ABSTRACT

the relations between tribal art and modern art are as old as the Eiffel Tower—exactly, for the Eiffel Tower was built to commemorate the Universal Exhibition of 1889, and at that exhibition there were numerous anthropological objects which attracted the attention of the artists of Paris, above all, of Gauguin. “It is great,” said Gauguin. “In the Java village there are Hindoo dances. All the art of India can be seen there, and it is exactly like the photos I have. I go there again on Thursday as I have an appointment with a mulatto girl.” Van Gogh wrote to Emile Bernard:

There is something I am very sorry to have missed at the Exposition, that is the collection of dwellings of all the races…. So could you, since you have seen it, give me an impression of it, and especially a sketch with the colours of the primitive Egyptian dwelling…. In one of the illustrated papers I saw a sketch of ancient Mexican dwellings, they too seem to have been primitive and very beautiful. Oh, if only one knew about those times and could paint the people of those days who lived in such dwellings—that would be just as beautiful as Millet: I don’t say as far as colour is concerned, but in character, as something significant, as something in which one has a solid faith.