I’ve done  a couple of bodypaintings using the colorful lines on the body in Andre Derain’s painting “The Dance”. In the painting those lines seem as much bodyart as clothing. Derain is another early modern artist that looked to primitive art for inspiration, and I am engaged in returning that inspiration to the primitive act of bodypainting. These lines echo the lines found on ancient female figurines. The one here is from Europe, around 4,000 BC. There are similar examples from many ancient times and sites of stylized female figurines, sometimes called Venus Figures, though that name is falling away it seems because it carries too much implied meaning.

From a bodypainter’s perspective, these lines look like bodypainting – no surprise. At the exhibit that included this figure, the text accompanying such an example stated that the incised patterns on figurines may be “stylized representations of tattoos, body ornament, pieces of clothing or accessories”, and offered also the alternate idea that the lines represent funeral shrouds wrapped around the deceased.

The exhibit also included many examples of anthropomorphic pottery, most of which had painted or incised markings covering the whole form. Mostly symmetrical patterns.

The only note in the exhibit text about this was the suggestion that they may be depicting someone “wearing brightly colored clothing”. For me, this all looks like bodyart. But, Europe would probably have been cold enough that clothing textures make more sense.

One figurine seemed to add something to this question of painted bodies or painted clothing because it appeared to depict both bodyart and ornaments of clothing. The depictions of nipples and pubis indicating this stripping is on the skin, and she is wearing a belt and sash over it. But I always see bodyart. It’s what I look for.

This exhibit also had the treat of several examples of “pintaderas” – small clay stamps used for making repeatable designs on all sorts of things: textiles, ceramics and presumably the skin. The stamps themselves were also works of art, as one almost always finds in all the truly ancient objects. We surrounded ourselves with art back then. My favorite pintadera was for a spiral.

I saw the exhibit in Manhattan, it’s now on tour.  http://www.nyu.edu/isaw/exhibitions/oldeurope/