NGA : Primitivism

Primitivism itself is a belief of running aspects of life counter to development, favouring less developed or basic methods for achieving a goal. When considering Primitivism in an artistic context, we see artwork that can look childlike or very simple. This can be manifested by such things as a flattening of the viewing plane, a lack of colour variation, oddly shaped figures and an overall lack of detail.

In the days pre-ultra sensitive political correctness, the term "primitive" was used to describe a non-Western developed person, often an indigenous tribal person, who lacked the technological advancement and education of Western culture. Primitivism is the term coined to describe, in an art context, of attempting to mimic these "primitive" peoples style of artwork, which is why Primitivist art is often described as appearing childlike. The Primitivist belief held that this was closer to being a much rawer, more connected to our origins style of art that exuded more emotion than the rigid formalised art prevalent at the time of the rise of Primitivism.

Contemparary Primitivism can manifest itself in many ways. Perhaps one of the best examples of contemporary Primitivism is displayed in the Amish culture, who shun technological development and live in small self-sustaining communities.

At the NGA, I found a rather interesting example of artwork that i believed had very strong Primitivist elements. The piece is Rupert Bunny's "Prophetic Nymphs". Unfortunately the piece is not available for viewing on the NGA's website and i can't find a copy elsewhere on the Internet. The piece featured several partially clothed female figures with flat features and were mostly painted with single colours. The viewing plane is very flat and the proportions of the figures are quite unrealistic.

More sharing

I just thought i might share a digital painting i did of my Jack Russell Luci. Completed in Photoshop using a Wacom Intuos 3 6x8 tablet

NPG + NAA Assignment

So we now draw to a close our variety of visits to the different institutions and our time with the fashion students with a visit to the National Portrait Gallery and the National Archives of Australia.

Having never visited the new Portrait gallery until our visit, I must say I was pretty impressed with what I saw, and it was actually a little difficult to pick only 2 portraits to discuss.
Oh and near as I'm aware, we don't have to post everything on our blogs for these assignments (as evidenced by my previous posts) so I'm posting one of each for the different venues

Righto then, once more into the breach...

Russell Crowe, 2001
Photograph taken by Karin Katt
Inkjet Print



























We all know how difficult it can be to sum up a person's character in a single photgraph, and this photo is no exception. It's no secret that Russell has made headlines with his temper, most notably the famous New York phone incident, and this almost menacing downward gaze along with his hand being clenched in front of him lend credence to his sometimes volatile personality.

Most of us would have seen a Russell Crowe movie or two, and nine times out of ten he plays a man with a penchant for anger or violence. Ranging from a hard hitting boxer in Romper Stomper to a intestinal spilling Roman fighter in Gladiator, it becomes quite obvious that Russell sports large amounts of testosterone.

Of course I don't think that Russell is a completely out of control anger addict. The beauty of this photo is that while it can appear intimidating at first, upon further inspection it also appears to have a certain softness about it. Russell is a dedicated family man who regularly donates to charity, and he co-owns the South Sydney Rabbitohs football team, a club he has been a stalwart fan of for quite a long time, a club that would most likely now no longer exist if not for his timely intervention. While it is more of a personality trait than an element of the portrait, this to me is a very Australian characteristic, getting in there and helping our fellow man when they need it.

Good on ya Russ.

Ok, Archive time.

Here I found an interesting little document called the "Australia Act". This document, while not as historically significant as say the Constitution, it is still a very important part of our history. The "Australia Act" itself has 2 parts, an Australian part and a United Kingdom part. The Australian part is the one on display at the Archives, whereas the UK part is stored at Parliament House. The Act effectively brought to an end any legislative or judicial ties remaining between Australia and the UK.

While not itself a cultural statement, this Act in part allowed Australia to move forward into a more independant age of national management. This allowed us to continue to forge our own identity and our own culture and move away from traditional UK ways of thinking.