesia) cultures. Experimental

trials and unpublished variations of these have

gradually surfaced over the years in various publi-cations, giving rise to a larger body of this workthan had previously been suspected (see TRIBAL,

autumn/winter 2005).Man Ray was a regular at the exhibitions of

African sculpture exhibitions that followed atGallery 291 after 1914 and subsequently at theModern Gallery. It is plausible to reason that this

FIG.lOb: Mask.Fang, Gabon.H: 41 cm.

Ex Paul Guillaume collection.

© Mus6e du quai Branly, Paris.

tribalarts 83

1936ABOVE: BELOW:FIG. 12: Erwin Tete de mort en cristal. FIG. 13: Erwin Loretta Taylor dans LeBlumenfeld, diptych: Art Azt6que, Mus6e de Blumenfeld, diptych: miroir de la M6nagerie,Hitler, Amsterdam, 1932. I'Homme, Paris, 1937. Sculpture africaine, New York, 1948.34 x 27 cm. 34 x 27 cm. Soudan [Mali], Muske de 34 x 27 cm.

© SABAM, Belgium, 2006 M'Homme, Paris, 1936. ©SABAM, Belgium, 2006.

34 x 27 cm.

The Stakes ofDialectics

Above:FIG. 14: Gao Bo, Tibet,1993-1995.Impression on rice paper made in

the People's Republic of China.

All rights reserved.

Below:FIG. 15: Gao Bo, Tibet,1993-1995.Impression on rice paper made in

the People's Republic of China.

All rights reserved,

0l FEATURE

FIG. 20: RomareBearden, Prevalence ofRitual: Baptism, 1964.Photomontage, collage, paint, inkand pencil on card. 23.2 x 30.5 cm.

Hirshhorn Museum and SculptureGarden, Smithsonian Institution,Washington D.C. Gift by Joseph H.Hirshhorn. 1966.© SABAM, Belgium, 2006.Photo Lee Stalsworth.

FIG. 20a: Hippopotamusmask. Ijo-Kalabari,Degema area, Nigeria.Wood. H: 47 cm.

Laura and Raymond Wielgus

Collection, USA, All rights reserved

FIG. 20b: Mask.Kwele, Gabon.Wood and pigment. H: 52.7 cm.

© Metropolitan Museum of Art,

New York.

FIG. 20c: Shouldermask, nimba. Baga,Guinea. 19th century.Wood, H: 108 cm.

© Rietberg Museum, Zurich.

In Search of Identityexpressionistic use of cutout, tearing. wTenchirig, and

radical breaks, as well as recomposition and recon-

struction., has been widely employed by artists since

the modernist era. Again, the structure of the conver-sation differs when the non-Western objects are asso-

ciated with a human presence with a slimed origin.

But regardless of whether the photographer is dealing

with issues relating to self or culture, photographic

elements of non-Western sculptures have been drawn

upon to achieve an affinnation of identity and a ques-tioning of the evolution of the artist's perception.

Rornare Bearden. a key figure in artistic and intellec-

tual circles in Harlem in the mid twentieth century,questioned Black American identity by associating

elements of day-to-day life with the collective nerno-

ry of ancestral rites and customs. More recentiv,

Scots-Ghanaian artist Maud Stiller produced a seriesof photoinontages called Syrcas that question soci-

ety's view of origins and interracial relationships byshifting itages of African sculptures to different co0l-texts for interrogation. In the series Refiguration-SeY'

Itybridations, French performance artist Orlan draws

the debate toward otherness by merging images of her

own face with those of pre-Colurabian, African, andPacific sculptures using digital techntology. American

artist Ellen Gallagher. whose work explores issues ofrace, identity, and transformation, in one series has

"intervened" in manazine pages with advertisements

for hair and body care by adding mask-like elements

to them. This is consistent with the rest of her work,

which opens (discussion on the situation of African-

Americans.

88 tribalarts

PRIMITIVISM

From the Value of the Invisible

to the Glorification of Surfaces:

Contemporary ExplorationsThe visual power of non-\Nestern art fornis and theineans of steering this power into their iniages is a

question that photographers have faced for nearlya century. Confronted with1 a force that wentbeyond their senses, many have experimented withhow to reveal its true depth. Abandoning the normsof represenlation and creating independent nleainsof expression have become an essential conditionfor approaching tis aspect of photography. Frominvestigations into the invisible through solariza-tiot. photoprints. negatives. radiographi.. or bhir-rim, as seen in t(ie works of Whalter Dalh. MagdiSenadgi. Xavier Lucchesi. and Hugues Dobois tothe glorification of surfaces capitired by Louis

FIG. 21: Maud Sulter,

Malheureusement, comme

d'habitude, ;e comparais

la couleur de mon rouge j

16vres j cel/e de mon

foulard, from the series

Syrcas, c. 1993.

Photomontage.All rights reserved.

FIG. 21a: Dan mask,

Cote-d'lvoire, Liberia,

photographic source of

cutout.

Wood. H: 34 cm.F Willert collection. Published inWillet, 1971, p. 185.

TirillyI Fir-d&ric Vidal, ankl Nicola, Brwirai. pihittog-iaphers lhave ilove(l lie iilage of o-Westeri arts

to nev perceptual regislers. Tirilly briefly abaii-

doned the lens to obsere ithe processi of Oxidiza-

tion/cryastalliza(ion of bisulfite salts in the test

images that prt(lehdd his final shot, s ' Iesam)lehd a

inun ber of exp)osu res ty fixing lgeint at vario(is

tinies an(i in (Joing so. he iiia(Ie visible that -wlicli

tribalarts 89

El FEATURE

49

Value of the InvisibleFIG. 22: Walter Dahn, preceded disappearance in the photographic in a single movement or style, though it began withDie Welt der Geister, process, thus creating images of objects newly the avant garde milestones from 1910 and into tile1983-1985.109813- 1. charged with the substance of their existence and 1930s. It has evolved in a variety of forms to the

All rights reserved. sacrifice. In a series of portraits by Fr6d6ric Vidal., present day, where it continues to push the bound-

FIG. 23: Magdi Senadji, no single element is identifiable. In his images, he aries of perception and technique. It maintains

Untitled, 1991. uses developing paper, frames, masks, and solar- associations and perspectives thai force us to con-Negative image. 16.4 x 11 cm. ized light sources to creates unique works whose sider visual processes as comparable to ideas ofAll rights reserved. evocative dimension is produced from relationships specific and recurrent interest. It is this shiftingFIG. 23a: Karaparaga between contrast and line density, and aims at the nature that allows the genre to be defined as amask, western region, essential, whole and given its historical importance. Its dis-Witu Islands, Balivitu, givenNew Britain. cussion is not the subject of a Ionograph butWood and pigments, H: 58.5 cm. "Primitivism" in Photography: rather a chapter in which "Primitivism" as it© Muse Barbier-Mueller, Geneva. A Secular Scope relates to photography is given its full scope with-

The impact of non-European art on photography in the realm of modern and contemporary art.

covers the full range of techniques. It is not rooted

90 tribalarts

PRIMITIVISM

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHYAlcina, Jos6. L'Artpr6colombien, Mazenod, Paris, 1978.

Bassani, Ezio. Afrique: aux origines de Part moderne,

ArtificioSkira/Galleria d'Arte Moderna de Turin,

Florence, 2004.

Baum, Timothy. Man Ray's Paris. Portraits: 1921-1939,

Middendorf Gallery, Washington, 1989.

Bergounioux, Pierre and Magdi Senadji. L'imm6morable,

A une soie, Paris, 1994.

Blumenfeld, Erwin. My One Hundred Best Photos. Text

by Hendel Teicher, A. Zwemmer Ltd., London, 1981.Bodrogi, Tibor. L'Art en Afrique, Cercle d'Art, Paris, 1969.

Bourgeade, Pierre. Orlan: Self-Hybridations, Al Dante,

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Photographies, Paris, 2004.

Fani-Kayode, Rotimi. Schwarz/Weiss. Black

Male/White Male, Borderline, Berlin, 1988.

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2004.

Greenough Sarah et al. Modern Art and America:

Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries, Boston,

New York, London, Bullfinch Press, Little Brown and

Company/National Gallery of Art, Washington,

2001.Guillaume, Paul, Munro, Thomas, La sculpture n6gre

primitive, G. Gr6s, Paris 1929.

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Kaufmann, Berlin, 1982.

Kerchache, Jacques, Jean-Louis Paudrat, and Lucien

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Lavin, Maud. Cut with the Kitchen Knife (The Weimar

Photomontages of Hannah H6ch), Yale University

Press, New Haven & London, 1993.

tribala•rs 91

E l FEATURE

FIG. 27: Orlan,Refiguration-Self-

Hybridations no. 4,1998-1999.1lfochrome prestige photo, glued on

aluminum, assistance with digital

processing: Pierre ZovilI.

150 x 100 cm.

© SABAM, Belgium, 2006.

199FACING PAGEFIG. 28: Orlan, African

Self- Hybridations.

Mbangu mask, half black,

half white, and face of

European woman from St-

Etienne with curlers,

2002.

Digital photograph, color

photographic paper print.

156 x 125 cm.

© SABAM, Belgium, 2006.

92 tribalarts

PRIMITIVISM

Self-HybridationsRefigurations

FIG. 27a: Kneelingfemale. Maya, Mexico.Polychrome ceramic.

H: 29 cm.

All rights reserved.

Leuzinger, Elsy. Afrikanische Skulpturen/African sculp-

tures (Beschreibender KataloglA Descriptive

Catalogue), 2nd ed., Museum Rietberg, Zurich, 1978.

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al., Philippe Sers/Centre Georges- Pompidou, Paris,

1981.

Man Ray, Paintings, Objects, Photographs (Property

from the Estate Juliet Man Ray, the Man Ray Trust

and the Family of Juliet Man Ray), sale catalog, 22-

23 March 1995, London, Sotheby's.

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log), edited by E. I'Ecotais and A. Sayag, Centre

Georges-Pompidou/lcditions du Seuil, Paris, 1998.

Das Medium der Fotografie ist berechtigt, Denkanstdg3e

zu geben, Samm1ung F C. Gundlach, Kunstverein in

Hamburg, 1989.

Monbrison 1997 (exhibition catalogue), Alain de

Monbrison, Paris, 1997.

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Franklin Collection, The Los Angeles County

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Afrique, Mus6es de Marseille, R6union des Mus6es

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1924, complete re-edition presented by M.

Sanouillet, Paris: Terrain Vague & Losfeld/Belfond,

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edited by Culture et D6veloppement, 1995.

FIG. 28a (Left): Mask,West Pende, Kwiluregion, DR Congo.Wood, H: 26.6 cm.

© Mus6e royal de lAfrique centrale,

Tervuren.

FIG. 29 (Above): EllenGallagher, extract from

her work eXelento,

Gagosian Gallery, NewYork, 2004.All rights reserved.

tribalao's 93

FIG. 30: Frederic Vidal,Portrait, from the seriesDialogue, 2004.Solarized composition, author's print

1/1.40.5 x 31 cm.

© By kind permission of Fr6d6ric Portfolio, The Catalogue of Contemporary British Magazine), no. 3, December 1991, Paris.Vidal, Paris.

Photography, biannual publication, no. 19, June Robbins, Warren. African Art in American Collections,FIG. 32 (Facing page): 1994, Photography Workshop, Edinburgh. R. Walters, Frederick A. Praeger, New York, 1966.Frederic Vidal, Portrait, Rubin, William (editor). Primitivism in 20th Century Sculptures. Afrique, Asie, Oc6anie, Am6riques, R1unionFrom the seriesDialogue, 2001. Art, Flammarion, Paris, 1987. des Mus6es nationaux, Paris, 2000.Solarized composition, author's print Der Querschnitt, Nendeln/Liechtenstein, Krauss Sculpture. Chefs-d'oeuvre du mus6e Barbier-Mueller,1/1. 23.8 x 19.1 cm. Reprint, 1970. Facsimile of the monthly Der Imprimerie nationale, Paris, 1995.© By kind permission of Fr6d6ricVidal, Paris. Querschnitt, published in Berlin by les editions Sydow, von Eckart. Exotische Kunst: Afrika und

Propyla6n from 1921 to 1936, founded by Alfred Ozeanien, Klinkhardt & Biermann, Leipzig, 1921.

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1985. and Hudson, London, 1993 (1st ed.: 1971)..

Revue Noire (African Contemporary Art International

94 tribalarts

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TITLE: Primitivism in Photography: The Impact of African,Pacific, Native American, and Asian Artworks onModern Photograpy [i.e. Photography]: 1918-2006

SOURCE: Tribal 10 no4 Summ 2006WN: 0619607736064

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