The University of Maryland hosted Dr. Jack Flam, a distinguished Brooklyn College professor of art and art history last month as he delivered the keynote address that began a two-day symposium at the Phillips Collection Auditorium about the representation of African objects in photography in the early 20th century.

The symposium, titled, “African Art, Modernist Photography, and the Politics of Representation,” was a collaborative effort between the Phillips Collection, the David C. Driskell Center and the university’s Department of Art History and Archaeology. It was held in conjunction with the Phillips Collection’s exhibit, “Man Ray, African art and the Modernist Lens.”

The symposium featured commentary by art scholars and historians from all over the world, including Maryland art history professors Renée Ater and Steven Mansbach. The speakers discussed the role photography played in influencing international understanding of African objects as art and the concept of primitivism in modern Western art.

“Primitivism is against a whole series of ills of civilization – religious and social constraints, materialism and conceptual and perceptual norms,” Flam said. “A good deal of modernist art is marked by this way of thought. African art objects were deemed primitive because they appeared to have no narrative content and were direct and simple – artists could impose meaning on them.”

Many modern artists were influenced by primitive cultures, including Pablo Picasso and David C. Driskell, a renowned painter, art collector and expert on African American art, “Western artists found a truth in primitive objects that inspired them to create works that are now considered modern art,” Childs said. “The interest in primitivism started a real revolution in visual arts to abstraction, which completely transformed art in the 20th century.”

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