Art History Survey 2 Final Study Guide
(51) "The Dancing Cortesan Kosha and the king's charioteer" and "Sthulabhadra and his sisters" folios from a manuscript, c. 1475-1500
- Jain manuscript painting -central text and skin of the figures are painted gold, and the backgrounds are blue -The pages, while still horizontally oriented, became taller, allowing more room for the illustrations -The two major Jain texts, one often appended to the other, are the Kalpasutra, which recounts the lives of the twenty-four Jinas, "victors" who obtained spiritual liberation, and the Kalakacharyakatha, which tells the story of a Jain monk named Kalaka. -The images illustrating these texts, such as those adorning this late fifteenth-century folio display a distinctive style featuring flat areas of saturated color and sharp, angular figures outlined in black. - The figures, in lively poses conveying movement, have pointed noses and chins. Their faces are depicted in a three-quarters view with one projecting eye, a hallmark of the style -paintings also underscore the connections between textile and manuscript production -The way in which the painted forms are accentuated with white highlights clearly derives from the aesthetics of resist-dyeing and block-printing -Moreover, in scenes that otherwise were repeated with little differentiation between manuscripts, the artists lavished individualized attention on the figures' dress, signifying the importance of textiles within this society. many of the cloth patterns featured in Jain paintings can be matched with those found on surviving textile fragments.
(51) Ayutthaya Cabinet c. 1650-1750
-Ayutthaya fell to its long-standing Burmese rivals. -In terms of Ayutthaya's visual culture, what was not sacked by the Burmese armies was taken away by later Thai kings in the building of their new capital cities, leaving precious little evidence of its cultural sophistication and artistic splendor -The few objects that do survive, including this cabinet is striking. Wooden cabinets, such as this one, typically held manuscripts or other valuable objects -Its elaborate lacquer and gilded decoration reflects Ayutthaya artistry -The side panels are adorned with painted landscapes, while the front and back panels depict large figures -The Three-headed figure on the right back panel could be the Hindu god Brahma, but its mate has no recognizable attributes -Note the elongated forms of the two figures, their curving stances, and the flame- like details, all classic characteristics of Ayutthaya style -The style employed for the front panels differs slightly; the figures there are less delicate and elongated -This variance suggests that the front and back panels were not made at the same time (the back panels may have been from an older cabinet and were reused here) -The front left panel depicts a European, thought to be the French king Louis XIV, and the right panel shows a Persian or Indian, perhaps the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb
(60) Dayal, General View of Sanchi Tope (Stupa), c. 1882
-Deen Dayal, who trained as a surveyor at a civil Engineering college in northern India, taught himself photography in the early 1870s while working for the Central Indian Public Works Department -That office assisted in the restoration of monuments such as Sanchi, and Dayal's early photography documented these activities -Eventually he set up his own studio practice, photographing not only architectural monuments but also military troop maneuvers, British officials, Indian royalty, and the urban middle class -He was admired for his technical skill, sense of composition, and production of luminous albumen prints from the glass plate negatives used at the time -Note here, for example, how he exposed the print's edges for extra time in order to darken the clouds and leave a halo around the stupa
(52) Stone money disc, (rai), Yap island
-Micronesian societies, members of the nobility proclaimed their status through the ownership and use of particular objects -Artists often created sophisticated works that served as tangible symbols of their owners' wealth and prestige, including personal ornaments, garments, luxury objects, and traditional valuables -The largest and best-known traditional valuables in Micronesia are the massive "stone money" disks, known as rai , from the island of Yap in the Caroline Islands Along one of the paved village pathways as a sign of their owner's wealth -Rai circulated as a form of traditional currency and were used to pay for not only the expenses incurred in warfare but also ceremonial and practical events and items, such as feasts and festivals, canoes and fishing equipment, and the funeral rites of chiefs.
Taj Mahal, 1632-47
-Mughal Empire reached its height of power and wealth during the reign of Jahangir's son and successor, Shah Jahan ("King of the World," reigned 1627-56) -Shah Jahan oversaw the construction of dozens of royal residences and founded a new capital, Shahjahanabad (now Old Delhi), featuring the largest mosque in India -The complex's overall plan as well as the designs of individual buildings feature bilateral symmetry and tripartite compositions consisting of a large central element framed by two subsidiary ones -Underscoring the sense of visual order, forms and motifs are repeated, and shapes are standardized -example, every chhatri, regardless of size, has the same silhouette -Likewise, the niches on the buildings' facades echo the shape of the central pishtaqs -Care is paid to proportions and balance: The tomb's majestic main dome measures exactly the same height as the facade, and the four minarets at the corners of the plinth serve as a frame for the Chamfer-cornered square central structure -This strict rationality is balanced with sumptuous details, which at the Taj Mahal are employed to reference paradise. They include delicately carved and inlaid flowers, as well as inlaid calligraphic inscriptions from the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam, emphasizing the themes of the Last Judgment and the term-6heavenly rewards awaiting the faithful -The pietra dura inlay, made from semi precious stones including lapis lazuli, amber, carnelian, and amethyst, is so exquisitely done that a single flower may have more than thirty pieces of inlay -All these aspects give the Taj Mahal the grandeur, harmony, and beauty for which it is famous.
Si Genji Keris, 17th Century
-One of the most important royal accoutrements was the keris (also spelled "kris") -asymmetrical dagger with a distinctive blade patterning, called its pamor, and a highly decorated hilt and scabbard -keris was simultaneously a functional weapon, a carefully crafted artwork to be admired, and a spiritual object with its own character and magical powers, which could bring either good or bad luck -A keris's power is invisible (relates to PUSAKA) -Its unseen power required special treatment, starting with its creation -Because its power was understood to be a gift from God, keris-makers undertook religious ceremonies before beginning work
(51) Ceremonial Banner, Gujarat, c. 1340+-40 years
-Portable, adaptable and functional -traded at high volume across the indian ocean and south china sea -despite the tropical environment, the 5 yard long woodblock-printed and resist-dyed cloth survived because of its status as pusaka (an indonesian term for a sacred heirloom imbued with spiritual power - this piece was radiocarbon dated to c. 1340 -made in Gujarat, india's west coast
(60) Tagore, Bharat Mata, 1905
-Tagore's most famous painting, Bharat Mata, was made in response to nationalist events of 1905. -Against local sentiment, the British Raj partitioned Bengal into two parts, leading to major unrest and increasing demands for self-rule. -Tagore's painting personifies India as a modest, middle-class Bengali woman, in contrast to the bejeweled, curvaceous women in Varma's paintings. -Like a Hindu goddess, she has four arms that hold four attributes. Here, the attributes represent the goals of the swadeshi movement—that is, the things that India should be able to provide for itself: food, symbolized by the grain in her lower left hand; secular knowledge, indicated by the book in her upper left hand; clothing, as per the white cloth in her upper right hand; and spirituality, represented by the prayer beads in her remaining hand.
(51) "Krishna Holds Up Mount Govardhan to Shelter the Villagers of Braj" folio, c. 1590-95
-an illustration from a genealogy of the Hindu god Krishna, one of Vishnu's incarnations -excellent example of Akbar-period painting -Created in the 1590s (by which point Akbar had left Fatehpur Sikri for Lahore, with the royal workshop following the emperor) -painting depicts the blue-skinned deity holding up a mountain to protect villagers from destructive rain torrents sent by the god Indra -As part of his ruling strategy, Akbar had various Hindu epics translated into Persian -painting's left edge in the depiction of the female figure carrying two children, which recalls European images of the Virgin Mary with baby Jesus and John the Baptist
(60) Shaykh Zayn al-Din, (attrib.), Lady Mary Impey Supervising Her Household, c. 1777-83
-aspects of the Impeys' home life in Calcutta -Over the next five years, they produced roughly three hundred large watercolors, of which 120 survive, mostly studies of birds -The painting illustrated here depicts Lady Mary, seated on a low stool at the center of a well-appointed room, supervising her household employees, consisting of eighteen males—one European, the rest Indian -Note the chair, table, curtains, and moldings, all as they would be in an English home. Only the shutters, floor covering, and servants betray the Indian locale
(64) Nkisi nkonde, Kongo, before 1878
-once had a formidable reputation as a guardian who could prevent theft, cheating, and embezzlement. -Each cord bound the nkisi to an oath that the spirit would enforce, holding the human protagonists in a dispute to their agreements. -As an nkisi nkonde, it was also activated to hunt for evildoers by the dozens of iron nails driven into its flanks. -Although difficult to see in this illustration, the long blade of an iron sword slices into its abdomen, close to a mound of dried medicinal materials. This surely impelled it to act decisively for those in need of justice.
(68) Liu Chunhua, Chairman Mao Goes to Anyuan, 1968
During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-76), millions of posters disseminated propaganda messages throughout China. These posters responded effectively to the need for historical revision stemming from political struggles, and they embodied socialist ideals in the process of their making. Chairman Mao Goes to Anyuan by Liu Chunhua (born 1944) exemplifies these qualities
(68) Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Mirror Room—Phalli's Field, 1965
During those eventful years, she was active in New York art circles, making work in various media including painting, sculpture, and anti-war performances. Color and pattern give her work a Pop Art sensibility, and the phallic forms introduce themes of disembodiment and sexuality. Mirrored walls replicate the strange, stuffed tubers along with any persons in the room ad infinitum, creating an effect that is at once hallucinatory and transcendent. For this photograph, Kusama places herself in this fantasy room. By doing so, she blurs Conventional boundaries between self and art, between subject and object.
(68) Pan Yuliang, Self-Portrait, 1945
Leaning against a table set with a vase of bright-yellow flowers, and wearing a striped blouse and fitted jacket, she gazes directly at the viewer. The genre of portraiture has a long history in both East Asia and Western Europe, and Pan's choice of oil painting announces her engagement with European techniques. Pan's Self-portrait attests to her confident handling of light and color, manipulation of space, and representation of the human body.
(73) Saar, The Liberation of Aunt Jemima, 1972
ASSEMBLAGE Challenges the myth of the happy enslaved "mammy" implied in stereotypical images of Aunt Jemima, a figure used to advertise a brand of breakfast products. Saar adhered product labels for Aunt Jemima pancakes to the back of her shallow box construction. The large figurine is a derogatory caricature that Saar found and reconfigured into a woman who demands power, wielding a broom, hand grenade, and rifle. In front is a postcard of a mammy holding a baby, but Saar inserted a black fist as her skirt. No longer passive, Aunt Jemima is transformed into a symbol of black power, seeking liberation from white oppression and from traditional gender roles.
(59) Jagamarra Nelson and Napaljarri, Five Dreamings, 1984
AUSTRALIA -Dreaming beings are typically shown in representational form and depicted in profile, or landscape perspective -By contrast, the artists of Australia's vast central and western deserts use a complex system of semi-abstract symbols to portray the journeys, activities, and places associated with Dreaming beings -They employ a bird's-eye view, depicting their country as if seen by an observer flying above it, as in this painting by Papunya artist Michael Jagamarra Nelson (born c. 1945), created with the assistance of his wife, Marjorie Napaljarri -The artists depict their Dreamings using traditional desert iconography -The five concentric circles that lie along it, like the circular motifs in other Desert Acrylic paintings, represent sites where the ancestors camped or engaged in other activities
(69) Zenderoudi, The Hand, 1960-61
Exemplifies the Saqqakhaneh idiom. Made shortly before the painter moved to Paris in 1961, it displays Zenderoudi's interest in the formal and emotive potential of Shi'i imagery and Islamic calligraphy. The hand, found in much Saqqakhaneh art, was an appealing graphic shape with local significance, symbolizing the bravery of Hazrat Abbas during the seventh-century Battle of Karbala, a key event in both the history and devotional practice of Shi'ism. At the battle, Hazrat Abbas brought water from the Euphrates River for his companions, even after his hands had been cut off.
Pleasures of the Hunt, c. 1800
As mughal empire declined, the autonomy of regional states in north and central india increased Each area had its own group (sometimes family) of painters, who worked in a particular style and privileged certain subjects. -For example, in the Kangra region of the Punjab, in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains, court artists favored a predominately soft, cool palette, in contrast to the warm, saturated colors of Mewar painting. -at the image's center, a prince and princess holding hawks travel on horseback through a royal hunting enclosure. -The prince looks in the distance toward a young huntress shooting a deer -That same young woman, recognizable by her blue-and-white headdress, appears two more times in the foreground -On the right, she makes love with a handsome courtier, who simultaneously aims his bow and arrow at a tiger, suggesting the multifaceted nature of his skill set. -As with the erotic sculptures adorning the Hindu temples at Khajuraho (a bit of humor is added to the sensual scene: The courtier's horse, waiting just below, wears a blind, as if to shield him from the explicit sexual display) -The painting, like the other works on paper discussed in this chapter, was meant to be viewed by a select audience—in this case, members of the Kangra courtly elite -Everything about the image—its eroticism, its humor, even the softly beautiful style in which it was painted—was intended to heighten the pleasure of the viewer's experience
(68) Kuroda Seiki, Morning Toilette, 1893
Became a lightning rod for controversy when it was displayed at the 1895 National Industrial Exhibition in Kyoto. An example of yōga, or Western-style painting, Morning Toilette trades ink and colors on paper for oil on canvas. It depicts a female nude, a canonical subject in the European tradition, standing before a full-length mirror. Kuroda's treatment of the nude —with the casual, graceless posture, the awkward intimacy of primping, the flattened space, and the visible impasto—is similar to that of the French Impressionists, such as Edgar Degas IMPASTO paint texture impressionist and post-impressionist artists in europe were deeply effected by informal poses and flattened spaces found in Japanese woodblock prints in terms of medium, subject, and style, morning toilette demonstrate's adoption of the modernist approach he saw in paris
(69) Hamdi Bey, The Tortoise Trainer, 1906
FACADE A man dressed as a dervish (sufi mystic) and bearing musical instruments observes some tortoises crawling on the floor of a slightly worn interior space. The setting is based on the upper story of the fifteenth-century Green Mosque in Bursa, Turkey, and the man is Hamdi Bey himself. Does the image carry an Islamic philosophical meaning (the inscription in the archway above the window reads "The solace of the heart is to meet with the beloved")? Is it a sardonic allusion to the slow pace of Ottoman governmental reform? Or is it intended as a more general reference to an idealized past? Positioning the painting, and the artist himself, is a complex endeavor, one that calls into question commonly used binary categories such as other and self, and East and West.
(74) Guerrilla Girls, Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?, 1989
FEMINIST ART Seven women launched the Guerrilla Girls in 1985 in New York to protest an international survey of 165 artists held at the Museum of Modern Art that only included thirteen women on the roster. The group quickly expanded their focus to take on racism as well as sexism, protesting discrimination against women and nonwhite artists in a wide range of cultural institutions and publications. Still active, the Guerrilla Girls have comprised fifty-five members over the years. They wear gorilla masks in public and take the pseudonyms of women artists of the past such as Frida Kahlo.
(73) Kruger, Untitled (Your gaze hits the side of my face) 1981
FEMINIST ART RELATIONAL ART pluralistic art photomontage refers to the theory of the male gaze, which was emerging in postmodern theory. Feminist art historians began investigating how images of women in art reinforced unequal power relationships between men and women—for instance, by depicting women as passive and helpless. Kruger challenges the viewer to consider a more assertive female presence. While the statue in Kruger's image is turned away in profile, the personal pronouns ("your," "my") actively confront the viewer.
(68) Shōmei Tōmatsu, "Atomic Bomb Damage," Wristwatch Stopped at 11:02, August 9, 1945, 1961, printed in 1998
For Japanese citizens who witnessed the explosions, the nuclear age was fraught with dread and anxiety. Japanese popular culture gave birth to a metaphor for nuclear weapons—Godzilla, a powerful monster that spews radioactive breath, indiscriminately destroying people and property. By contrast, Shōmei Tōmatsu's (1930-2012) photographs are less dramatic but equally affecting. Some capture the scars of victims of nuclear radiation, but the photograph reproduced here features a different nuclear artifact, as indicated by its title, "Atomic Bomb Damage," Wristwatch Stopped at 11:02, August 9, 1945.
(72) Vani Sona, Sowei or Ndoli Jowei mask, Sande Society
For everyone, the procedure is both painful and risky, but critics have argued that the consequences for girls are more serious. In 1991, these concerns Were overshadowed by a horrific period of civil war and anarchy that engulfed both Liberia and Sierra Leone. Rebel groups finally agreed to negotiate a decade later, after groups of women assembled to face their armed, undisciplined militias. In the long process of healing their countries in the early twenty-first-century, women's associations have revived their masquerades as a tool for community building and solidarity.
(72) Keïta, portrait of two women (untitled), 1956-57
Interviewed years later, Keïta spoke with pride of his ability to make all of his clients look their best. As can be seen in the expressions of the two women in this photograph, he interacted with his clients to put them at ease. They included elite men and women in the latest Parisian fashions, soldiers in uniform, families in embroidered robes and gold jewelry. The women in this photograph, wearing earrings and pendants of gold filigree, thus represent the fashionable multicultural world of Bamako on the eve of independence.
(68) The Monument to the People's Heroes, and Hua Tianyou, The May Fourth
Has epitaph composed by mao zedong inscribed in zhou entai's handwriting. Granite and marble One of eight relief Sculptures executed by a collective of artists, Hua's May Fourth Movement is part of a carefully honed historical narrative pictured at the base of the Monument to the People's Heroes, which stands at the center of Tiananmen Square. Crowned by a stone version of a traditional-style roof, the ten-story-tall monolithic monument is a memorial to scores who died for the revolutionary cause.
(64) Khakhar, You Can't Please All, 1981
High and low merged in narrative paintings with influences ranging from devotional aesthetics and street culture to European painting and pop art. He confronted provocative themes, particularly his sexuality, with rare sensitivity and wit. Haunting portraits of ordinary men and last works describing his struggle with cancer express a rare humanity.
(68)Ding Cong, Images of Today, 1944
INK AND COLOR ON PAPER 11 1/4 x 59 in (very wide) the medium used was a type of watercolor called gouache, which is similar to watercolor except for it is an opaque color that is thickened with a glue-like substance to give it a matte finish. Ding does depict a very inequitable socioeconomic class structure of Chinese society. One key aspect that shows this is the woman with her child begging in the background for some food or money, while four wealthy men stand in front of her, paying her no attention. One last thing to point out is the way each class is shown in relation to the viewer. The rich are prominently in the foreground, Looking away from the viewer, while the poorer people show more of their faces, and are in the background. The man reading a book and the man holding his painting are facing the viewer, symbolizing the knowledge and truth of the corruptive government.
(74) Salcedo, Atrabiliarios, 1993
INSTALLATION ART make sculptures and installations about traumatic historical events. She often chooses domestic items such as furniture or clothing. In the case of her group of installations entitled Atrabiliarios (meaning "melancholy" or "morose"), Salcedo chose worn women's shoes, which she placed in a row of small niches in a wall. Displayed singly or in pairs (in niches in the wall), the shoes are half hidden behind translucent screens made of stretched cow-bladder membranes, crudely stitched to the wall with medical sutures, as if mending a wound.
(69) Essaydi, Les Femmes du Maroc: La Grande Odalisque, 2008
Les Femmes du Maroc (the title recalling that of Eugène Delacroix's well-known work Les Femmes d'Algiers) she recreates specific Nineteenth-century European and American Orientalist paintings, but with twists. For example, in La Grande Odalisque, which references Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres's 1814 painting of the same name, Essaydi omits the soft sensuality, lush color, and nudity found in ingres' image. Instead, before taking the photograph, she added calligraphy to every surface—the model's face and body, the wall, and the various textiles
(68) Movement, panel, Tianamen Square, Beijing, 1958
MARBLE RELIEF SCULPTURE In 1949, after the founding of the PRC, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) set about reforming art, artists, and art institutions to conform to communist goals. Art deemed bourgeois—including abstract and commercial art, as well as guohua—was censored, discouraged, or at best intermittently tolerated. Instead, the party promoted socialist realism, a style adopted by the Soviet Union, North Korea, and other socialist nations. Over three thousand students protested in Tiananmen Square, sparking widespread reform. In Hua's sculpture, attentive expressions and emphatic gestures capture the students' resolve. Two figures, a young man giving a speech and a young women distributing pamphlets, form a dynamic pivot. Slightly off-center, they draw the attention of other students, a worker at left foreground and a peasant at left background. The latter two are idealize Representatives of key socialist classes: workers and peasants.
(52)Aripa (male figure), Inya-Ewa people, 16th-19th century
MELANESIA -survived because they were placed in rock shelters, where they were protected from rain and kept dry by the prevailing winds, which prevented the perishable wood from rotting away -The most common Inyai-Ewa sculptures are aripa, dramatic male figures depicting powerful spirits who were "hunting helpers," supernaturally assisting in the capture of game animals and the slaying of human enemies -the figures' flat bodies are highly stylized, depicting their internal anatomy. Thus, the complex imagery of aripa shows both external and internal features of the spirits -In the body of the aripa seen here, the back appears as a thin curving line, while a straighter line at the front represents the abdominal wall -Within, a serrated spiral form represents the heart and lungs, while the straighter descending serrated form below it depicts the intestines and chest, seen from the inside -This blending of external and internal anatomy is typical of Aripa images, perhaps emphasizing the spirits' otherworldly qualities
(59) Display of malagan images, Tabar Islands, New Ireland, 2002
MELANESIA FACADE -The carvings are part of a complex cycle of rituals, sacred songs, dances, and artworks that are collectively known as malagan -Though some malagan rituals take place during an individual's lifetime, the most numerous and ornate images are produced for display at a person's final mortuary ceremony, which often takes place months or years after that person's death due to the expense and preparations involved -Each malagan image represents one or more supernatural beings, animals, plants, or other phenomena associated with a specific clan
(52) Bird-shaped vessel, Belau, 18th century
MICRONESIA -shell inlaid vessel -from the island of Koror in Belau represents the type of sumptuous ceremonial objects that were made for, owned, and used by high-ranking chiefs, such as Koror's high chief, the ibedul -It consists of an enormous lidded bowl, reportedly able to hold some thirty-six English quarts of liquid -Its eyes, beak, wings, tail,and other features are richly adorned with inlays made from polished white shell, some possibly indicating feathers -Rows of smaller bird images rendered in shell inlay also adorn the wings -Shell-inlaid vessels, containers, food stands, and stools were (and remain) among the most highly valued Belauan objects, serving as highly visible symbols of wealth and power
(52) Mortuary compound of Nan Dauwas, Nan Madol, 13th -16th century
MICRONESIA in a MEGALITHIC royal compound -The largest of the islets is the mortuary compound ofNan Dauwas, which housed a royal tomb. -lasting monument to chiefly power, Nan Madol thrived for more than three centuries under the rule of the SauDeleur dynasty until the accession of the Nahmwarki dynasty in the early 1600s -It continued as the religious and administrative center under a succession of Nahmwarki rulers for roughly another century, after which the new paramount chief moved his residence out of the city
Mammeri, Fête marocaine à Marrakech, before 1931
MISSING
(72) Sande Association, Muma (Unity, Ndoli Jowei) masquerade, 1972
Mende masquerades, which require sexual surgery-circumcision for the boys and excision for the girls. For everyone, the procedure is both painful and risky, but critics have argued that the consequences for girls are more serious. In 1991, these concerns were overshadowed by a horrific period of civil war and anarchy that engulfed both Liberia and Sierra Leone. Rebel groups finally agreed to negotiate a decade later, after groups of women assembled to face their armed, undisciplined militias. In the long process of healing their countries in the early twenty-first-century, women's associations have revived their masquerades as a tool for community building and solidarity.
(59) Bis pole, Asmat people, mid-20th century
NEW GUINEA -Among the best-known Melanesian funerary images are the soaring ancestor poles (bis or bisj) of the Asmat people who live on the southwest coast of New Guinea. -Asmat bis poles are carved from a single piece of wood -To create the poles' distinctive shape, artists select trees with lower trunks encircled by plank-like buttress roots, which help to stabilize the tree -The main "trunk" of the pole consists of a series of human figures who stand one atop the other. -Each of the figures in the trunk represents, and is named for, one of the specific deceased individuals being commemorated in the ceremony
(52)Poncho (tiputa), barkcloth (tapa), 18th century
POLYNESIA -Arguably the most important women's art form in Polynesia was the making of barkcloth, often called by one of its Polynesian names, tapa -Tapa was produced from the inner bark of certain tree species, predominantly the paper mulberry -The bark was stripped, soaked, and pounded with club-like mallets on long wood (or, more rarely, stone) anvils to form thin,paperlike sheets of cloth -These were then felted or glued together to create larger cloths, which ranged in size from small pieces to enormous ceremonial textiles more than one hundred yards Long -In Tahiti and other areas of the Society Islands, male chiefs often wore tiputa, poncho-like garments made from fine, soft tapa
(52) Figure of god Kuka'ilimoku, late 18th-early 19th c
POLYNESIA HAWAII -brilliant military commander, Kamehameha Eventually succeeded in conquering or otherwise bringing under his authority all of the islands of the Hawaiian archipelago, becoming Hawaii's first king in 1810 -Reliant on military and political power rather than birthright for his authority, Kamehameha associated himself with a war god, Kuka'ilimoku ("Ku the snatcher of islands"), as his patron deity, ultimately establishing him as the principal god of Hawai'i and building a series of temples to venerate him
(59) Meeting House (whare rūnanga,exterior, interior), Waitangi
POLYNESIA Maori -The customary center of Maori communities is the marae , a sacred ceremonial plaza that serves as a meeting place and is architecturally centered on a meeting house -(known variously as the wharenui, whare rūnanga,or whare whakairo -embodies the community's ancestral history and identity -The meeting house itself is also regarded as an ancestor image, with its architectural elements representing various parts of the anatomy
(52) Moia, Rapa Nui (Easter Island), c. 13th century
POLYNESIA Megalith -creation of the most famous and recognizable of all Oceanic sculptures, the towering stone figures of Easter Island, now known by the Polynesian name Rapa Nui, had reached its apogee by the fourteenth century. -First made as early as c.1200 CE, these stone figures, known as moai, represented ancestral chiefs whose powers sustained and protected their descendants and their communities -Every sizable Rapa Nui community erected massive moai symbolizing the power of their particular ancestral chiefs on a long, rectangular temple platform, or ahu -Most ahu were located near the coast and built parallel to the seashore, with the moai positioned facing inland to watch over their descendants
(64) Mohamedi, Untitled, early 1980s
This exhibition highlights significant phases in the artist's practice; from semi-abstract lyrical paintings of the 1960s, to her intricate engagement and subversion of the modernist grid throughout the 1970s, and detailed drawings of suspended diagonal lines, triangles and spheres in the 1980s.
(73) Clark, Diálogo: Óculos (Dialogue: Goggles), 1968
RELATIONAL ART MINIMALISM pluralistic art Diálogo: Óculos consists of a pair of connected goggles that are modified so their lenses are reversible and one side is mirrored. Two participants are bound physically close together as they look at each other through combinations of lenses that alter their vision. Their interaction is the art, not the goggles themselves. Clark wanted to address not only the physical act of seeing, but her understanding that there are always multiple ways of perceiving and interacting.
(74) Ai Wei Wei, Trace at Hirshhorn, 2017
RELATIONAL ART Ai added interactive kiosks with digital screens where visitors could learn about the people portrayed. The title "Trace" derives from the concept of a digital footprint that people leave online or in grainy photos on surveillance cameras. Although the portraits appear pixelated and generated by a computer, each actually is assembled by hand by volunteers, who construct a portrait out of thousands of plastic Lego bricks. The rectangular blocks of the popular toy simulate the appearance of pixels.
(73) Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Surrounded Islands Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida, 1980-83-
SITE-SPECIFIC was created intentionally to be temporary and aesthetic pluralistic art surrounded eleven of the fourteen islands in Biscayne Bay next to Miami with floating skirts of pink woven polypropylene fabric. The installation lasted for two weeks in May, 1983, although the artists dated the project from 1980, beginning with their original proposal, because it took three years to resolve engineering problems and logistics, study the potential environmental impact, overcome objections from private citizens and government officials, secure permits, and raise money. They defined overcoming the arduous, real-life legal, economic, and political challenges as part of their creative process.
(73) Chicago, The Dinner Party, with detail, Emily Dickenson, 1979
THIS WAS DISCUSSED IN LECTURE: Guests were Jeanie Ambrosio and AdrienneRose Gionta, co-curators of "Why Shouldn't We Talk About These Things At the Table? A Community Based Conversation With South Florida Artists." https://www.whyshouldntwe.com/ FEMINIST ART pluralistic art The Dinner Party comprises a massive banquet at a triangular table, with thirty-nine place settings, each representing a mythological or actual female from different stages of civilization. The names of another 999 women are inscribed in gold on the white tile floor below the table. Although widely known and much studied since then, the commemorated women were largely absent from history books in the 1970s and before, including the painter Georgia O'Keeffe, the most recent woman represented.
(64) Sekoto, Song of the Pick, 1946
The composition and bold colors show his affinity with European modernists such as the Futurists, artists Sekoto had never been able to study. Sekoto completed this version of the painting, now labeled Song of the Pick
(64) Reliquary guardian, Kota, before 1883
The sculpture could be detached from its relics and manipulated by dancers honoring a family's deceased relatives. Some Kota reliquary figures had faces on each side that would flash into view as the sculpture was rotated during these performances. Kota works to create assemblages And collages of separate material These artists were among the first foreign observers to realize that the abstracted physical forms of African sculpture were not representations of the natural world but sophisticated references to invisible realities
(52) An x-ray style painting of a fish, Arnheim Land
West Kimberley Australia among the northern coast -While some x-ray style paintings depict sacred subjects, the majority of them are secular, portraying various species of fish and game animals, such as fish, kangaroos, and emus. More rarely, human beings are represented -X-ray style paintings of animals typically show the subject in profile view, while humans are generally shown as if seen from the front. -The imagery typically depicts the subject's outline and some of its external features, such as the fins of fishes, as they appear in life, with the spine, selected organs, and other internal features indicated within the body, as in the image of a fish -X-ray style images of fish and game animals were frequently painted on the walls and ceilings of rock shelters, where people camped during the annual Wet Season to escape the torrential downpours outside
(74) Whiteread, Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial, 2000
Whiteread's brutally stark memorial is a Windowless, single-story building cast in concrete, which resembles a military bunker, and was designed as an inverted library. The walls are cast library shelves turned inside out. Barely visible from a distance, the edges of concrete books cover the walls in dense rows, their spines apparently turned inwards so their titles are not visible. A pair of doors at one end are sealed shut with no door knobs or hinges. pair of doors at one end are sealed shut with no doorknobs or hinges. The names of the death camps were Austrian Jews were slaughtered are engraved on the plinth. The unreadable books and perpetually closed library can be understood as symbolizing the reputation of Judaism as a religion for "people of the Book,"while also standing for the lost memories and untold stories of the murdered Jews.
(69) Zeid, My Hell, 1951
a monumental image of interlocking geometric shapes forming kaleidoscopic patterns, occupy a central place in the Istanbul Modern, Turkey's modern and contemporary art museum
(64) Olowe of Ise, doors and lintel sculpted for the Ogoga of Ikere, Yoruba style, c.1900
around 1916, He was commissioned by the Ogoga (king) of Ikere to carve a door for his palace courtyard. When colonial authorities asked the ogoga if he would lend the door to the British Empire Exhibition, the king agreed. At the close of the exhibition, representatives of the British Museum asked the ogoga to give them the door in exchange for an ornate English throne. The ogoga agreed once more, knowing that Olowe would carve him a replacement. Olowe used gesture and proportion to emphasize the head of each of the figures on the door, which has two vertical panels divided into five registers each.
(72) Donnawanu, artist painting a home in her community, Ghana, photo by Margaret Courtney Clarke, 1987
included photographs of both in a 1990 survey of women painters on the African continent. Her color photographs capture the murals painted by Ndebele women in South Africa, Amazing women in rural Algeria, and Soninke women in Senegal, as well as the work of uli artists in Nigeria. When she photographed the sculpted clay homes painted by Nankani women and by several neighboring groups in northern Ghana and southern Burkina Faso, she recorded the names of the artists, the names of the community, and noted some of the symbols they employed. For example, her photograph of Akalem Donnawanu completing her mural in a Kassena homestead.
(68) Li Hua, Roar, China! 1936
is a woodcut by Li Hua (1907-94) that visualizes the urgency of the moment. Bound to a wooden post, a naked and blindfolded man cries out. Tense with anguish, his body bursts with pent-up energy, but it is not assured that he will seize the nearby knife to cut himself free. reached viewers not only at public exhibitions throughout China but also in periodicals. Due to the multivalent (open to multiple interpretations) quality of Li's image, which paid homage to Russian writer Sergei Tretyakov anti-imperialist play of the same title, viewers could interpret the source of bondage differently. For many loyal to the communist cause, oppression resulted not only from colonialism but also from capitalism.
(60) Amrita Sher-Gil, Bride's Toilette, 1937
made a year after she wrote the newspaper piece, Sher-Gil depicts a girl being prepared for her wedding by female relatives.
(73) Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Trade (Gifts for Trading Land with White People), 1992
made in response to the five hundredth anniversary in 1992 of Christopher Columbus's arrival in North America. A rendering of an almost life-sized canoe is reminiscent of the pictographic images found in many Native American cultures. Newspaper clippings from a tribal paper, product wrappers, comics featuring stereotypical images of Indians, and photographs cover the surface with texture. Smith applied gestural strokes and drips of paint in white, yellow, green, and (especially) deep red.
(64) Photograph of Dancers performing within Njoya's palace, Bamun, c. 1912
photograph, taken in the courtyard of the royal palace, shows masqueraders towering above their attendants. As in other grasslands kingdoms, the masks are balanced on top of the heads of the dancers rather than covering their faces, and their exaggerated features are visible at a distance. The photograph thus demonstrates one of the principal ways that Njoya and other kings nurtured their political roles as well as their ritual powers.
(73) Gran Fury, Silence = Death, 1987
pluralistic art ACT UP rendered their slogan "SILENCE = DEATH" in bold graphics for T-shirts, buttons, and posters. A neon version was first installed in the window of the New Museum the month ACT UP was founded, and has been reinstalled in different contexts since. The underlying message is that a group needs to articulate a visible identity and message in order to overcome exclusion. Indeed, despite persistent homophobia within society at large, by the 1980s more artists were openly declaring themselves LGBTQ, and many were making political art.
(73) Lin, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington DC, 1981-3
pluralistic art RELATIONAL ART particularly controversial when it was first proposed and built. Lin was only 21 when she won a competition with over 1,100 entries to design the memorial to a war the United States had lost. Born in Ohio, Lin came from a family of artists and poets, including the Chinese architect Lin Huiyin (1904-1955), who collaborated on the design of a monument in China's Tiananmen Square.
(72)El-Salahi, Reborn Signs of Childhood Dreams, 1961-65
reference to symbols, childhood, and the subconscious might suggest that the artist was basing his work on European Surrealists, while the interplay of faces and forms that emerge from a mysterious matrix recall the unsettling paintings of European Expressionists.
(73) Piper, Catalysis III, 1970
she wrote "wet paint" on a sweater painted with sticky white paint, then walked through the streets of Manhattan and went on a shopping trip to a department store, experiencing the disgusted or fearful looks, or other reactions her behavior sparked. Only photographs remain as documentation of this art.
(68) Nam June Paik, TV Buddha, 1974
uses a closed-circuit camera and a television to broadcast the image of the Buddha to the Buddha. The viewer's gaze alternates from one Buddha to the other. The physical confrontation between sculpture and television evokes other kinds of oppositions: between object and image, religious icon and media icon, tradition and modernity, elite art and mass media. But TV Buddha also Raises questions about the hybrid outcomes. For example, does technology transform spiritual practice into an egocentric exercise? Or is TV Buddha intended to be funny? Mocking or optimistic, Paik's video art probed conventional thinking and at times was an uncanny omen of future developments.
(69) Hatoum, Measures of Distance, 1988
video art work comprising several layered elements. Letters written by Hatoum's mother in Beirut to her daughter in London appear as Arabic text moving over the screen and are read aloud in English by Hatoum. The background images are slides of Hatoum's mother in the shower, taken by the artist during a visit to Lebanon. Taped conversations in Arabic between mother and daughter, in which her mother speaks openly about her feelings, her sexuality and her husband's objections to Hatoum's intimate observation of her mother's naked body are intercut with Hatoum's voice in English reading the letters.
(72) Bodys Isek Kingelez, Ville Fantôme (Phantom City), 1996
wanted my art to serve the community that is being reborn to create a new world, because the pleasures of our earthly world depend on the people who live in it." This passionate optimism, expressed at a time when Kinshasa was beset by poverty and chaos, is a legacy of the 1960s. It also explains why African artists have continued to inspire their colleagues, students, patrons, and collectors in the twenty-first century.
(72) Maloba, Independence Monument, 1962
which reflects his formal training in composition and abstract form, both acquired abroad. The cement sculpture depicts a child being lifted high by its mother, and draws the eye skyward. Today it remains a symbol of hope for Uganda. At Makerere, Maloba was repeatedly asked to contribute to the heated discussions that swirled among faculty and visitors at the university. Some of the African and Expatriate educators argued that students needed a strong background in European art and literature.
(74) El Anatsui, Intermittent Signals, 2009
with its interplay of shimmering colors, fluid shapes, and rich textures, appears to be an abstract composition. Closer inspection reveals that Anatsui's materials are scavenged from discarded aluminum tops and necks from liquor bottles, which the artist and his assistants folded into various configurations, suturing the fragments together with copper wire. The materials subtly refer to the complex historical relationship between West Africa, Europe, and North America.
