How to Cite

Labrusse, Rémi: The Collapse of the Origins: Prehistory Beyond Art History, in Haidle, Miriam Noël et al. (Eds.): Images, Gestures, Voices, Lives. What Can We Learn from Paleolithic Art?, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2025 (ROCEEH Communications, Volume 2), p. 17–27. https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.1453.c21850

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https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.1453
ISBN 978-3-96822-290-5 (PDF)
ISBN 978-3-96822-291-2 (Hardcover)

Published

08/14/2025

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Authors

Rémi Labrusse

The Collapse of the Origins

Prehistory Beyond Art History

Abstract As soon as it was invented, the idea of “prehis­tory” was integrated into Western theories of the origins and evolution of art. Rather than completing these theories as originally hoped, however, the concept of “prehistory” instead became an insuperable stumbling block for the contemporary obsession for the origins. By shedding light on this paradoxical situation, particularly with regard to Palaeolithic artefacts and images, this paper tries to shed light on the deconstructive power of “prehistory” when it comes to the ideologies of art history and the progress of “civilisation”.

Keywords art history, evolutionism, modernity, primitiv­ism, progress