Before man did a lot of other things, he did art. Primitive art was tied intimately to food gathering, medicinal, spiritual, and enjoyment needs. Because it was a part of his life in such a direct way, it communicated in this same way. It had a degree of feeling that is often missing in works today. Of course, art for big money and investment would be something the early man-artist would not understand.

"Primitive art is a practical instrument for the important business of daily life; it gives body to super-human powers so that they may become partners in concrete undertakings. It replaces real objects, animals, or humans, and thus takes over their jobs of rendering all kinds of services. It records and transmits information. It makes it possible to exercise `magic influences' on creatures and things that are absent." (32)
Rudolf Arnheim
 

THE GENERAL VERSUS THE SPECIFIC - certain visual views give more information about a subject than others, or are more characteristic of that subject. Primitive art concentrates on characteristic shapes.
 

"Fig leaves, whatever fantastic shapes they assume, are always unmistakably fig leaves. I have made the same observation about other growing things: fruit, vegetables, etc. Thus there is an inherent truth which must be disengaged from the outward appearance of the object to be represented. This is the only
truth that matters." (33)
Matisse
 

"We neglect the human privilege of understanding individual events and objects as reflections of the meaning of life. When we break bread or wash our hands, we are only concerned with nutrition and hygiene. Our waking life is no longer symbolic. This philosophical and religious decline produces an opacity of the world of experience that is fatal to art because art relies on the world of experience as the carrier of ideas." (34)
Rudolf Arnheim

"THE SIMPLEST MEANS ARE THOSE WHICH ENABLE AN ARTIST TO EXPRESS HIMSELF BEST. If he fears the obvious he cannot avoid it by strange representations, bizarre drawing, eccentric colour. His expression must derive inevitably from his temperament. He must sincerely believe that he has painted only what he has seen... those who work in an affected style, deliberately turning their backs on nature, are in error - an artist must recognize that when he uses his reason, his picture is an artifice and that when he paints, he must feel that he is copying nature - and even when he consciously departs from nature, he must do it with the conviction that it is only the better to interpret her." (35) Matisse

31. Quote by Franz Marc, Herschel B. Chipp, Theories of Modern Art, (Berkeley and L.A., Cal., U. of California Press,1968), p.181
32. Rudolf Arnheim, Art and Visual Perception, A Psychology of the Creative Eye, The New Version, Berkeley and L.A., Cal., U. of California Press, 1974), p.146
33. Herschel B. Chipp, Theories of Modern Art, (Berkeley and L.A. Cal., U. of California Press, 1968), p.137
34.Rudolf Arnheim, Toward A Psychology of Art, (Berkeley, and L.A. Cal., U. of California Press, 1966),p. 12

35. Herschel B. Chipp, Theories of Modern Art, (Berkeley and L.A., Cal., U. of California Press, 1968), p.136