The term primitivism was first defined by the Websters Dictionary 1934 as a "belief" in the superioty of primitive life which, implies a " return to nature!" Primitive refers to someone or something less complex or less advanced than the preson or thing that it is being compared with. The primitive can be seen as simple and naive, as in childlike.
To look at Gauguin's influence of primitivism on modern art, it is important to understand that his focus was not to understand the primitive but more about his needs to reject western civilization. With the spread of industrialisation and with this materialism, Gauguin became very restless with urban life in Paris. It is his great need to escape and his search for happiness that attracts him to a more simple lifestyle. Part of his attraction c
Gauguin was also influenced by Bernard. The two artists spent a month painting together and Bernard introduced him to the ideas of painting more like children, "Naive Art." This concept must have helped cement in Gauguin's mind for the need to live as a "sauvage," ",a peasent" as he could return to childhood. A life of pleasure, love and joy.
Gauguin decided to live in Brittany, still in France, an artist colony where he could live as a peasant. In Brittany the landowners wore traditional clothes and grew agriculture for their food. Some of this display of traditional living was to attract tourism. Gauguin uses the traditional costume in many of his paintings, Especially the head dress of the woman, (e.g. " Jacob wrestling with the Angel.") The influence of primitivism is evident in his w
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