Philippe Dagen Publishes Final Volume on Primitivism in 20th-Century Art
Philippe Dagen, an art historian, has published "Primitivismes 3. Une guerre mondiale" (Gallimard, 2026), the concluding installment of his exploration into primitivism, spanning from World War II to the late 1970s. This volume investigates the interaction of Western artists with "primitive" art from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. Dagen posits that primitivism played a crucial role in reshaping artists' identities in relation to Western art history. In New York, exiled European creators and Americans, including Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko, incorporated Indigenous influences into American abstraction. The CoBrA movement favored naive styles, while Jean Dubuffet and Gaston Chaissac depicted French primitives. By the 1950s, African and Oceanic arts encountered challenges as colonized groups rejected the "primitive" designation. Dagen also reflects on perspectives from Lévi-Strauss, Sartre, and others, concluding with Wifredo Lam.
Key facts
- Philippe Dagen published the third volume of his primitivism series, covering WWII to the late 1970s.
- The book is titled 'Primitivismes 3. Une guerre mondiale' and published by Gallimard in 2026.
- Barnett Newman used Oceanic art to express rejection of a civilization capable of war atrocities.
- Jackson Pollock did not adhere to intellectual primitivism but relied on Jungian archetypes.
- The CoBrA movement focused on animals and children, with Karel Appel also interested in 'art of the mad'.
- Jean Dubuffet and Gaston Chaissac were considered French primitives by the Cobra review.
- Lucio Fontana and Antoni Tàpies were part of an 'international of the sign' reenacting the birth of art.
- Claude Lévi-Strauss, Michel Leiris, and Jean-Paul Sartre represented three different relationships to the 'primitive'.
- Aimé Césaire and Léopold Sédar Senghor diverged in their interpretations of primitivism.
- Yayoi Kusama opposed the 'primitive' of nature and eroticism to American modernity.
- Wifredo Lam is highlighted as the only modern artist from the 'victim' group.
Entities
Artists
- Philippe Dagen
- Barnett Newman
- Adolph Gottlieb
- Mark Rothko
- Jackson Pollock
- Pablo Picasso
- Karel Appel
- Jean Dubuffet
- Gaston Chaissac
- Roger Bissière
- Lucio Fontana
- Antoni Tàpies
- Yayoi Kusama
- Wifredo Lam
- Claude Lévi-Strauss
- Michel Leiris
- Jean-Paul Sartre
- Aimé Césaire
- Léopold Sédar Senghor
Institutions
- Gallimard
- Le Journal des Arts
- CoBrA
Locations
- New York
- United States
- Europe
- France
- America