The indigenous “Egypticism” of Samuel Ramos
Keywords:
Mesoamerican art, artistic will, desire for abstraction, XochipilliAbstract
El “egipticismo” indígena is the title of a polemical text written by Samuel Ramos, with which he culminated the first part of his philosophical thesis concerning ‘the Mexican’, in his book, El perfil del hombre y la cultura en México. There, Ramos states that the rigidity and passivity of the “indigenous”, as revealed in their art, remind him of the Egyptian spirit. His conclusions are based on the idea that art is a trace left by human subjectivity, by mankind’s way of being or state of mind, thus concurring with the aesthetic theory of “artistic will” (Kunstwollen), the principal thesis of the allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft of Wilhelm Worringer and Aloïs Riegl. This article expounds some interpretations of monumental Mesoamerican art, including Worringer’s theory of the “desire for abstraction”, that ultimately differs from Ramos’ perspective.
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