"This is a much needed, important collection-a goldmine of sources for scholars and students. The texts articulate the key Primitivist aesthetic discourses of the period, offering crucial insight into the complex and always changing nexus between culture, politics, and representation. Because of the breadth of the materials covered and the controversies they raise, this anthology is one of the all too rare volumes that not only will provide reference materials for years to come but also will feature centrally in classroom discussions."--Suzanne Preston Blier, author of African Vodun: Art, Psychology, and Power "For almost a century art historians have fretted about the notion of primitivism in the arts. This comprehensive-in both senses of the word-anthology is a peerless source of the history of responses to works categorized as 'primitive.' In its range, the book touches upon all the troubling questions-formal, anthropological, political, historical-that have bedeviled the study of the arts of Oceania, Africa, and North and South America, and provides the grounds, at last, for intelligent pursuit of keener distinctions. I regard this book as a superb contribution to the study of Modern art; in fact, indispensable."--Dore Ashton, author of Noguchi East and West "An extraordinarily useful and complete collection of primary documents, many translated for the first time into English, and almost all unlikely to be encountered elsewhere without serious effort. Its five sections, each with a lively and scholarly introduction, reveal the diverse views of artists and writers on primitive art from Matisse, Picasso, and Fry to many far less known and sometimes surprising figures. The book also uncovers the politics and aesthetics of the major museum exhibitions that gained acceptance for art that had been both reviled and mythologized. Recent texts included are all germane. This book will be invaluable for any college course on the topic."--Shelly Errington, author of The Death of Authentic Primitive Art and Other Tales of Progress "An exceptionally valuable anthology of seventy documents--most heretofore unavailable in English--on the ongoing controversies surrounding Primitivism and Modern art. Insightfully chosen and annotated, the collection is brilliantly introduced by Jack Flam's essay on the historical progression, contexts, and cultural complexities of more than one hundred years' ideas about Primitivism. Rich, timely, illuminating."--Herbert M. Cole, author of Icons: Ideals and Power in the Art of Africa

Utilizing works from museums across North America, Lipchitz and the Avant-Garde traces the path of the pioneering sculptor Jacques Lipchitz from his birthplace in Lithuania to his early work in Paris before World War I, where he was associated with the Parisian avant-garde and applied cubist principles to three-dimensional artwork. By breaking the volume and using different planes, Lipchitz created works that were a new force in the history of sculpture. His innovation of the transparents style in sculpture during the late 1920s was groundbreaking and was copied by many, including Picasso. At the outbreak of World War II the Jewish artist fled to New York, where he worked on increasingly monumental sculptures until his death in 1973.This substantive catalog contains new essays by internationally renowned scholars and translated articles by contemporaries Ramón Gómez de la Serna and Joaquin Torres-García that have not appeared in English before. Contributors include Jonathan Fineberg, Christopher Green, Jordana Mendelson, David O'Brien, Cathy Pütz, and Cecilia de Torres.

A young Highland boy discovers he has the gift of Second Sight.