DOI article:
Marius De Zayas, The Evolution of Form—Introduction [with an introduction by the editors]
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31248#0070
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In the study of the evolution of Form, expressed by the various civiliza-
tions that have succeeded one another since the origin of man, we also find
that the development of Form has been originated by a very small number of
fundamental ideas. We have found out in our comparative study of the artis-
tic representation of Form by man, from the most primitive races to the
most highly civilized ones, that the fundamental ideas of their production are
three in number: the Imaginative, the Fantastic, and the Realistic, each of
the three pertaining, respectively, to the three anthropological groups of the
evolution of man: the Black, the Yellow and the White. In each one of these
three groups it is well and clearly manifested that to the same belief corre-
sponds the same conception of Form, that to the same anthropological state
corresponds the same conception of Form, which evolves by stages in groups
with the anthropological evolution of man.
In its latest manifestations Art is going back to the primitive races in
search of new forms. A most complex intellectual procedure has been em-
ployed to understand the process of the primitive races in their representation
of Form, in order to employ that form—made without premeditation—with
a complete knowledge of its nature and a definite understanding of its purpose.
Being in possession of all the elements of Anthropology, Ethnology,
Psychology, and Art, represented in the production of Form by all the peoples
of the World, we are, at last, in a position to clear up the, until now, com-
plex problem of the evolution of Form, if not of Art, in all its manifestations.
In proceeding to the solution of this problem we shall now have a complete
understanding of the fundamental principle of the plastic arts. It is Form,
which in fact is the fundamental principle of Art, if we take as axiomatic the
conclusion of Herbert Spencer that “the thing which, being abolished, carries
everything else with it, must be the fundamental thing/’*
Form being the fundamental principle of Art, it is through Form that
man has represented his beliefs. In the primitive man this representation
is entirely inductive and evolves toward being deductive by slow degrees, cor-
responding to the advancing degrees of the anthropological evolution. Form,
from being in its beginning imaginative and geometrical, became fantastic and
symbolical (symbolical in the sense of telling a story) and finally became
realistic, the highest expression of the deductive process. Each one of these
three great groups is composed of smaller, gradually evolving groups, between
which there is no solution of continuity, no abrupt transition, as there is no
abrupt transition between the three great anthropological groups. Long
periods of time have been necessary for the evolution from one state to the
other; since the whole evolution of all the components of civilization was
necessary to generate the evolution of Form.
“Ideas can have no real action on the soul of people until, as the conse-
quence of a very slow elaboration, they have descended from the mobile
regions of thought to that stable and unconscious region of the sentiments in
which the motives of our actions are elaborated. They then become elements
* Herbert Spencer. “Principles of Psychology.”
46
tions that have succeeded one another since the origin of man, we also find
that the development of Form has been originated by a very small number of
fundamental ideas. We have found out in our comparative study of the artis-
tic representation of Form by man, from the most primitive races to the
most highly civilized ones, that the fundamental ideas of their production are
three in number: the Imaginative, the Fantastic, and the Realistic, each of
the three pertaining, respectively, to the three anthropological groups of the
evolution of man: the Black, the Yellow and the White. In each one of these
three groups it is well and clearly manifested that to the same belief corre-
sponds the same conception of Form, that to the same anthropological state
corresponds the same conception of Form, which evolves by stages in groups
with the anthropological evolution of man.
In its latest manifestations Art is going back to the primitive races in
search of new forms. A most complex intellectual procedure has been em-
ployed to understand the process of the primitive races in their representation
of Form, in order to employ that form—made without premeditation—with
a complete knowledge of its nature and a definite understanding of its purpose.
Being in possession of all the elements of Anthropology, Ethnology,
Psychology, and Art, represented in the production of Form by all the peoples
of the World, we are, at last, in a position to clear up the, until now, com-
plex problem of the evolution of Form, if not of Art, in all its manifestations.
In proceeding to the solution of this problem we shall now have a complete
understanding of the fundamental principle of the plastic arts. It is Form,
which in fact is the fundamental principle of Art, if we take as axiomatic the
conclusion of Herbert Spencer that “the thing which, being abolished, carries
everything else with it, must be the fundamental thing/’*
Form being the fundamental principle of Art, it is through Form that
man has represented his beliefs. In the primitive man this representation
is entirely inductive and evolves toward being deductive by slow degrees, cor-
responding to the advancing degrees of the anthropological evolution. Form,
from being in its beginning imaginative and geometrical, became fantastic and
symbolical (symbolical in the sense of telling a story) and finally became
realistic, the highest expression of the deductive process. Each one of these
three great groups is composed of smaller, gradually evolving groups, between
which there is no solution of continuity, no abrupt transition, as there is no
abrupt transition between the three great anthropological groups. Long
periods of time have been necessary for the evolution from one state to the
other; since the whole evolution of all the components of civilization was
necessary to generate the evolution of Form.
“Ideas can have no real action on the soul of people until, as the conse-
quence of a very slow elaboration, they have descended from the mobile
regions of thought to that stable and unconscious region of the sentiments in
which the motives of our actions are elaborated. They then become elements
* Herbert Spencer. “Principles of Psychology.”
46
