Primitive art
Tuesday, 19 May 2009
Sometimes my mind’s eye is shown art that I will never be able to reproduce. I always wonder where these visions come from. Is it the same mental faculty that produces outr nightly dreams? And how does the mind does this trick? How can I “see” things that I have never seen before?
Sometimes I see art made by other people that reminds me of what I have seen inside my own head. It seems that certain images are shown in the minds of other people too. In fact, that is what I tend to believe: that there is a mental universe where all these objects really exist, and sometimes a window in our mind is opened and we get a glimpse into that universe.
Much of the images that I “see”” in my mind looks like what is called primitive art. I don’t like that name, because there is nothing primitive about it.
A few weeks ago I bought this book:
There are hundreds of pictures in this book, and some of them in colour. I haven’t been touched by anything so deep in a long time. Here are some of my favourite pictures:
I haven’t been able to draw after I bought this book. But I am sure that when my mind has digested this material, the inspiration will come again. Man, do I wish I could make stuff like this!
Not only Meneer Jan but also Aris de Vries made a composition with the sounds that Henk Badings made for the 45 of Philips Technisch Tijdschrift
.
I cannot say how much I like this: my remark was just a joke, but now we’re half way a Henk Badings tribute CD!
Comments:
red bol
2009-05-20 13:36:09
please visit this old and long gone Amsterdam gallery … they have a great department with Negerplastieken!
(this is a flash thing I made some years ago for the museum, the link is to an offline older version of our website, please dont drag the view too large or you’ll see pixels everywhere)
red bol
2009-05-20 13:40:24
oh yes: the url! http://mmkarnhem.nl/oud_pre_zicht/KunstzaalVanLier.swf
red bol
2009-05-20 17:28:00
oh yes: the url! http://mmkarnhem.nl/oud_pre_zicht/KunstzaalVanLier.swf
red bol
2009-05-20 17:32:45
uh? duh!
Milan
2009-05-19 02:20:12
Damn, those pictures are great. The reproductions in these older art books are often too vague to buy them but this looks very cool.
Hey, that track by Aris the Vries is nice!