Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1916 (Heft 48))

“29i” EXHIBITIONS: 1914-1916

NEGRO ART
THE tenth season of “291” began with an exhibition of statuary in wood
by African Savages. This was the first time in the history of exhibi-
tions, either in this country or elsewhere, that Negro statuary was shown
solely from the point of view of art. The exhibition opened on November
third and lasted until December eighth. We herewith quote Marius De
Zayas on “Modern Art in connection with Negro Art”:
Modern art is not individualistic and esoteric and even less an expression of spontaneous
generation. It shows itself more and more frankly an art of discoveries.
Modern art is not based on direct plastic phenomena, but on epiphenomena, on trans-
positions and on existing evolutions.
In its plastic researches modern art discovered Negro Art.
Picasso was its discoverer.
He introduced into European art, through his own work, the plastic principles of negro
art—the point of departure for our abstract representation.
Negro art has had thus a direct influence on our comprehension of form, teaching us to
see and feel its purely expressive side and opening our eyes to a new world of plastic sensations.
Negro art has re-awakened in us a sensibility obliterated by an education, which makes
us always connect what we see with what we know—our visualization with our knowledge, and
makes us, in regard to form, use our intellect more than our senses.
If through European art we have acquired the comprehension of form, from the natural-
istic point of view, arriving at mechanical representation, Negro art has made us discover the
possibility of giving plastic expression to the sensation produced by the outer life, and conse-
quently, also, the possibility of finding new forms to express our inner life.
Negro art, product of the “Land of Fright,” created by a mentality full of fear, and com-
pletely devoid of the faculties of observation and analysis, is the pure expression of the emotions
of a slave race—victims of nature—who see the outer world only under its most intensely
expressive aspect and not under its natural one.
The introduction of the plastic principles of African art into our European art does not
constitute a retrogradation or a decadence, for through them we have realized the possibility
of expressing ourselves plastically without the recurrence of direct imitation or fanciful sym-
bolism.
RECENT DRAWINGS AND PAINTINGS BY PICASSO AND BY BRAQUE
From December ninth, 1914, to January eleventh, 1915, there was shown
in the little room examples of the most recent work of Picasso, and of Braque,
for some time the working companion of Picasso. For the past few years these
two men collaborated in new researches. De Zayas says: “Braque has often
been accused of simply being the faithful copyist of Picasso. But while it is
true that he has followed Picasso’s method of painting it is also true that he has
paid his debt by bringing to Picasso contributions of a very personal nature.”
The Braques and Picassos shown were from the private collection of
Francis Picabia. There were paintings in oil and drawings in charcoal.
ARCHAIC MEXICAN POTTERY AND CARVINGS-KALOGRAMAS
Simultaneously with the Picasso-Braque Exhibition there were shown in
the inner room of “291” a collection of Archaic Mexican pottery and carv-
ings in stone. The exhibit consisted of selected pieces from the collection of
Mr. Paul B. Haviland.
Simultaneously too there were shown Kalogramas by Torres Palomar, of
Mexico, who in his field stands in a class by himself, both in invention and as
an artist.