ABSTRACT
Primitivism is a set of ideas arising in Western Europe during the 18th century, a period of unprecedented European colonial expansion. Primitivism does not name a group of artists or architects or a style arising at a particular moment but, rather, encompasses the various responses produced by contact between Western and non-Western societies during the colonial period. It has three primary meanings: a belief in the superiority of a simple life close to nature, a belief in the superiority of non-industrial society to that of the present, and a valorization of the art and architecture of primitive peoples or primitive creators. All three definitions indicate that primitivism is a critical attitude toward present society, culture, and art and a preference for societies, cultures, and art from simpler times, states of evolution, or mentalities. It is also used to indicate the art and architecture of primitive peoples or cultures, although this is not a correct usage, as primitivism is a phenomenon of Western culture, not the product of “primitive” peoples. The word primitivism (primitivisme) was used first in France in the 19th century; William Rubin traces its appearance to the Nouveau Larousse between 1897 and 1904, meaning “imitation of primitives.” The term primitive has a wide range of meanings, including original, primeval, little evolved, elemental, natural, naïf, characteristic of an early stage of development, and produced by a relatively simple people or culture or a self-taught artist. This term is generally used to designate societies considered to have a lower level of evolutionary development than Western societies.
