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introduced a way of living that had not been corrupted by the impact of commercialism and industry. In art it was considered a direct contrast to the academic style, referring to cultures considered less civilised in comparison with Western society; whereas academic art focused on the importance of realism and naturalism, 'primitive' art, originating from 'Africa and the Pacific Islands' emphasised the importance of human instinct and habit, depicting it in abstract and unrealistic ways. The style and technique, which was adapted by modernist artists was the simplistic contours, stylised forms and na?ˉve tone to the 'primitive' work.

Paul Gauguin, having lost his job in Paris after the 1882 stock market crash, sought an escape from city life, to a place abstract from the urban context of Paris, and found this initially in Brittany, and then in Tahiti. In Brittany, Gauguin painted Vision After the Sermon, 1888, which embodied the spiritualism, which the Romantics had previously sought after. The painting, with its symbolic language of unrealistic colours (the red ground on which the figures fight) and distorted proportions portrays the Breton people experiencing a vision of a Biblical scene in which Jacob and an Angel fight. There is a stark contrast, 'between the people, who are natural, and the struggle going on in a landscape which is non natural and out of proportion;' the tree bough, which lies diagonally along the centre of the image, divides the two sections of the scene. This use of a diagonal line and stylised use of colour might suggest the influence of Japanese art, which the Impressionists had started to use in their work.

Japanese prints had come to France in the late 19th century and had been used as packing material for parcels sent over to Europe, however they were not considered to be 'art' insofar as they did not comply to the standards of academic paintings. The prints employed flat picture planes with little modeling, and stylised faces and forms with un-naturalistic use of colour. Bold lines, cropped picture spaces and decorative backgrounds were all aspects of Japanese prints that were used by Western artists of the 19th century. The transition from high art to low art, in academic terms, saw artists of the day challenging the, 'aesthetic hierarchies of the anciens regimes'.

Japanese art had a particular influence on the 19th century artist, Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, who used the oriental style of the prints in his work. Japanese woodblock prints and lithography were particularly influential on Lautrec's work and inspired a number of posters he created such as Moulin Rouge, c.1891 from Les Maitres de l'Affiche. The Japanese style was considered to be 'particularly suited to the art of advertising' with its bold lines and solid, bright colours.

The influences of folk and 'primitive' sources not only affected the visual arts but both music and literature too. Within music there was an emphasis on 'rhythm and percussive elements in music,' and this style is best exemplified by the work of Igor Stravinsky and Béla Bartók. The changes in music and painting coincide; Debussy, like Lautrec followed Impressionist ideals and values opposing the accepted artistic and musical conventions, which had gone before.

Stravinsky employed repetition and unusual uses of instruments such as tremolando and 'flutter-tonguing,' which both imitated primal calls and promo