The Museum of Primitive Art, New York
Robert Goldwater
Museums of ethnology and natural history have for long shown the indigenous
arts of the Americas, Africa and Oceania and of the early phases of the civilizatior s
of Asia and Europe, but primarily to document their studies of these cultures. It is
the purpose of the new Museum of Primitive Art to supplement their achievement
from the aesthetic point of view. We are grateful to the Museum for the considerable
help given in the preparation of this article. Editor
Schon immer fanden sich in ethnologischen und naturwissenschaftlichen Museen
u. a. auch Beispiele der Eingeborenenkunst Amerikas, Afrikas, Ozeaniens und aus
den zivilisatorischen Anfangen Asiens und Europas. Wahrend sie dort aber vor-
wiegend Studienzwecken dienten, will das neugegründete Museum of Primitive Art
in New York das Gebiet der Eingeborenenkunst vom asthetischen Gesichtspunkt aus
erforschen. Redaktion
Si les musécs d'ethnologie et d'histoire naturelle ont depuis longtemps attiré
1'attention sur l'art indigène des continents américain, africain et de l'Océanie, ainsi
que sur les civilisations primitives d'Europe et d'Asie, ils l'ont fait avant tout dans
un but d'étude et de recherche. Le Musée de l'art primitif de New York s'efforce
de faire ressortir le cóté esthétique de ses découvertes. Rédaction
The appreciation of the arts of 'primitive' peoples has come
a long way in a short time. In isolated instances it can be
traced back to the Renaissance, and the historical conscious
ness of the Enlightenment and the nineteenth century, explor
ing in both time and space, gave it much further impetus.
But the 'primitive' arts have been widely recognized in the
last half century only, and more strikingly within the last
twenty-five years. Today they have become an integral part
of the universe of the arts which our curiosity has captured
for us, and one of the chief delights in that feast of visual
pleasures which our aesthetic open-mindedness (whose relativ
ist attitude some still deplore) has made accessible to us all.
The arts of the indigenous peoples of the world range all the
way from the monumental sculpture of the Aztecs to the minia-
[Deutscher Text: Scite 532)
[Texte frangais: page 534]
