Matthew Gale, "Artistry, Authenticity and the Work of James
Dixon andAlfred Wallis" in Two Painters: Works by Alfred Wallis and
James Dixon,exhibition catalogue (1999)
James DixonPortrait of Wallace Clarke, n.d.oil on paper
... The encounters between artists and primitives resulted in an
unlearning ofconventions by the trained in the face of these
personal views of reality,independently expressed. In essence, this
reflected the prevailing concerns andcurrents of industrialized
society, which ensured that authenticity was valuedover artistry.
The apparent simplicity of this value system belies the
complexity
of the relationship born of encounters between professional
artists and suchpainters as Alfred Wallis and James Dixon. Aspects
of these relationshipsbetween the participants will be examined
here. So seductive was the call ofthe simple life that a number of
artists sought to become primitive themselves.The example of Paul
Gauguin is often cited, although his primitivizing art
isrecognizably based on a whole swath of learned sources. In the
twentiethcentury there were also artists within the mainstream of
Modernism such asMarc Chagall whose work was at various times
considered primitive.Christopher Wood is another of these, as his
painting is often described asNave. This exposes the inadequacy of
the terms, as he (who trained briefly asan architect and was
encouraged to study art in Paris by Augustus John and
Alphonse Kahn) and Wallis (the retired rag-and-bone dealer from
St. Ives)clearly enjoyed different circumstances. It is telling how
the badge of untrained
8/6/2019 Matthew Gale
2/2
artist was proudly worn by professionals, reflecting the view of
art education asa crushing weight. It was in these circumstances
that the search for authenticitywas undertaken.... The promotion of
Rousseaus work by avant-garde artistsbefore and after his death in
1910 is echoed in comparable situations acrossthe Western world.[1]
Thus, when Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood
discovered Wallis in 1928, and Derek Hill discovered Dixon
around 1960, allwere participating in a well-established pattern.
Its repetition across the yearsexposes these discoveries as, in
effect, meaning introduced into the system.The Modernists brought
the primitives to a wider public by establishing theclimate for the
acceptance of such work. Whether or not they stood to
gainmaterially, the Modernists established their association with
this rawcreativity. [1] See Kenneth Coutts-Smith, "Some General
Observations on theProblem of Cultural Colonialism," (1976; reprint
London and New York:Routledge, 1991).
Excerpt source: MatthewGale, "Artistry, Authenticity and the
Work of James
Dixon and Alfred Wallis" in Two Painters: Works by Alfred Wallis
and JamesDixon, exhibition catalogue (London: Merrell Holberton
Publishers Limited inassociation with Irish Museum of Modern Art
and Tate Gallery St. Ives, 1999)16-17.
