Primitive Doll c. 1936

Percival Jenner made this watercolor drawing, ‘Primitive Doll,’ sometime in the twentieth century. Jenner seems to explore the human form through the guise of a simple toy. But does the title “Primitive Doll” carry a more unsettling implication, harking back to the demeaning caricatures of non-Western peoples so common in the 19th and early 20th centuries? The doll’s large, simplified features and nakedness are striking. It has stylized hair and a flat face with staring eyes. What might this art tell us about how the human form can be objectified, stripped of individuality and reduced to an image? We might consider the history of ethnographic displays in museums, where human beings were exhibited as specimens of the "primitive." How does the very act of representation influence the way we view others? To better understand this work, we would need to research the artist’s background and the cultural context in which it was made. It reminds us that art doesn't exist in a vacuum; it reflects and shapes the society around it.