Primitive Art: Gesture, Time, Singularity

The phenomenon of prehistoric art, particularly cave painting, raises a number of questions for anthropology, art history, and the philosophy of art. These issues are becoming more relevant with the discovery of new objects of prehistoric art and the development of anthropological theories. One of the most significant concepts in this field of knowledge is currently that of chain. It is proposed to consider a series of cave painting images as chains of images superimposed on operational chains in the sense ascribed to them by Leroi-Gourhan. These chains of images can be interpreted as unfolding series of images emerging over time. The horses, lions, and rhinoceroses of the Chauvet Cave exhibit a similar multiplied character, while the antelopes of Trois-Freres simultaneously exhibit different phases of movement. This phenomenon can be characterized as polyperspectivism. The multiplicity of the image allows us to judge it as simultaneously singular and multiple, which alludes to the logic of the relationship between the singular and the serial in J. Deleuze’s conception. The artist’s gesture should be considered not only as connected to the operations of hunting but also to the operations of tanning skins. Dressing a skin is symbolically equivalent to reincarnation in the body of another being. The rhythmic structure of operational chains, manifested in the polyperspectivism of image formation, is linked to the ability to occupy the place of other beings - perspectivism. Thus, polyperspectivism, the serialization of the image over time in Paleolithic images, is woven into the perspectivism of the possibility of a different perspective.