Siegfried Giedion, in his great work on the beginnings of art, asserts that ‘Abstraction runs through the whole of primeval art. In the Aurignacian and Magdalenian periods we find easily recognizable representations of animals together with enigmatic symbols which had no counterpart in the visible world; they crop up over a very wide range but perhaps most strikingly in the great oval hall of Lascaux and in the painted ceiling of Altamira, where bison are placed next to enormous red abstract symbols.’ ‘Art indeed began with abstraction.’ To see full extract visit first page of www ragallery.co.uk From Ron Atkin's book "THE BOTANY BAY OF THE MILKY WAY." Copyright 1999