http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/movement_works_Primitivism_0.html

“Primitivism” is less an aesthetic movement than a sensibility or cultural attitude that has
informed diverse aspects of Modern art. It refers to Modern art that alludes to specific
stylistic elements of tribal objects and other non-Western art forms. With roots in
late-19th-century Romanticism’s fascination with foreign civilizations and distant lands,
particularly with what were considered to be naive, less-developed cultures, it also
designates the “primitive” as a myth of paradise lost for late-19th- and 20th-century
culture. Behind this captivation with the “other” was a belief in the intrinsic goodness of
all humankind, a conviction inspired by French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s notion
of the Noble Savage. At the same time, however, industrialized Western culture evoked the
“primitive” as a sign on which to map what it had socially and psychologically repressed:
desire and sexual abandon. The problematic nature of “primitivism” can be illustrated by
the example of Paul Gauguin, who spurned his own culture to join that of an
“uncivilized” yet more “ingenuous” people. Although he sought spiritual inspiration in
Tahiti, he showed a more earthy preoccupation with Tahitian women, often depicting them nude.
This eroticization of the “primitive” was amplified in the work of the German
Expressionist group Die Brücke and in Pablo Picasso’s proto-Cubist paintings, particularly
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907).

The influence of tribal fetishes on Modern painters and sculptors, such as ,Constantin Brancusi, Alberto Giacometti, Henri Matisse, and Picasso, has been the subject of much art-historical
and critical debate. While the formal impact of ritual objects on these artists is
undeniable, recent attempts to locate affinities between the “primitive” and the Modern have
been perceived as suspect because they evince a certain ethnocentrism. Moreover, the usage
of the word “primitive” to describe cultures and creations outside of the European tradition
can be seen to be degrading. For this reason, “primitivism” and “primitive” appear within
quotation marks in this book.