Of course, when we contemplate certain examples from the teeming treasure of plastic form, we find it hard indeed to suppress the idea of a play of fancy, the playful creativity of mind and hand. The grotesque wildness of the dancing masks among savage peoples, the monstrous intertwining of figures on totem poles, the magical mazes of ornamental motifs the caricature-like distortions of human and animal forms – all these are bound to suggest play as the growing-point of art.
….the picture immediately changes when we turn from the making of works of art to the manner in which they are received in the social milieu……