From Exoticism to Primitivism: Unwinding the Arabesque

Dr. Frances Connelly, Professor of Art History, University of Missouri-Kansas City

The impact of non-Western art traditions, especially those of Japan, gave artists like Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Redon the visual means to explore the expressive power of ornament and the arabesque. Both of these visual elements were closely associated at this time withprimitive and exotic image traditions. This lecture explores the significant experimentation among artists and intellectuals who wanted to free the image from formulaic academic narratives, merging ornament with argument to create more image-based ways of making meaning.