I love primitive artwork. As a matter of fact, I’m kind of obsessed with it. Of course, it is a connection with the past, and while looking at it I can almost travel back in time and be reminded how it felt to live in the animal past.
I read a couple of articles this week about how new carbon-dating has shown Germany’s “Lion Man” to be among the oldest known pieces of figurative art. I am used to hearing about the ancient “Venus” fertility sculptures, which are also beautiful and very old, and was told they were the oldest known carvings. But I guess there were human / lion hybrid being carved at the same time as the oldest Venus.
I am fascinated by the anthropomorphic hybrid. Always have been. These imaginative representations have appeared in the most ancient artwork of every civilization. The Lion Man reminds me that these hybrid images and sculptures have inspired human beings for tens-of-thousands of years. Long before any known civilization. I don’t know why that fascinates and inspires me so much, but it really does!
news.sudanvisiondaily.com | Lion Man
online.wsj.com | Powerful Images from a Primitive Age
