Leroi-Gourhan and the Evolution of Forms

Abstract

The prehistorian André Leroi-Gourhan envisages technological behaviour along a continuum of manual activity extending to artistic production. His work on Palaeolithic cave art, which dominates the final phase of his career, builds on parameters set out in the 1950s and 1960s, and indeed early works on figuration ( Bestiaire du bronze chinois (1936) and Documents pour l'art comparé (1943)) already use the methodology which characterizes his Préhistoire de l'art occidental (1965). Nevertheless, there is a qualitative shift in Leroi-Gourhan's post-war work in response to structuralism and in dialogue with his work on human evolution. Le Geste et la Parole (1964–5) represents an important point of mediation, describing the physiological foundations of aesthetic experience and the stages of development which precede figuration. Leroi-Gourhan argues for the normality of Palaeolithic art as an artistic tradition while insisting on its absolute otherness. The mind in the cave is capable of the most abstract and esoteric variations of form and content, but also represents an alternative world to our own.