Galindo reviews the influence of traditional and ancient cultures on 20th century artists like Picasso, Gaugin, and Matisse.
He shows how ancient African culture influenced Picasso's seminal piece, "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," which is considered to be the first 20th century masterpiece with new forms, colors, and meanings.
Pre-Columbian culture influenced other artisits. British sculptor, Henry Moore, for example, looked to the Toltecs for his inspiration.
This short clip is definitely worth bookmarking for next spring when we study the 20th century.
1 comment:
It's an interesting topic, but I'm afraid the source confounds 'ancient' with contemporary tribal societies. He even manages to suggest the problematic nature of that theme at the end, but only after failing to distinguish ancient influences from contemporary ones for most of the video. It's not a trivial problem. That Africa or Polynesia counts as ancient, even when the materials are current reflects all manner of cultural baggage. It may be fair to suggest those biases influence the artists in question, but we should be clear about the difference today.
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