Australia Aboriginal Paintings - Arnhem Land [antikvár]

The great interest of the paintings published in this volume lies in the fact that they possibly provide a clue to the significance of several types of art the origins of which are lost in pre-history. It will be seen, however, that I have immediately begged the question by using the word « art », and a less ambiguous phrase, such as « pictorial communication», would no doubt be more scientific. But these Australian drawings, like their prehistoric prototypes, deserve the name of art for at least two reasons. Mr. Charles P. Jlountford, who knows the originals intimately, himself points out that they exhibit tire elements of design that are basic to all types of art — that is to say, the drawings are « composed ». It is for the psychologist to determine whether this fact amounts to more than the projection of the perceptual Geslalt; but all composition in art, in so far as it is spontaneous, is determined in the act of perception. An « intuitive sense of form », a « feeling for harmony» — these are merely alternative phrases for a process of apperception that is essentially automatic.