May 15, 1996 Contact: Jennifer McNulty (408) 459-2495; mcnulty@ua.ucsc.edu

ANTHROPOLOGIST SHELLY ERRINGTON DISCUSSES PRIMITIVE ART DURING FREE PUBLIC LECTURE ON MAY 29

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SANTA CRUZ, CA--The public is invited to a free lecture on Wednesday, May 29, by UC Santa Cruz anthropologist Shelly Errington, who will discuss the rise and fall of "authentic primitive art" and some current transformations of related ideas and artifacts. Her talk, entitled "The Death of Authentic Primitive Art . . . and Other Tales of Progress," will begin at 8 p.m. in the Performing Arts Concert Hall at UCSC.

"Primitive art," defined as the arts made by the peoples of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, was "discovered" as art at the turn of the twentieth century by Cubists, says Errington, and gained acceptance throughout the century. It reached its peak of public acceptance and monetary value when five major exhibitions showcased it in 1984.

In the last ten years, however, "authentic primitive art" has "died"--in two senses, claims Errington. From a market perspective, it is dead but more valuable than ever simply because the authentic pieces are not being made anymore--because the international object market and nationalist regimes of "modernization" have changed both its accessibility and the conditions of its production.

In a second and opposite sense, it is dead conceptually because there has been a tremendous attack in postmodern intellectual circles on the very ideas of "authenticity" and the "primitive" and even on "art." Errington will explore these two "deaths" in her talk, pointing out that they are related to each other and to the global market and conceptual conditions that produced them both. She will also discuss new narratives and new objects that flow into the conceptual and market spaces left by the gap produced by the death of authentic primitive art.

Errington's talk is presented as part of a series of inaugural lectures offered by UCSC faculty. Errington is a specialist on Indonesia and on visual representation.

This release is also available on the World Wide Web at UCSC's "Services for Journalists" site (http://www.ucsc.edu/news/journalist.html).

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