Page 28 - Studio International - September 1965

Masterpieces of the Musee de l'Homme, Paris

some reflections by the Baroness Alix de Rothschild

Bernard Berenson once asked me if I really liked
Primitive Art. He said that the men who made it were
not on the same level of achievement as were those
who made a Renaissance bronze: they lacked the
necessary skill. He called it Pre-Art, saying that they
could not have done otherwise. as is the case with
children's art. (What would he have said. had he seen
Pop Art!) But just as what is magical in children's art
disappears with the acquisition of more knowledge,
with the technique gained in puberty. so mankind loses
its touch. when it strays too far from its sources. There­
fore. if Berenson is right, contemporary art must be
Post-Art, but can show a way back to the source for our
eyes that have been 'fashioned' by modern artists. The
exhibitions of Primitive Art in Dresden in 1909. later
in Munich. or at the gallery Jeanne Bucher in 1929.
left their mark on those who went to look. and they all
looked: Max Ernst, Modigliani. Brancusi. Picasso.
Gonzales. Giacometti. the German expressionists.
Nolde. etc ....
The term Primitive Art is a misleading one. Some
civilizations ignored the Golden Rule. They were more
concerned with what was elemental in life. and there­
fore they had a different canon. What was elemental.
was magnified. and opposing elements resulted in
tension in their forms. As their preoccupations were
life and death. sex and religion. the feeling conveyed
was a mystic one. and one still transmitted to us. Is it
because the men of prehistoric times. or the men in

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