Primitivism and the other. History of art and cultural geography

12 Pages·2004·1.02 MB·English

GeoJournal 60: 353–364,2004. 353
©2004KluwerAcademicPublishers. PrintedintheNetherlands.
Primitivism and the other. History of art and cultural geography
Jean-François Staszak
UniversityofParis1Panthe´on-Sorbonne,Paris,France
Keywords:art,colonization,culturalgeography,Gauguin,otherness,painting,primitivism,representation,Tahiti,tourism
Abstract
Thearticle advocatesan articulationofculturalgeographyandarthistory, andin thisperspectivefocusesonthe analysis
oftheprimitivistmovementandparticularlyonGauguin’sworkandpersonalitinerary.Primitivismintroducedartefactsof
‘primitive’peopleintothehistoryofWesternartandsignalledachangeintherelationshipbetweentheWestandthe‘Other’
and‘Elsewhere’.Thisreversalofvalueshasamajorgeographicaldimension.Primitivismmanifeststhecontradiction-rife
colonialideology,butcanalsochallengecolonization.Tourism,whichis, inthecaseofTahiti, directlylinkedtoGauguin
and to his myth, inherited a lot from primitivism, in terms of hopes and ambiguities. Conversely, primitivism casts light
ongeographicalfeaturesoftheseplaces,institutedas‘Elsewheres’bytheWest,andvisited,eventransformedbypainters,
colonizersandtourists.
Introduction representationsoftheirtimes,limitstheconclusionsthatso-
cialsciences,particularlygeographers,candrawfromthem:
The use of telepathy not being widespread, cultural geo- aworkofartwouldonlyshedlightonitsauthor’suniverse.
graphersarereduced,throughlackofdirectaccesstomental Howeverthe capacity of certain artists to be ahead of their
representations, to the analysis of objectified representa- times, the diffusion and the reception of the work of those
tions: texts, drawings, maps, photographs,gestures, words, who are recognizedand appreciatedas beinggreatmasters
etc.,whichonecanonlyhopewilladequatelyreflectmental canmaketheirartisticproductionamatrixofsocialrepres-
representations of the group or individual studied, and in- entations. ItiswellknownthatrepresentationsofProvence
formusabouttheworldinwhichthesubjectslive.However, andthereforeitstouristicsuccess, owetoCézanneandVan
it is rare that subjects spontaneously produce such repres- Gogh.Also, artistsdonotworkinisolation,andtheirwork
entations to give accounts of the world in which they live. ispartofwidertrendsthatmanifestaresearchfora shared
Researchers are often obliged to induce them, introducing expression.
notablebiases. Furthermore, these representationsconform Needoneaddthatworksofart,inthesamewaybutmore
tocommoncodes, whichensuretheirtransmissiblecharac- sothanallrepresentations,realisticastheymayaimtobe,do
ter:notallindividualsmasterthemsufficientlytosharetheir notinformusabouttheworldasitisbutasitisrepresented?
vision of the world; it is notcertain thatthe codesare able The manypaintingsof paradisedo notinformusaboutthe
to account for the more idiosyncratic components of inner landscapesoftheplacebutontheexpectationsofasociety
worlds. andonitsviewofEden.ThusGauguindidnotpaintTahiti,
To avoid pitfalls, it would be necessary to use unsoli- buthisTahitiandream.
citedrepresentationsbysubjectstalentedenoughtoexpress Thisarticleaimstoexamine,inthisperspective,abranch
them,masterthecodesoreventoinventlanguagessuitable of Western art, primitivism, which developed essentially
tomirrortheirspecificvision. betweentheyears1890and1940.Gauguin,Picasso,Matisse
Worksofartanswerthesecriteria.Unlikehistory,social and the fauves, the surrealists, the German expressionists,
sciences,andparticularlygeography,haveneverthelessused Brancusi, Modigliani, Klee, Léger, Giacometti, the Amer-
this type of source sparingly, in spite of severalcalls to do ican abstract expressionists all have pride of place, among
so.1 In the pictorialarts, it is landscapepaintingmore than others,withinprimitivism.
any other which has attracted the attention of geographers, A diverse and changing movement, primitivism was
for obvious reasons, and numerous works have shown the characterised by a rejection of canonic Western art, per-
interest of the conclusions drawn from their analysis.2 If ceived as inauthentic, and by its quest for regenerative
artistic sources, and particularly pictorial ones3, have not inspiration in alternative expressions, perceived as being
beensystematicallyexploitedbygeographers,itisnodoubt truer because simpler and freer. Artists adoptingthese new
duetotheircoynesswithregardtothefieldofarthistory,but references sought to free themselves from the conventions
probablyalsotomorefundamentalreasons. andambitionsofWesternart,inparticularthoseofthenatur-
The exceptionalstatus of works of art, and particularly
thoseproducedbyanavantgardeofartistsbreakingwiththe
354
alists,theimpressionistsandtheneo-impressionists,inorder
tograspadeepertruthbeyonddeceivingappearances.
The alternative models these artists borrow from are
thoseinstitutedbytheWestasarchetypesofOtherness:the
child, the insane, the dreamer, the woman, and the animal.
But it’s the Savage, the Primitive who constitutes the main
alternative and source of inspiration. His Otherness is in-
scribed in time (he belongsto the dawn of Humanity), but
alsoinspace(heisexotic).
Theinventionofprimitivismatthebeginningofthe20th
century arises from a new relationship with the Other, at
leastinthefieldofhistoryofart.AsthisOtherissituatedin
anElsewhere, primitivismraisesspatialissues. Itresonates
with political geography, in particular that of colonialism
and of decolonization, but also with that of tourism. It al-
lowsforhead-ontacklingofthequestionofrelationshipof
theWestandtheOther,whichiscentralforpostmodernand Figure1. PaulGauguin, Manaotupapau(L’espritdesmortsveille) (The
Spiritofthedeadkeepswatch),1892,W457,MuseumofModernArt,New
postcolonialgeography.
York.
It would be impossible to deal with the whole of the
primitivist movement, therefore the work and itinerary of
Gauguin were chosen as exemplary. A major influence on the tupapau (spirit of the dead) represented is drawn from
Westernart,hisuniversallypopularworkfunctionsasamat- Tahitian mythologyand beliefs: the subject of the painting
rixofsocialrepresentations.Asamajorfigure,maybeeven refers to an ancient Maori cult, which fascinated Gauguin.
the inventor of primitivism, Gauguin is responsible for the Thirdly, the continuity of the pictorial surface, which does
changesinWesternculturebroughtaboutbythemovement, not distinguish the material (the young girl) from the spir-
particularlyinitsgeographicaldimensions.4 itual(thetupapau),placesthemonthesamelevelofreality,
asthoughGauguinwereseeingandreproducingwhatisseen
bytheyounggirl(whichcausedGauguintobedescribedas
Primitivismand‘discovery’of‘Negroart’ a symbolist). We have thereforeprimitivism of motives, of
the subject and of the vision of the world. That does not
In the years 1905–1906 Western painters, and first Ma- mean that Gauguin paints like a primitive: there was never
tisse, Picasso, Vlaminck, and Derain, ‘discovered’‘Negro’ anyTahitianoilpainting,orsculptedidols.Theprimitivism
art. These precursors all greatly admired Gauguin, which oftheworkreflectsGauguin’sthought.Undertheinfluence
probablyhadtodowiththis‘discovery’.Bothaspectscon- offin-de-siècleanti-modernism,disgustedbyamaterialistic
tributed to the birth of primitivism. The interpretation of and hypocritical Western civilization, he aspired to a lost
this movement, and especially Gauguin’s primitivism, is authenticity, to an elsewhere that is both geographical and
controversial.5 Primitivism does not imply an inspiration spiritual, that the imaginary of the period makes him seek
directlydrawnfromtheprimitivearts.ManaoTupapau(Fig- in the Tahitian Eden, in the vahinerepresentingthe primit-
ure1)owesmoretotheghostsofManetandofIngresthanto ivistfiguresofEve,ofthegoodsavage,ofthechildandthe
Tahitianmythology.6Wheredowecomefrom,whatarewe, animal.
where are we going (Figure 2) recalls the frescos of Puvis It is not that primitive arts have influenced the work of
deChavannemorethanPolynesianart.Itispossibletodraw Gauguin. Its autonomous evolution had the painter seize
aparallelbetweenthetasteforexoticandundressedscenes primitive motives and themes, in a logic that is that of
characteristicoforientalistpaintersandthesearchforapic- Western art and quite independent of primitive arts. Prim-
turesque eroticism that is not foreign to Gauguin: Manao itive art, for Gauguin as well as for Picasso, was in the
TupapauremindsoftheharemsofJéromeorofFromentin. terms of the latter, a ‘fulcrum’, a ‘justification’7, to appro-
Gauguin’s aspiration to the savage owes more to priate, in Gauguin’s word, ‘the right to dare’8: to simplify
Rousseau’s ‘good savage’ than to the Maori people. the lines, distort the figures, saturate coloursand contrasts,
Gauguin’sdebtstoprimitiveartsarefewandhemoreoften forget shadows, neglect perspective, represent the purely
refers to the arts of the great Eastern civilisations (Japan, imaginary...GauguinowesnomoretoPolynesianartthan
Java,Cambodia,Egypt,Persia)thantotribalartsthemselves Picassoto‘Negro’art,butnoless.Primitivistartisnotprim-
(essentiallyfromtheMarquesasIslands).Thustheblueidol itive art: the first has certainly borrowed from the second
thatappearsinWheredowecomefromismuchmoreAsian (although the actual references are fewer than was com-
thanPolynesian. monly believed), but mainly drew from what it had placed
SowhatdefinesGauguin’sprimitivism?Threecompon- there.
entsarevisibleinManaoTupapau.Firstly, thepainteruses InParis,in1919,theDevambezgalleryopenedtheFirst
motives that are local, natural (the phosphorescentflowers exhibitionofNegro artandofOceanicart.9 Itwasthefirst
of hotu) or cultural (the paréo, the sculptures on the pil- time that objects of tribal art were exhibited not as curi-
lar), perceivedas beingsavageor atleast exotic. Secondly,
355
Figure2. PaulGauguin, D’ou` venons-nous, quesommesnous, ou` allons-nous?, (Wheredowecomefrom, whatarewe, wherearewegoing?) 1897,
MuseumofFineArts,Boston,1.7m×4.5m.
osities or as pieces of ethnological interest (Figure 3). In
1924thefirstbookdevotedtoprimitiveartwaspublished.10
The exhibitions of the Trocadero Museum in the 1930s11
showedobjectsoftribalart. Thisentryofprimitiveartinto
thehistoryofartowesalottothecubists,tothefauvesand
to Gauguin’s followers since 1906. In spite of the limited
and ambiguouscharacterof whatthe primitivistsborrowed
from‘Negro’or Oceanicart, itis themwho, in the eyesof
the public, transformedthesavage intoanartist. Thewood
sculptures of Gauguin (Figure 4), that he considered ‘ultra
savage’12,owedlittletoPolynesia,buttheydidcontributeto
PolynesianandAfricanartefacts’beingconsideredasworks
ofart.
Theconsequenceswereconsiderable:thecapacitytocre-
ateworksofartisamongthecriteriadifferentiatinghuman
beings and animals (Figure 5). The view of the West on
‘primitive’ people changed because these were recognized
as justasable of producingmasterpiecesas Westerners(or
even more likely to do so, accordingto some primitivists).
However,theentryof‘primitive’artsintotheLouvre(2000
exhibition),whichproposesviewingthemfromapurelyaes-
theticpointofview,devoidofallethnologicalconsiderations
(for example in reference to their ritual use) continues to
give rise to debate. Not that anyone denies their aesthetic
value,butsomefearthatintegratingthemintothehistoryof
WesternartandevaluatingthemonWesterncriteriamaybe
succumbing(again)toEurocentrism.Thephrase‘Negro’art
isnolongerused,butthoseof‘primitiveart’and‘firstarts’
remain highly controversial, as was shown by the polemic
around the name to be given to the Quai Branly museum Figure 3. ‘Les idoles au Champ de Mars. Dessin de M. Kreuzberger’,
ExpositionUniverselle,Paris,Dentu,3octobre1867.
in Paris. This new institution is to receive objectsfrom the
MuséedesArtsAfricainsetOcéaniensandfromtheMusée
de l’Homme. Artistic and museological issues still have andofeconomicexpansion,butitwasalso,forthecol-
political implications, of which President Jacques Chirac onizedcountries,atimeofhumiliationandofsuffering,
wasfullyawarewhenadvocatingtheadmissionof‘firstarts’ describedbyJean-PaulSartreasa‘giganticnightmare’.
intotheLouvreandthecreationofthemuseumoftheQuai Gradually, during the second half of the 20th century,
Branly. The current French head of state, an amateur of wehaveconstructednewrelationshipswiththesecoun-
‘first’ arts, is also the political leader who’s come closest tries,stepbystep,onthebasisofunderstanding,mutual
tomakingamendsforFrance’scolonialpast. respect,dialogueandexchange.Littlebylittle,theWest
hastakenthemeasureoftheculturaldimensionofthese
“For a long time, indeed, the non-Western arts, those
civilizations,inallitsdiversity,complexityandrichness,
whichwereinawayoutsidetheIndo-Europeancrucible
adimensionlongdisregardedbecauseofarroganceand
from which our own cultures have arisen, entered our
ethnocentrism. The time had come to give greater vis-
collections, alas in painful circumstances, in a context
ibility to these new relations, placed under the sign of
ofcolonialism.Thiswas,forEurope,atimeofconquest
356
Figure5. ‘Lespre´curseursdeRaphaëletMichel-Ange,oulanaissancedes
Figure4. PaulGauguin,L’idolea`lacoquille,woodandmotherofpearl,h. artsdudessinetdelasculpturea`l’e´poquedurenne’,engravingbyE´mile
27cm,1893,Muse´ed’Orsay,Paris. Bayard. In: L.Figuier, L’Hommeprimitif, Paris, Hachette, 1870, p.131
(detail). (RafaelloandMichelangelo precursors,orthebirthoftheartaf
drawingandsculptingduringtheReindeerPeriod).
recognition, sharing and fraternity. That is why I have
wished that the first arts find in the year 2000 their
visitors.16 Along with rooms dedicated to the USSR and
place in the museums of France” (President J. Chirac,
presenting the atrocities of the colonial conquests and the
inauguratingthe ‘Pavillon des sessions’ and its first art
first movements of liberation, three sections were devoted
collection,Louvremuseum,April13th2000).13
to ‘Negro’, Oceanic and American art (‘redskin’). Collec-
In his presentation of the Quai Branly museum, Jacques tions of primitive art belonging to Breton, Eluard, Tzara,
Chiracdidnotfailtoquoteprimitivistpainters(Derainand AragonandtosomebigParisianmerchantswereondisplay.
Picasso) among ‘les passeurs de rêves, men of heart and The mobilization of the surrealists and the use of the ‘art
of spirit who (...) have wished for a true recognition, in of colonized countries’17 in one of the first anti-colonialist
the museums of France, of the forgotten civilizations of demonstrations show that primitivism is deeply involved
Africa, Asia, theArctic, OceaniaandtheAmericas’.14 The withthepoliticalhistoryofFranceandofhercolonies.
transfer of the collections of the earlier Musée des Colon-
ies and of the museum of ethnology of the Trocadero to a
museumofartistheconsequenceandthelateequivalentof Primitivismandcolonization
the incorporation of ‘Negro’ art by certain Western artists
in Paris, exactly one hundred years earlier. Or, to speak The work of Gauguin was not presented in the ‘counter-
in geographicalterms, the moving of these collections is a exhibition’: it was displayed in the Colonial Exhibition
delayed consequence of Gauguin’s departure to Polynesia itself. It seems that there are two ways of coming to terms
and of the cubists’ African tropism. Primitivism has there- withGauguin’slegacy,astherearetwofacestoprimitivism.
foreparticipatedinthemovementbywhichtheWest,which The relationship between this movement, colonization and
hadopenedthedebateinthe16thcentury,finally,inthe20th colonial culture are profoundly ambivalent. This was ob-
century,accepted(orpretendedto)theentryofotherpeople vious from the inception of primitivism, in the itinerary of
intohumanity. Gauguinandinthereception,evenintheproductionofhis
‘DonotvisittheColonialExhibition’,orderedatractof work.
1931signedbyBreton,Eluard,Aragon,etc.TheTruthabout Gauguin’s geographical imagination, which motivated
the Colonies was a counter-exhibition organised that same his departure for Tahiti in 1891 and is expressed in the
yearbythe CGTU15 andthesurrealists, andreceived5000 Polynesian pictures, is typical of his time. His Tahiti is es-
357
a wooden panel, a monotype, at least five engravings, the
palette of the painter and three letters. The ‘primitive’ art
oftheMarquesasIslandswasrepresentedbyvariousobjects
of ‘the prehistoricperiod’, i.e. beforethe 1842annexation:
some small tikis ‘in human bone’ show the ‘innumerable
andpitilessgods’whoclaim‘humanvictimsthatwerenever
refusedtothem’.21 Soastounderstandthelogicofthisex-
hibition, let’s turnto thestatementthatthecuratormadeto
theFigaro.
“This Polynesian exhibition is placed under the sign of
Figure6. theEFO(EtablissementsFrançaisd’Oce´anie)pavilionintheCo- Loti and that of Gauguin, in the form of a tribute to
lonial Exhibition in 1931, photography (L’Illustration, album hors-se´rie
eachofthem.Whoelserevealedtotheover-evolvedand
‘L’Expositioncoloniale’,1931).
complicatedWesternerswehavebecome,thesimpleand
charming soul, the noble plastic beauty of a race that
sentiallyandcommonplaceWestern:itreferstotheGolden is slowly dying and of which the memory will last into
Age of the Greeks, to the biblical Paradise. It owes much thefutureonlythroughtheincomparabletalentofPierre
to Rousseau, Bougainville, Diderot and Loti.18 Gauguin’s Loti, themagnificentlyricism ofVictorSégalenandthe
lifestyle in Polynesia was clearly that of a colonial and, in genius of Paul Gauguin (...). It is the very memory of
Tahiti, he poses as a stark defender of the interests of the this silence that the traveller should bring back with
Frenchcommunity.19 himtodayfromtheseislandswheretherelivedaraceof
It would be exaggerated to set the artist on the front which,in1774,Cook,estimatingitatonehundredthou-
line of colonization, instead of the more conventional fig- sandindividuals, thoughtthatit was the mostbeautiful
ures of the military, the missionary and the planter. But ofthePacific,perhapsthemostbeautifulofallpeoples.
the systematic presence of draftsmen with explorers, the FortyyearsafterCook,Dumontd’Urvillecalculatedthat
officialmissionsforwhichpainterswerehiredinthecolon- theywere reducedto twenty thousandsouls; today, one
ies (as was the case of Gauguin, on the occasion of his hardly finds two thousand. A race condemned without
first stay in Tahiti) prove that they were expected to play appeal, a race that is dying; but some astonishing ob-
a part. Also, aesthetic considerationscannot be disconnec- jects of art, carefully guarded in our collections, the
ted from colonial and racist discourse. The hierarchy of picturesofGauguin,thepoetryofSégalenandthenovel
races is also founded on that of the perceived beauty of ofLotiwill preserveforustheimperishablememoryof
the various people: significantly, the measure of the angle itsperfectandcalmbeauty’.(J.-C.Paulme,assistantcur-
of the cranium, infamouslyused by the anthropometryand ator in charge of Oceania at the Colonial Exhibition in
exploited by racist theories, started with painting and aes- 1931).22
thetics. Itsinventor,PetrusCamper(1722–1789),a famous Polynesianart,evenifitis‘astonishing’andassociatedwith
medicalpractitionerandartist,aimedtohelpWesternartists a barbaric cult, is recognized as having undeniable value,
adequatelytodepicttheAfrican,insteadofsimplypainting as the Polynesian ‘race’ itself, whose foremost merit is its
Europeanformswithadarkskin,andtodefinebeauty. beauty. But this art and this ‘race’ are disappearing and
Gauguin did not display Polynesian savagery; he only evencondemnedtodisappear.TheEuropeanartiststhathave
celebratedthebeautyofthepeopleandculturalwealth.This depicted them have not only produced good works of art,
was in no way original concerning Tahitians, and in par- theyalsohavethemeritofsavingfromoblivionthePolyne-
ticularthewomen. Thedaughterofthe ‘Nouvelle-Cythère’ sian civilisationandpeople. Thisargumentrefersto oneof
and of the Garden of Eden, conformingto Western canons the alleged justifications of the colonial enterprise: to save
of beauty (particularly feminine), the vahine was from the degenerating people, help them to recover their lost glory.
momentofher‘discovery’placedveryhighinthehierarchy In this perspective, it is logical to use the works of artists
of thepeoples, unlikethe ‘Negrowoman’, whostood right who pay tribute to this past and have accomplisheda work
at the bottom of the aesthetic and anthropologicalscale of ofarchaeologists,ofprehistorians(sincecolonizationmarks
‘races’. By painting magnificentTahitian women, Gauguin theentryofthesepeopleintohistory).Thedirectorindirect
onlystrengthenedtheflatteringstereotypesthatwerealready responsibilityof colonization, celebratedby the exhibition,
wellestablished. for the disappearance of the culture and of the Polynesian
Gauguin consolidated Western representationsof Tahiti peopleisobviouslynottouchedupon.
by giving them a magnificent expression, largely distrib- The work of Gauguin was easily used as an instrument
uted thanks to the rapid success of his painting. Tahiti and of colonial propaganda, also in other instances. In 1935,
Tahitian men and women as depicted by Gauguin do not in the Exhibition for the bicentennial of the annexation of
contradict the colonial imagination, which is why his pic- the West Indies and Guyana to France, which was held at
tureswereexhibitedattheParisColonialExhibitionin1931 the Musée National de la France d’Outre-mer, ten of his
(8millionvisitors)20,intheOceaniaPavilion(Figure6). works executed in Martinique were displayed. It is pos-
Along with souvenirs and the works of Loti and Sega- sible, but not of much importance here, that this diversion
len, the pavilion contained Gauguin’s works: two pictures,
358
ofGauguin’sworktoserveacolonialpointofviewbebased them very different fates and the links between oriental-
onamisunderstandingevenonabetrayalofhisintents. ism and European imperialism have been evidenced. The
Gauguin’s legacyis paradoxical. On one hand, through Orient, asaWesternconstructionofaspatialotherness,as-
the history of art and the primitivist movement, he is at semblesall‘elsewheres’,allexoticisms.Thedictionariesof
the origin of a (re)habilitation of ‘primitive’ arts and of theperiodincludeOceaniaintheirdefinitionofthe Orient,
the‘primitive’,thusprovidingmaterialforanti-colonialism. and Gauguin explicitly inscribed his Tahitian project in an
On the other hand, his work reproduces and affirms colo- orientalquest. Asorientalothernessisconceivedin oppos-
nialstereotypesanditisusedwithoutdifficultybycolonial itiontocivilization,‘primitivityisinherenttotheOrient,is
propaganda. theOrient’.24
The very conceptof the primitiveaccountsfor this am- A negativeviewof theprimitiveleadsthe missionaries,
bivalence. Ranking peoples and societies on the path of the teachers and the engineers into the colonies, a positive
progress towards the most elaborate (Western) civilization onebringstheorientalists...andGauguin.Thetwoaspects
tends to legitimize colonization, presented as the right or are infactconnected.On theonehand, theseductionexer-
the duty of the strong with respect to the weak. Colon- cized by the Orient lays in a hope of renewal, and that of
ization is only possible or justified to the extent that the theOrientalwomaninherexoticandsavagesensuality.On
home country is ‘in advance’ over the colonies, and able theotherhand,theconquestoftheOrientandtheOrientalis
toimpose‘progress’tothem. Racialdoctrines(L’Essaisur possibleandlegitimateonlyinrelationtoWesternsuperior-
l’inégalité des races humaines of Gobineau was published ity. This ambivalenceis blatantwith Gauguin. As a settler,
in1853)andtheburgeoningdisciplineofanthropology(the heendorsesWesternsuperiority,andalso,despitehisclaims,
fundamentalbookofTaylor,ThePrimitiveCivilizationwas thatofWesternart,byborrowingelementsfrom‘primitive’
translatedintoFrenchin 1877)provideda‘scientific’basis arts. At the same time, his leaving Europe and his artistic
to the legitimization of a de facto and de jure superiority projecttestifytoaprofoundandrevolteddissatisfactionwith
of the West. Explorationliterature, then colonialliterature, his (urban, capitalistic, Christian) society and modern art
represented the primitive and savage character of peoples (realism,impressionism).
thathadbeenorwere tobe colonised, and ensuredthe dif- From the 1920s onwards, the work of Gauguin was
fusionofsuchnotions.Theprimitive,presentednegatively, widely reproduced, exhibited and celebrated. How was it
called for the colonizer to come and civilize him. How- integrated into the colonial discourse, what was its effect
ever,theinsistentdescriptions,bothhorrifiedandfascinated, onthecolonizationofPolynesia?Itwasnotinstrumentalin
of the barbarity of the indigenous peoples, also testified encouragingmanyto leave forthose remoteislands, which
to an ‘obscure temptation’.23 In relation with fin-de-siècle never received many settlers: for the entire colonial period
anti-modernism, the idea of progress was questioned, the (1842–1960), only 401 are recorded, 295 of which came
superiorityof‘civilization’contested,andsocieties‘leftbe- fromFrenchmainland.25
hind’byHistorywererehabilitatedastheprimitivecharacter
was reconsidered, as virtuous and authentic. Primitivism,
thoughitclaimedtoinvertthehierarchybetweentheprimit- Primitivismandtourism
iveandthecivilized,toshowtheformerhadmuchtoteach
Gauguinmaynothavesentanysettlersto Tahiti, butmany
the latter, maintained and even reinforced the dichotomy
Western visitors, either in the past or the present, followed
betweentheWestanditsOthers.Colonizationwasnolonger
in his footsteps. His work constitutes more an invitationto
justifiedasanenterpriseofcivilizationofbarbaricpeoples,
undertakethevoyagethanacalltocolonizationortolifein
butasanattempttoregenerateaWestgoneastrayandonits
the wilderness. He praises the charms of Tahitian life and
lastlegs.
women, but it is not a reason to go to the other end of the
Thisrejuvenationcouldnottakeplacein contactwith a
world. But his work was quickly granted recognition, and
primitivesociety in fullglory. Thebalanceof powerestab-
itssuccess,inlinewithwhatGauguinhimselfhadsaid,was
lishedbythecolonizationimpliedthatthe‘primitive’should
attributed to his Tahitian experience: therefore painters in
bedominated,theutopiancharacteroftheregenerationpro-
quest of inspiration or especially sensitive to the work of
ject always led to believe – a topos of orientalism – that
Gauguin were tempted to relive his adventure. Emil Nolde
one was arrivingtoo late, that the Golden Age had already
and Max Pechstein, linked to the die Brücke expressionist
passed,theprimitivesocietiesalreadyfallen. Theirdecline,
movement,leftforthePalauIslandsin1914.HenriMatisse,
obviousforthecolonialistswhoobserveditwithoutthinking
afterhistripstoAlgeriaandMorocco,spentthreemonthsin
(or wanting to think) that they caused it, justified the colo-
Tahitiin1930.
nial project, exonerated of its responsibility, and offered a
ManynovelistswerealsodrawntowardstheSouthSeas,
reassuringexplanationofthefailureoftheregenerationthat
particularlybytheworkofGauguin.Oneafteranother,they
onewasexpecting.Agoodprimitiveisadeadprimitive,not
travelled there from the 1920s onward, setting an editorial
onlyforthecolonialistwhoseeshimasasavagetoeradicate,
trend.26 SomersetMaughamstayedinTahitiforonemonth
butalsofortheorientalistandtheprimitivistwhoplaceshis
in 1917 and in 1919 published The Moon and Six Pence,
hopesinhim.
of which Hollywood made a film in 1942. This romanti-
It might seem surprising to place primitivism and ori-
cizedlifeofGauguinwastogreatlyassistinestablishingthe
entalism on the same level, while art history has reserved
Gauguin‘myth’,particularlyintheEnglishspeakingworld,
359
in the same way as the texts of V. Segalen had done in the
Frenchspeakingworld. Manyfilmdirectorsweretofollow
suit.27
Gauguinis by no meanssolely responsible forthis me-
diaoutburst,alsoinfluencedbyBougainvilleandLoti.This
explosionwasalso the resultofthe openingofthe Panama
Canal (1914) and of the first regular steamship connection
with Tahiti (1924). The island gained in accessibility, but
alsoincreaseditscapacitytofiretheimaginationduetothis
artisticproduction.Tourismbegantodevelopinsuchaway
that the Papeete Chamber of Commerce created an Office
of Tourism in 1930. At the beginning of the 1930s, about
700touristsvisitedtheislandeachyear.Itwasnotuntilthe
openingofFaaaairportin1961thattourismreallytookoff,
andthe numberofvisitorsper yearonly exceeded250,000
intheyear2000.Hawaiiwasreceivingmorethan5million
atthatverytime.
In 1921, for the first time, an administrator mentioned
(with a hint of embarrassment) what a touristic attraction
Gauguin had turned into: his tomb ‘has become a sort of
placeof pilgrimageforforeigntourists’.28 Thepainter, un-
like Jack London29, had never been personally involved in
thetouristicpromotionofPolynesia.Evenifallofthetourist
guides deal with Gauguin about Tahiti and the Marquesas
Islands, Polynesia has in fact little to offer to the amateurs
of painting, apartfromthe visitof the Gauguinmuseumin
PapeariandtheplaceswherethepainterlivedinTahiti.The
Figure7. CatalogueFestivalCroisie`res2002/2203(frontpage).
fewtouristswhomaketheefforttogototheMarquesasdo
not fail to visit his tomb at Atuoana, and they see the Es-
paceCulturelPaulGauguinofAtuona,inauguratedonMay of Papeete, and now his work functions as an incentive to
8th,2003forthecentenaryofthepainter:thisreplicaofthe touriststoflowintoTahiti.Hisworkwasneverintendedfor
painter’shousedoesnotincludeanyoriginalworkofhis.In Tahitians: it is thereforenot surprising that it should be on
theTahitiMuseum,inauguratedin1965,onlyafewetchings offerfortheWesternpublictowhomitwasintendedinthe
andthreesculptedspoonsaretheworkofGauguin. first place and which flocks to Tahiti indirectly because of
However,thelinkbetweenthepainterandthePolynesian him.
touristindustryis strong. All of the touristswho come and It is certainly not the primitivism of Gauguin that at-
whowillcometoTahitihaveseenthepaintingsofGauguin, tractstouriststoTahiti,butratherthebluelagoon,thewhite
whichhavetakenpartintheelaborationofanattractiveim- sand... and the naked beauty of Tahitian girls. However,
age of the island. The imaginationof presenttourists owes these expectations were fostered by the Eden-like images
little to Loti, virtually unread nowadays, but still owes to producedbythepainter,regardlessofwhethertheyreferred
Bougainville and to Rousseau who, even unread, still give toTahitianmotivesandmythsornot.Howeverthisenchant-
form to the Tahiti of our dreams. Gauguin holds a central ing vision of the tropical island is also dependent on the
place in the campaigns of tour operators in order to pro- ideaofapreservednaturewheretheindigenouspeoplelive
moteTahiti:heisinevitablypresentintouristbrochures.His aneasy, harmoniousandauthenticlife. Thisnostalgiafora
paintingsoradaptationsofthemareabundantlyreproduced lostparadiseisnotsodistantfromthespiritofprimitivism,
(Figure 7). But beyond direct references, all images, even which confrontedthe failure of civilisation and of Western
words,owesomethingtoGauguin. artwiththemodelof‘first’artsandsocieties. Oncantrace
Evenifitisdifficultlocallytoorganizeone’sstayaround acontinuumfromtheGreekGoldenAge,thebiblicalpara-
thefigureofthepainter,anactivemerchandizingofferssub- dise, the goodsavage ofRousseau, the primitivistTahitiof
stitutes. Tourist shops in Papeete are full of objects in the Gauguintothetourist’sdreamofthetropicalbeach.
image of Gauguin’s Tahitian paintings. An historian or an ‘Ethnictourism’,whichluresblaséorwearyWesterners
amateurofartcan,nodoubt,beshockedbythisconsumerist with a promise of rejuvenation in sources of original wis-
way-laying of the work of the painter. But from the point domandhappiness,inthepristineenvironmentofpreserved
of view of cultural geography,there is poetic justice in the nature,amongfirstpeopleswhohavesomuchtoteachus,is
matter. Gauguin was not so unlike the present-day tourist aspiritualheirtoprimitivism,itsworldview,disillusionsand
in that he had also come to Tahiti in search of the exotic hopes.ItisnotverydevelopedinTahiti,evenifanumberof
andthepicturesque,oftenrepresentedinhisworkthescenes touriststryTahitiandancesandshowasincereandbenevol-
ofthephotographsandpostcardsonsaleinthecurioshops entcuriosityforMaoriculture.Ethnictourismisobviously
360
notfreeofambiguities.Ithasbeentauntedwithinauthenti-
city, neo-colonialism,folklorizationofindigenouscultures,
and furthering of misapprehensions: these very reproaches
areaddressedtoprimitivismbythatcertainarthistorians.
AsseenfromTahiti
Primitivism,tourismandeventheworkofGauguinarecon-
cernsforWesterners.WhatdoTahitiansthinkofthepainter
andofhiswork?
AccordingtoTahitianwriterChantalSpitz, theyarenot
interestedinthepainter.Hiswork,whichinnowayconcerns
the present of the Tahitians and which has no relationship
with their past, leaves them indifferent, or causes a degree
of irritation. Gauguin ‘had no particular influence on our
people. He is only one among numerous Western voices
whorobbedus ofourexpression’30, she stated ata confer-
ence held in Papeete to commemoratethe centenary of the
deathofthepainter,stirringupacommotionamongcertain
Europeanacademics.
Gauguin was a colonialist and a European artist. As a
settler, Gauguinisnomoreresponsiblethananother.Asan
artistandproducerofdiscourse,hecannotbeexoneratedso
easily: his work plays a major role in the perpetuation of
Figure8. IooranaMaria(JevoussalueMarie), 1891–1892, NewYork,
misunderstandingsbetween the West and Tahitians, due to
MetropolitanMuseumofArt(HailMary).
the myths that they uphold. Reducing Tahiti to ‘the island
ofGauguin’divertsattentionfromtherealitiesandtheprob-
lems specific to Polynesia. However, Gauguin represented the tropical countries with much talent, but mostly de-
Eve andMary as Tahitians(Figure8); he celebratedMaori ceivingly.Mylongexperienceofcolonialmattersandof
myths; he placed Polynesian artefacts in his work and re- lifeenablesmetoadviseyou:youshouldseek,Miss, to
cognizedtheirartisticvalue.Hedeploredthat‘onedoesnot cultivatein yourcountryandin yoursocialsphere, the
seem to imagine in Europe that there has been either with friendships that your generous heart aspires to. There
theMaorisofNewZealand,orintheMarquesasaveryad- you will find the serious guarantees that you are un-
vancedartofdecoration’andthat‘theadministrationhasnot likelytomeetwithelsewhere.Thewiseproverb:’Marry
for an instant thoughtof creating a museum of all Oceanic in your city, if you can in your street, and if you can
artinTahiti,thoughitwouldhavebeeneasy’.31 in your house’ still applies exactly to social relations.
Are the ambiguities of primitivist art such that they Yours faithfully...” (Leudet de Lavallée, administrator
should relativize, even obscure, its celebration of the arts oftheMarquesas,9thJanuary1921,replytoMissMimi
of ‘first’ peoples? The administrator of the Marquesas Is- Baurens,Bordeaux).32
landsandthroughhim,thisyoungladyfromBordeauxwho TheadministratorwhogivesMimiBaurensthisbluntrefusal
is looking for pen-friends in the archipelago, gives us an clearly discerns in her request the influence of those ‘who
interestingcounterpoint. paintthetropicalcountries’.ThenaiveexpectationsofMimi
“I regret to inform you that there does not exist in the canamuse,inthesamewayastouristswhotrytounderstand
Marquesasanindividualofeithersexthatcouldcorres- Polynesiancultureintendaysmayamuse.Butletusappre-
pondwithyou.Publicinstructionhereisnotwidespread ciatetheattitudeofMimiandthetouristscomparedtothatof
and the inhabitants of the Marquesas are, from many theadministrator,whorefuses‘thatacorrespondenceshould
points of view, inferior to the Central African Negro, beestablished’,ortothatofthevisitorswhoconsumeonly
placed at the very bottom of the social scale; their im- thelagoonintheirbarricadedhotel.
morality is beyond imagination. Besides, in general, I Gauguin has placed, according to his terminology, ‘the
donotbelievethatitis ofanyinterestin establishinga civilizedandthebarbarianfacetoface’.33Beyondthenature
correspondenceona footingofequalitybetweenyoung and the unclear motivations of this confrontation, an en-
Frenchgirlsandtheindigenouspeopleofourcolonies: counter takes place and is transmitted. Of course, it is not
thefirsthavenothingtogain,quitethereverse,fromsuch Tahiti that one sees in his canvases, but it is nevertheless
a contact, and the others, whose dominant fault is the a Tahiti, his own. The debates that are still fired by the
lackofmeasure,immediatelylosethesenseofhierarchy, painter and his work today provide an opportunity to deal
orevenpropriety.Myguessisthatyouhavebeenabused withthehistoryofTahitiandalsotherelationshipsbetween
by romantic poets, Loti perhaps, who sometimes paint the European and Tahitian communities. In this more pos-
361
The paréos are very popular with tourists. Quite natur-
ally,shopkeepersoffermagnificentexamplesprintedinfine
colours with motives of the Tahitian canvases of Gauguin.
A parallel may be drawn between the fabric of the paréo
andGauguin’scanvases: beyondthe decorativeexuberance
of their colours, both belong as undeniably to the West as
to Tahiti, they are loaded with erotic and exotic connota-
tions, arelinkedtoTahitianidentityandsoconstituteacall
productfortouroperatorsaswellasasouvenirfortourists.
On this basis both can claim a status of Oceanic icon of
postmodernityandofprimitivism.
It does not follow from there that the painter is a post-
modernheroopeningthepathofmulticulturaldialogue.For
the artists working in Tahiti nowadays, Gauguin is both a
referenceandananti-model.
The work of Dettloff, a German-born artist who works
in Tahiti, illustrates a form of primitivism that claims its
own artificial nature, by mixing and obscuring references.
He borrows from hypothetical Polynesian arts, ostensibly
approached via their Western, even colonial, interpretation
(etchingsofthe19thcentury,fantasiesofdecoratedskulls).
He refers them to a junk imaginary (stereotyped tourist
products,iconsofthesub-cultureoftheWesternconsump-
tion society: Coca-Cola, Disney, MacDonald). He draws
Maori tattoos on a Barbie doll (Miss Marquises, 1993),
Figure9. AndreasDettloff,Plancheethnographiquen◦2,1997. transforms tikis into Manneken Piss (Männeken Piss in
Tahiti, 1992; Le Déluge, 1992)and statues fromthe Easter
Island into Mickey Mouse (Sacred Site of Easter Island,
itive perspective, at odds with the views of Chantal Spitz,
1994),engravesPolynesianmotivesontyres(TracesofCul-
Flora Devatine, another Tahitian writer, sees Gauguin as a
ture,1998)anddisguisestheGermanflagasaparéo(Here-
placefromwhichtospeakanddiscuss.34
mania, 2001). HisPlanchesethnographiquesare presented
InGauguinStreetinPapeete,theboutiqueGauguinTissu
as19thcenturyillustrations,buttheMarquisianclubswear
presents its wares (fabrics) on a sign: paréo, tapa, batiks,
MickeyMouseears(Figure9).
provençal.Thereisaquiteprimitivistlogicinputtingonthe
Gauguin’sapproachis subvertedby theexposureofthe
samelevelTahitiancottons,beatenmulberrybarkthatistyp-
contradictionsofprimitivismandexoticism.Theextremely
icalofPolynesiantraditionalcraft,Indonesianweavingand
postmodernhybridizationandironyoftheseworksfunctions
printsfromthe SouthofFrance: these arethe geographical
lessasacriticismoftheprimitivismofGauguinthanasan
horizons where Gauguin picked his travel destinations and
outcome,acceptingandrejoicinginitscontradictions.These
his primitive resources. The ambiguousstatus of the paréo
works present a postcolonial Tahiti (and a West) that have
callsforafewdetails.
fully come to terms with their history and account for the
Theparéo,unlikethetapa,isnotTahitian:thesecotton
geographyofaworldnolongerhierarchicalandfragmented,
fabrics, printed in Manchester, are an import linked to the
butwheredifferentculturescoexist,areabletogazeateach
BritishpresenceinTahitiduringthefirsthalfofthe19thcen-
otherandtherebytodestabilize–thatis,toenrichandtoput
tury.However,theparéohasbecometheofficialcostumeof
into perspective – their respective values. Is that not what
theislanders,andevenasymbolofTahitianidentity,atleast
Gauguinwashopingfor–aswellasMimi?
forthetourists. Gauguin, wholikedhismodelstowearthe
paréo, did not realize the hybridityof the garment. Which
is not to say that the paréo is inauthentic: it shows how Conclusion
the British textile industry adapted to Tahitian motives and
to the local demand, but also how the Tahitians claim and This paper aimed to show how primitivism casts light on
spread their culture in a context shifting from pre-colonial the relationship of the West with the Other and Elsewhere.
tocolonialandfromcolonialtopostcolonial.Thetaste and Because this artistic movement illustrates and expresses a
theversatilityofthePolynesiansmeanstheiradoptionofthe vision of the world very influential in Western culture and
paréocannotbereducedtoaprocessofacculturation:they behaviour, it is of interest to cultural geography. The dis-
should not again be denied the role of actors in their own placement or the decentering operated by primitivism, so
history.Today,theparéoscomefromEasternAsia,butthey clearlyexemplifiedbyGauguin’sworkanditinerary,draws
arealsomadebyTahitianfirmswithmotivescreatedbylocal attentiontotheirobviousgeographicalimplications.Butone
artists. canreasonablyassumethatthisdimensionisalsopresent,in
alessobviousandmorecomplexway,inothermovements:
362
Figure10. SurrealistmapoftheWorld,Varie´te´,juin1929,hors-se´rie.
romanticism, naturalism, orientalism, impressionism, cu- ispreciselybecauseinTahiti, GauguindidnotpaintTahiti,
bism,surrealism(Figure10),etc. that his work and his itinerary constitute a precious source
The history of art overlaps a history of representations forthe(cultural)geographyoftheWest.
oftheworld.Historianshaveabundantlyexploitedthisper- ShouldTahitiansthereforenotbeinterestedinGauguin?
spective, but geographers have not done it systematically. Hecannotteachthemanythingabouttheirpre-colonialpast,
Views of the world that the artists of the past expressed but his work and life cast light on the changes undergone
are not out of date: many of them have left traces in our by Polynesia in the past two centuries, from colonization
geographical imagination, that they helped to structure. A to the developmentof tourism. Primitivism has its place in
cultural geography of the West, articulated to the artistic the genealogy of relationships between the West and the
currents that influenced, or even determined it, remains to Other: it allows one to grasp the geography by which the
bewritten.Thisarticulationmayvary.Forexamplenatural- West has constructed itself in reference and opposition to
ist painting, because of its realist ambition, tells us about ‘Elsewheres’.Conversely,primitivismaccountsforthegeo-
the world as the painter believes it to be: impressionism graphyofthese‘Elsewheres’,inthattheyweretransformed,
translatestheworldasthepaintersthinktheyperceiveit. andevenproduced,bytheWest.
Givinguponthe‘fatalityofthereal’35 specifictomod-
ern art and of which Gauguin was the initiator, leads the
artists to paint not what they see, ‘aroundthe eye’, but the Notes
‘mysterious centre of thought’36, in Gauguin’s terms. This
doesn’t imply their work is no longer interesting for geo- 1IntheEnglishandFrenchspeakingworlds:Wallach,1997;
graphy,solongasoneacceptsthatthedisciplineisasocial Piveteau,1989.
science, and that therefore, its object is not the world as 2Among French geographers who have recently shown an
it is but the world as it is lived, perceived, practiced and interest in painting: Frémont, 1999; Fumey, 2003; Grison,
finally produced by human beings and by societies. Art is 2002; Knafou, 2000; Knafou and Staszak, 2004; Staszak,
relevantto(cultural)geographyallthemoreifitdepictsin- 2003.InEnglish,thereferenceisofcourseD.Cosgrove.
teriorworlds.Gauguindesired,inhisownwords,‘acorner 3French literature has been explored by French speak-
ofhimselfstillunknown’37; hewenttoseekitintheSouth ing geographers. Their works deal with specific authors:
Seas.HisprimitivecanvasestelluslittleaboutPolynesiain Chamoiseau,Giono,Gracq,Hesse, Pagnol,Proust,Ramuz,
1891–1903,alotaboutGauguin’sworldviewandaboutthat Rousseau, Vallès, Verne, etc. are the topic of many pa-
ofWesternersfromthelate19thcenturytothepresentday.It pers (often in the journal Géographie et cultures). A few