ABSTRACT
In art of any value there is a direct connexion between inspiration and formal beauty. Primitive art is the most pure, most sincere form of art there can be, partly because it is deeply inspired by religious ideas and spiritual experience, and partly because it is entirely unselfconscious as art; there are no tricks which can be acquired by the unworthy. Those who are engaged in educational practice in West Africa may feel that this book is of little use to them in their everyday work. There was scarcely an African who had been anywhere near a school who had not been acquainted with 'Hand and Eye' or 'Brushwork' as the elementary mechanics of European drawing, painting, modelling, and handicraft were called. As these exercises had now been taught for half a century, there were many Africans who had achieved considerable ability in them.
