Tribal art is the visual arts and material culture of

indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

s. Also known as non-Western art or ethnographic art, or, controversially, primitive art, Dutton, Denis,
Tribal Art
'. In Michael Kelly (editor), ''

Encyclopedia of Aesthetics ''Encyclopedia of Aesthetics'', published in 1998 by Oxford University Press, is an encyclopedia that covers philosophical, historical, sociological, and biographical aspects of Art and Aesthetics worldwide. The second edition (2014) is now availab ...

. New York:

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

, 1998. tribal arts have historically been collected by Western anthropologists, private collectors, and museums, particularly ethnographic and

natural history museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...

s. The term "primitive" is criticized as being

Eurocentric Eurocentrism (also Eurocentricity or Western-centrism) is a worldview that is centered on Western civilization or a biased view that favors it over non-Western civilizations. The exact scope of Eurocentrism varies from the entire Western worl ...

and pejorative.Perkins and Morphy 132

Description

Tribal art is often ceremonial or religious in nature. Typically originating in rural areas, tribal art refers to the subject and

craftsmanship Workmanship is a human attribute relating to knowledge and skill at performing a task. Workmanship is also a quality imparted to a product. The type of work may include the creation of handcrafts, art, writing, machinery and other products. Workman ...

of artifacts from tribal cultures. In museum collections, tribal art has three primary categories: *

African art African art describes the modern and historical paintings, sculptures, installations, and other visual culture from native or indigenous Africans and the African continent. The definition may also include the art of the African diasporas, such ...

, especially arts of

Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...

* Art of the Americas * Oceanic art, originating notably from

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

Melanesia Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from Indonesia's New Guinea in the west to Fiji in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea. The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, V ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

, and

Polynesia Polynesia () "many" and νῆσος () "island"), to, Polinisia; mi, Porinihia; haw, Polenekia; fj, Polinisia; sm, Polenisia; rar, Porinetia; ty, Pōrīnetia; tvl, Polenisia; tkl, Polenihia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of ...

. Collection of tribal arts has historically been inspired by the Western myth of the "

noble savage A noble savage is a literary stock character who embodies the concept of the indigene, outsider, wild human, an " other" who has not been "corrupted" by civilization, and therefore symbolizes humanity's innate goodness. Besides appearing in m ...

", and lack of cultural context has been a challenge with the Western mainstream public's perception of tribal arts. In the 19th century, non-Western art was not seen by mainstream Western art professionals as being art at all. Rather, these objects were seen as artifacts and cultural products of "exotic" or "primitive" cultures, as is still the case with

ethnographic Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject ...

collections. In the second half of the 20th century, however, the perception of tribal arts has become less paternalistic, as indigenous and non-indigenous advocates have struggled for more objective scholarship of tribal art. Before

Post-Modernism Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moder ...

emerged in the 1960s, art critics approached tribal arts from a purely formalist approach,Storr, Robert
"Global Culture and the American Cosmos."
''Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts: Arts, Culture and Society.'' 1995. (retrieved 15 Nov 2011) that is, responding only to the visual elements of the work and disregarding historical and cultural context, symbolism, or the artist's intention. Since then, tribal art such as

African art in Western collections Some African objects had been collected by Europeans for centuries, and there had been industries producing some types, especially carvings in ivory, for European markets in some coastal regions. Between 1890 and 1918 the volume of objects greatl ...

has become an important part of international collections, exhibitions and the art market.

Indian Folk And Tribal Art

India is currently separated into states and association regions, which have their own interesting social and conventional characters. Each locale has its style and workmanship known as society craftsmanship. Aside from society craftsmanship, there is a workmanship which was generally polished by the individuals of rustic and innate populaces which is known as the court workmanship. These crafts of India are basic yet charming. They tell about the extravagance of the nation's legacy. Ancestral craftsmanship depicts the creative vitality showed by the inborn and the provincial. The inborn and people speciality of India incorporates different works of art, for example, artistic creations, makes, crafted works. Some of them are recorded beneath: Tanjore Art are the artworks from the parts Rajasthan, Bengal, Gujarat that portray the fantasies and legends of nearby saints and divinities. These works of art are narrating pictures. Their subjects are fanciful. Madhubani Painting is otherwise called the Mithila craftsmanship and is a foundation of the area Bihar. It is a line drawing loaded up with brilliant differentiating hues. It is done on naturally put or mud dividers. Warli Painting originates from the biggest clan on the northern edges of Bombay. Maharashtra is known for its Warli craftsmanship. These works of art are not a portrayal of fanciful characters or gods but rather delineate the public activity of the individuals. The work of art is attracted by spots utilizing ideally white shading. These works of art are holy and marriage couldn't occur without them. Patachitra or Pattachitra painting, as the name proposes is painting done on canvas. Patta implies canvas and Chitra mean work of art. It is the most established and most well-known type of craftsmanship rose up out of Bengal and Odisha. It is shown by rich vivid application, imaginative themes and plans, and depiction of straightforward subjects, for the most part fanciful in a portrayal. Rajasthani Miniature Paintings came to India through the Mughals. These artistic creations are made with the most extreme consideration, every single moment detail is dealt with, it has lines, particulars and wonderful splendid hues set in an excellent example. Today, numerous specialists make scaled-down compositions on silk, ivory, cotton, and paper. Kalamezhuthu is the drawing usually known rangoli, kolam which is drawn at the passage of the sanctuaries and homes. It is workmanship drilled at the floors and forests of the sanctuaries portraying the god in the sanctuary. In each painting, the examples the moment subtleties, measurements and shading decision are chosen in recognition with severe standards. The examples change extensively relying upon the event.

Influence on Modernism

Major exhibitions of tribal arts in the late 19th through mid-20th centuries exposed the Western art world to non-Western art. Such major exhibitions included the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...

's 1935 ''Africa Negro Art'' and 1941 ''Indian Art of the United States.'' Exposure to tribal arts have provided inspiration to many modern artists, such as

Expressionists Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radi ...

, Cubists, and Surrealists, notably Surrealist

Max Ernst Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German (naturalised American in 1948 and French in 1958) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealis ...

Perkins and Morphy 134 or

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

, who stated that "primitive sculpture has never been surpassed."

Notes

References

* Morphy, Howard and Morgan Perkins, eds
''The Anthropology of Art: A Reader.''
Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. .

External links

Tribal Art Magazine

Paleobree
— Tribal Art Information Service
Art Tribal Newsletter

Tribal art forgeries

Oceanic Art SocietyKnowIndiaTribal Art Muse
- Tribal Art Resource & Info {{DEFAULTSORT:Tribal Art Indigenous art