What is so primitive about primitive art? And how do we dare to use our
standards to judge it? Drawing on an intriguing mixture of
sources-including fashion ads and films, her own anthropological
research, and even comic strips like Doonesbury--Price explores the
cultural arrogance implicit in Westerners' appropriation of non-Western
art.
[Price] presents a literary collage of the Western attitude to other
cultures, and in particular to the visual art of the Third and Fourth
Worlds. . . . Her book is not about works of 'primitive art' as such,
but about the Western construction 'Primitive Art.' It is a critique of
Western ignorance and arrogance: ignorance about other cultures and
arrogance towards them.--Jeremy Coote, Times Literary Supplement
The book is infuriating, entertaining, and inspirational, leaving one
feeling less able than before to pass judgment on 'known' genres of art,
but feeling more confident for that.--Joel Smith, San Francisco Review
of Books
[A] witty, but scholarly, indictment of the whole primitive-art
business, from cargo to curator. And because she employs sarcasm as well
as pedagogy, Price's book will probably forever deprive the reader of
the warm fuzzies he usually gets standing before the display cases at
the local ethnographic museum.--Newsweek
