Evolution in art

Subtitled as an account of how designs develop through their life histories, this work applies the ideas of evolution to decoration. Its author, Alfred C. Haddon, treats artistic patterns and motifs as things that change over time, tracing where they come from and how they grow. He proposes that, as with other parts of human culture, natural selection shapes which designs survive. The designs that last, in his view, are those that suit the people who make and use them.

The book draws on a broad range of examples from many peoples and periods, and it is richly illustrated. Its chapters cover the decorative art of British New Guinea, the ways natural objects are transformed into decoration, and the reasons objects are decorated in the first place. Haddon was a Cambridge anthropologist and zoologist, and his scientific training shows in the careful, comparative method he brings to the study of art.