Page 44 - Studio International - November 1968

New York Commentary

'African and Afro-American Art: The
Transatlantic Tradition' at the Museum
of Primitive Art; 'Light: Object and
Image' at the Whitney Museum; Jesse
Reichek at Betty Parsons.

In ancient Rome, at a rather late stage according OF PRIMITIVE ART to present a demand that the art It is quite possible that the harsh and furious
to Georges Dumézil, the intellectuals 'intentionally, objects of the 'third world' be repatriated, and attitudes of these black militants, and their need
consciously, artificially decided to give to Rome, that until they were repatriated, they should be to fabricate a past, are responsible for the unusual
which had become the dominant power in Italy, a exhibited only in Harlem. Their demands, natur- exhibition with which the Museum of Primitive
beautiful past; to fabricate a past worthy of its ally, met with little sympathy, but they may well Art opens its season. Called 'African and Afro-
present'. This process, which occurs often in our have alerted the museum to certain problems American Art: The Transatlantic Tradition', the
own century in nations liberated from colonial which have long been conveniently eluded. exhibition suggests a new emphasis in African
status, is about to make its dynamic entry into Behind the demands of this militant group con- studies. It deliberately establishes psychological
American culture. Its instrument is the Black cerning objects of art are certain legitimate political links by means of stylistic analysis. It does for the
Power movement. While whites are hastening to considerations. They have insisted that the art plastic arts what has long been accomplished for
redress grievances of an angry black community, community, which always prefers to look the other jazz: it places them in deservedly lofty positions,
blacks are hastening to compile a past worthy of way when matters of political import threaten to while insisting that the social and political matrix
their present aspirations. Their efforts, like the intervene with smoothly functioning artistic affairs, from which they stem be taken into consideration.
Romans', are conscious and artificial, and, in the take note of the unsavoury liaisons within the Undoubtedly this exhibition has been in the
view of many Americans, absolutely essential to art world. In the case of the Museum of Primitive making a long time and the recent pressures on
their moral survival. Art, their obvious target is Governor Nelson the museum are not solely responsible for its
The mounting pressure on the white authorities Rockefeller, founder and president of the museum, fruition. But I still think it offers a good argument
to acknowledge the role of the black in American and brother of David Rockefeller whose Chase for the theory that social change inevitably
history has up to now been felt mainly in universi- Manhatten Bank has been attacked for its flourish- changes the way works of art are perceived
ties, where courses in black history are now de ing business with racists in South Africa. Blacks It is very much to the credit of Professor Robert
rigueur, and hitherto slighted courses in African attacking the museum remind us that the removal F. Thompson of Yale that he honours the aspira-
studies have suddenly become important. But the of art objects from Africa and the South Pacific, tions of the current black literati by stressing the
black intelligentsia and the revolutionary activists subsidized by countless foundations which the singular achievements of specific West African
have not stopped there. Their campaign has Rockefeller brothers or comparable millionaires civilizations and tracing their influence in North
extended to other institutional organizations, not set up for various purposes, is, to quote their and South America. Not only does Prof. Thompson
the least of which are museums. spokesman, 'the rape of religious and cultural persuasively trace certain visual motifs from
Last spring, for example, a delegation of implac- traditions of native societies, another example of Dahomey or Yoruba artists to New York and
able Harlem representatives—as they called them- colonialist racist superiority over the native religion Carioca artists, but he also begins an enterprise
selves—met with officials of New York's MUSEUM and institutions'. that will, I am sure, have wide ranging results.
That is, he is working as a true art historical
scholar to track down the individual artists. Al-
ready he has attributed a number of beautiful
objects to their authors, and in so doing, destroys
Right Wrought-iron staff
the glib assumptions of centuries that so-called
surmounted by an iron bird,
`primitive' societies worked in happy anonymity,
the Yoruba god of medicine,
and that the individual artist was not revered as
made by Jose Adario dos he was in Europe. A fine Ashanti bronze or a
Santos in 1968
Brazilian wrought-iron sculpture of high quality
iron, 19+ in. high. Collection
was no more the anonymous art of the 'folk' than a
Dr. and Mrs. Robert Farris
Shakespearean sonnet.
Thompson, New Haven
Prof. Thompson does not shrink at removing the
Far right Wrought—iron staff varnish from the truth, even if it aligns him at times
surmounted by a senior with the enemy outside—those blacks who, in
medicine bird presiding over their rage, would destroy the institutions which
a circle of birds, attributed make Prof. Thompson's work possible. For in-
to the master sculptor stance, he writes that 'the myth of the total
Odeleogun of Efon-Alaiye disappearance of African plastic traditions in the
c. 1920 United States reflects a literature concerned with
iron, 46 in. high exploitation and degradation'. His mission is to
restore what he calls the 'glory' of the tradition.
Among North American exhibits are several im-
pressive carvings by ex-slaves, some of them found
on the routes of the Underground Railway, as far
north as Syracuse, New York. The contemporary
examples are not as impressive, since they are
crudely imitative votive images from the Yoruba
Temple in Harlem. Unlike the Yoruba carryovers
in Havana and Rio de Janeiro, which have brought
local ingenuity to bear and transformed the tradi-
tion, the Harlem efforts are stiff and somehow
alien—a willed phenomenon that doesn't draw on
deep resources. Still, given the materials this exhibi-
tion offers, both in terms of thought and art
objects, it is not difficult to imagine a florescence
of Afro-American art which will be both inspired
and informed. So does history tamper with art?