A Small Note on Primitive Art and Civilisation

ART started with man’s desire to improve and improvise. It is the inherent desire of the primitive mind to explore which gave birth to science, and of the same mind to make things better that gave birth to art. When we talk about primitive art, we also have to take into account the advent of civilisation. The most significant works of art that stood the test of time and stayed with us since the advent of civilisation are the stone works and pottery. When the primitive women made the beautiful pots (all emerged out of necessity, i.e. why someone would need them? To store water), using the rotating wheel, the selection of sticky clay, and fire to heat them up to a certain degree so they become hard, they were using the knowledge of science to make them. When the pots and jars were made, they were taken to the market for the purpose of bartering them against food or other articles or for selling. Pure business. Then the potters were told to design better styled pots with designs on them. Thus art played its role. Art came to the scene not only for art’s sake but also to improve business, which is seen even today with manufacturers needing designers to artists to advertising agencies to sell their products. In the primitive age, they worked hand in hand.

For understanding art, we start with the advent of civilisation itself. Art is one of the strongest modes of communication till today. And art has remained as the barometer of comparing and justifying cultures and civilisations. Archaeological finds and excavations tell us of the story of civilisations and how art, sculptures, pottery and architecture solve the jigsaw puzzle of the lost civilisations and also tell us how historically important they are. “Though archaeology shows excellent pottery made on the fast wheel as long as five thousand years ago in the Indus region, prehistoric archaeology in the Deccan also shows cruder pottery made without the wheel. Such pots of all sizes are being made today, by exactly the same methods, on the slow turning disc or without any disc at all. The remarkable feature is that this potter’s disc is to be handled only by the women.” (D. D. Kosambi: The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in Historical Outline: P. 45)

More interestingly, you will see that the history of applied art goes hand in hand with the history of fine art. Today though these have become two separate disciplines of art, it helps us to know a little bit of the other.