Module 10: Our World
Introduction
In this module we look at how artists express and interpret our world. Here are the
topics and themes we’ll cover:
·
Identity
·
Self-Portraits
·
The Natural World
·
Social and Collaborative Art
·
Politics, Conflict and War
·
·
Memorials
Peace
If nothing else, visual art provides an avenue for self-expression. As a primary source,
artists express attitudes, feelings and sentiments about the world around us through
personal experiences, social interaction and our relationship with the natural world. In
short, art gives us a perception of or a reaction to our place in the world. This idea is
illustrated in the French artist Paul Gauguin’s painting titled:Where Do We Come From?
What Are We? Where Are We Going? The work brings us on a symbolic journey that
includes imagery of infancy, adulthood, nature and spirituality.
In Module 1 we referred to description as one of many roles art affords us, but this
description is often imbued with the artist’s subjective interpretation. In this module we
will examine how art operates as a vehicle for human expression, a kind of collective
visual metaphor that helps define who we are.
Identity
The art historical record is filled with images of ourselves. Generally, the further back we
go the more anonymous these visages are. For example, the earliest works of art –
crudely chiseled stone sculptures – record the human figure in exaggerated forms.
The Venus of Berekhat Ram is dated to around 230,000 years ago. It and other
small stone figures from the same period indicate that artistic expression was part of a
pre-homo sapiens culture. There is now evidence of an ‘art instinct’: a natural inclination
for humans to be creative and perceive our surroundings with an aesthetic sense*.
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The Venus of Willendorf (pictured below), dated to about 20,000 years ago, is an
archetype of early human expression. The sculpture is remarkable for what is included
and what is missing. The female figure’s arms are draped over enormous breasts, and
the enlarged genitalia, short legs and exaggerated midriff reinforce the idea of a fertility
figure. The tightly patterned headpiece indicates either braided hair or a knit cap.
Missing from this extraordinary figure is any hint of facial identity: she may represent a
solitary female or the collective idea of womanhood.
The Venus of Willendorf, Paleolithic period. Collection of the Natural History Museum,
Vienna, Austria.
The material above is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License (HTML). It
is attributed to Oke and the original version can be found here (HTML).
These faceless and enigmatic figures persist in art for thousands of years. We see them
again in figurines from the Aegean Cycladic culture dated to about 3000 BCE (image
below). Their form is standardized, with smooth surface texture, triangular heads and
crossed arms. You can even see a resemblance to these figures in certain modern
sculptures, particularly by Romanian artist Constantin Brancusi from the early
20th century. His Sleeping Muse from 1909 is an example.
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Ancient Jomon cultures of Japan produced extremely stylized earthenware figures,
often female and, similar to the Venus figures of Western Europe, with enlarged breasts
and hips but disproportionately short arms and legs. Thought to be ritual figures, the
earliest examples are faceless and without adornment. Later ones show generic
features with curious insect eyes and more elaborate decoration.
We start to see human figures with individual characteristics during the Old Kingdom
dynasties of Egypt about 2500 BCE. Reserved for royalty and other high-ranking
figures, these portrait sculptures, many times containing a man and women together,
include an emotional connection as they stand or stride forward with their arms around
each other. In another example below an Egyptian scribe sits cross-legged with his
palette and papyrus scroll and a hairstyle comparatively similar to that of the Venus
of Willendorf. Here we get a much stronger sense of identity and form, with detailed
description of the scribe’s facial features, subtle but important rendering of musculature
and even individual fingers and toes, all sculpted in correct proportion and scale.
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Egyptian, Scribe, 5th dynasty (2500 – 2350 BCE), painted limestone. The Louvre, Paris.
The image above is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike
License 3.0 (HTML). It is attributed to Rama and the original version can be found here
(HTML).
Greek vase painting uses figurative and decorative motifs to illustrate mythic narratives
or simply depict scenes from everyday life. Many of the vases show athletic games,
social gatherings or musical entertainment.
The Romans used painted portraits to commemorate the dead. Commonly known
asFayum mummy portraits, they were created with encaustic or tempera paints on
wooden panels and placed over the face of the mummified body. The portraits all show
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the same stylistic characteristics including large eyes, individual details and the use of
only one or two colors. The portrait below shows a young man with curly hair and light
beard. There is also a melancholy psychological element as the figure stares back at
us.
Above image: Roman, Faiyum Mummy Portrait, c.1st century CE. State Collections of
Antiquities, Munich
This image is in the public domain.
Perhaps the most famous portrait in the Western world is Leonardo Da
Vinci’s LaGioconda, more commonly known as the Mona Lisa. The painting embodies
many of the attributes we look for in a portrait: realistic form, detailed rendering of the
sitter’s features and an intangible projection of their character. These qualities emanate
from the genius and skill of the artist. Her gentle gaze and slight smile has endeared the
Mona Lisa to viewers around the world for over 500 years.
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Leonardo Da Vinci: Mona Lisa, c. 1503-1519, oil on wood. The Louvre.
This image is in the public domain.
Portraiture and the figure continue to be important motifs in modern and contemporary
art. Pop artist Andy Warhol used photographs of politicians and Hollywood celebrities to
create series of images that supplant traditional painted portraits and reinforce our idea
of brand identity. His diptych of Marilyn Monroe from 1963 signifies her place on popular
culture’s altar as an icon of beauty and sexuality while alluding to her tragic suicide in
1962. The print’s bright colors and rapid-fire images on the left hold our attention while
on the right we see her fading away into obscurity in black and white. With this staccato
image format Warhol presents us with conflicting alternatives: the ubiquitous nature of
celebrity and the fleeting nature of life.
Bruce Nauman’s neon sculpture Human/Need/Desire uses words that uncover
“fundamental elements of human experience*”. The pulsating neon sculpture has a
trance-like effect as the viewer watches the words change in front of them. The work
provides a collective meaning because we can all identify with its message.
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*Museum of Modern Art, New York: image statement for
Bruce Nauman’s sculptureHuman/Need/Desire.
The painter Alice Neel’s portraits are exceptional as they capture a sitter’s likeness and
character but with an expressionist edge. She preferred informal poses, used harsh
colors and an unerring sense of design in portraits of family, friends, fellow artists and
political personalities.
Finally, in an artistic gesture that redefines what portraiture and self identity can be,
Spanish born artist Inigo Manglano-Ovalle does away with the figure altogether. His
three-panel chromogenic print Glen, Dario and Tyrone presents us with the DNA
signature of each individual. This work blurs the line between art, science and
technology. Now a portrait is manifest as blobs of color and its integrity is established by
the fact that each series of blobs is genuinely different than any other. This creative idea
has even migrated to the marketplace: You can order your own (or someone
else’s) DNA portrait for the home or office.
Self-Portraits
Self-portraits direct an artist’s gaze inward. Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs from
the 1970’s and 80’s include fashion, portraiture, floral arrangements and documentary
subject matter. His self-portraits combine elegance in form with an autobiographical
journey in content as he travels as a young gifted artist through the darker side of the
New York gay S and M scene and ultimately to his death from AIDS at age thirty three.
In contrast to Mapplethorpe’s photos, Chuck Close has been producing portraits of
family, friends and himself exclusively since the 1960’s. His unconventional style has
changed little over the years. Starting from a photograph, he painstakingly translates the
image into paintings, prints and drawings using a grid to isolate very small areas of a
surface at a time. This slow buildup of form is both mechanical and magical. The
resulting portraits stun with their visual presence –the paintings are often eight feet high
– and incessant in their flatness to the picture plane. After suffering a spinal chord injury
in 1988 that left him severely paralyzed, Close’s signature super-realism has evolved
into mosaic-like images that seem at once both realistic and abstract.
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And Robert Arneson’s ceramic self-portrait California Artist from 1982 is satirical in
nature. He pokes fun at the classical ideal of sculpture grounded in the Greek and
Roman traditions. Instead of appearing as an idealized mythic god, Arnesonpresents
himself as a balding, middle-aged hippie, set on a chipped pedestal that includes a
marijuana plant growing up the front and empty beer bottles and cigarette butts crushed
out on its base.
Robert Arneson: California Artist, 1982. Stoneware with glazes.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Image by Geoffrey A. Landis.
The image above is released under a Creative Commons Attribution License 2.5
(HTML). It is attributed to Geoffrey Landis and the original version can be found here
(HTML).
Nature
The natural world has always given artists subject matter to experience and interpret. In
it we find some of our greatest fears, so we try to organize it. It gives us spectacular joy,
so we mimic it. Its grandeur motivates some of our highest aspirations, so we spin it in
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myth and symbolism. Our relationship with nature presents ironies too: it’s referred to as
a maternal force yet advanced societies are the most removed from it. All of these
characteristics of nature become the stuff of artistic expression.
Chinese culture includes a reverence for nature that’s reflected in its traditional painting
styles. Landscape is used as metaphor to illustrate physical, philosophical and spiritual
themes. We looked at Ma Lin’s wall scroll in Module 6 in terms of the artist’s painting
technique. Let’s reexamine it now (view the image below) to see how Lin creates
subject matter that gives prominence to both nature and the figure. First of all, he
animates the landscape to emphasize its scale and undulating features, contrasting
large boulders and strong, twisted pines in the middle ground with a more subtly painted
background of mountains and water. A figure (a wanderer, priest or poet) rests at the
base of a pine, more in contemplation and unity with his surroundings than in opposition
to them. Notice how this figure is painted with colored pigment that brings an emphasis
to his place in the composition. A second, even smaller figure inhabits the foreground
on the left, enhancing the landscape’s sense of scale.
In Loquats and Mountain Bird (also below), the artist’s keen observational skills give
specific information, but the work transcends mere physical description of the subject
matter. Through formal composition and the artist’s deft touch we see a slice of nature –
in a very shallow space, that is unified and completely believable. A similar but perhaps
less poetic effect can be seen in the works of John James Audubon (see his print
Carolina Parakeet below). Audubon spent years documenting the birds and animals in
America during the first half of the nineteenth century. The shallow space and strong
use of placement, color and pattern give a more dramatic edge to his images.
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Above: Ma Lin, Wall Scroll, 1246. Ink on silk.
National Palace Museum, Taiwan.
This material is in the public domain.
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Loquats and Mountain Bird, Chinese, Song Dynasty (1127 – 1279)
National Palace Museum, Beijing. Licensed through Creative Commons.
This image is in the public domain.
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Audubon Carolina Parakeet
This image is in the public domain.
In another more contemporary example, the glasswork of Ginny Ruffner provides a
whimsical approach to her experiences with the natural world, providing delicate visual
comments like the simple pleasure of looking out a window or marveling at the cyclical
rhythms of water.
The natural world and our own experiences within it are incorporated into more
utilitarian forms of art too. Architecture, often seen as an inorganic structural
component, can mimic the landscape surrounding it. The 15th century Inca site ofMachu
Picchu in Peru contains dwellings with pyramidal stonewalls rising like the nearby
mountain the site is named for. In addition to the buildings being extremely stable, their
design directly reflects the cultural importance given the entire area. Machu Picchu was
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the center of Inca civilization. The development included terraced farms, homes,
industrial buildings and religious temples.
Above image: Machu Picchu archeological site. Detail.
The image above has been reposted by the kind permission of Colby Chester. Please
note that this material is under copyright and cannot be reproduced in any capacity
without explicit permission from the copyright holder.
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Machu Picchu
The image above is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike
License 3.0 (HTML). It is attributed to Martin St-Amant and the original version can be
found here (HTML).
Social and Collaborative Art
Art contributes to many social functions too. Parades feature colorful banners,
extravagant floats and plastic inflatable characters from pop culture. Many ceremonies
and rituals rely on works of art to act as vessels for the spirit world. Totem poles tell
elaborate stories, using real and mythic animals to illustrate them. The Haida totem
poles pictured below have a hierarchal structure to them so that the most important
character in the story is at the top of the pole.
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Haida Totems, wood and paint, no date. Collection of the Burke Museum of Natural
History, Seattle.
This material is in the public domain.
In another example, one of the functions for the calabashes mentioned above is to
distribute beer at both social festivals and sacred rituals.
The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt discussed in module 2 and pictured again
below combines thousands of individually created quilts, each bearing the name of a
victim of AIDS, into a collective image of loss and remembrance for family members and
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friends. Exhibiting the quilt around the United States has brought awareness about the
disease to the general public.
NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, Washington, D.C.
This image is in the public domain.
Artists sometimes work in collaboration with others that have special technical training
or knowledge in a particular medium to create something they couldn’t do on their own.
In an example, Canadian artist Rolf Harder teamed with Design Collaborative
Montreal to create the Peace Bridge Stamp.
The Chicago Public Art Group is a collaborative organization creating murals, mosaics
and other art works for public spaces. Each project carries a theme significant to its
specific location: from a colorful mural seen by commuters at a rapid transit stop to
“Hopes and Dreams”, a large mosaic panel in downtown Chicago welcoming the new
millennium. Each project is unique and involves the work of many artists, planners and
volunteers.
As a final example, the Burning Man celebration at Black Rock City in Nevada draws
thousands of people - artists and non-artists, in a weeklong festival of art installations,
performances and elaborate costumes that surround the construction and ultimate
immolation of a massive effigy known as the Burning Man. The festival’s creativity and
expression serves a communal social function. In the photo below you can see the
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concentric layout of Black Rock City – constructed and taken down each year – with the
Burning Man sculpture isolated in the middle.
Ariel view of the Burning Man Celebration, Black Rock City, Nevada.
The image above is released under a Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0
(HTML). It is attributed to Kyle Harmon and the original version can be found here
(HTML).
Politics, Conflict and War
The experiences of politics, conflict and war have been represented in works of art for
thousands of years. They become documents, signifiers and symbols for power,
remembrance, culture and national pride.
An ancient symbol of this power is the sculpture of Lammasu (below), a protective spirit
carved into a massive bas-relief into the main gate of the Assyrian court nearly two
thousand years ago. The figure has the head of a man, the body of a bull and the wings
of an eagle.
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Lammasu, the Human Headed Winged Bull, Assyrian. Carved stone. 721-705 BCE.
Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago.
The image above is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike
License 3.0 (HTML). It is attributed to Trjames and the original version can be
found here (HTML).
In another subtler example but with no less visual effect, a ceramic Standing Male
Warrior from the Mayan culture of Central America (in the photo below) looks out at the
viewer in a stance of informal attention. The figure is only eleven inches high but gives
us a trove of information about how Mayan soldiers dressed for battle. A thick vest with
detailed patterning covers his torso. A necklace with heavy cupped objects (possibly
sea or turtle shells) protects his upper body. The thick belt and loincloth at his waist and
the strong bracelets on each wrist add to his protection. The round earrings are typical
Mayan accessories. The fingers of his right hand are slightly curled as if he held a club
or spear at one time.
For all the restrained beauty in the sculpture, the warrior’s shield and helmet dominate
the composition. The shield, held at ease just above the figure’s foot, is embellished
with a centralized mask and radiating scallops around the outer edge. The whole shield
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looks battered and bent from use. The helmet is in the form of an eagle or hawk’s head,
surrounded by a heavy necklace of rectangular bars. Vestiges of paint still cling to parts
of the sculpture, and it’s easy to imagine how colorful it would have first appeared.
Compare the Standing Male Warrior to the Terra Cotta Army from China (also pictured
below). Discovered in 1974 and dating to the second century BCE, the Chinese figures,
all life size, stand in neat rows to guard the nearby tomb of Emperor Qin. In this
instance the idea of power and preservation of order is carried into the afterlife. Each
soldier’s face is modeled as an individual and their armored robes show lots of detail
and patterning. Similar to the Mayan figure, their right hands are curled to hold a club,
spear or other kind of weapon.
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Mayan Warrior
The image above is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike
License 3.0 (HTML). It is attributed to Michel Wal and the original version can be
found here (HTML).
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Emperor Qin’s Terra Cotta Army. Life size. China, 210 BCE
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License 3.0 (HTML). It is attributed to Shawn Kinkade and the original version can be
found here (HTML).
Nations identify themselves with specific images. A flag is an example that best
represents a particular nation. There is symbolic meaning in a flag’s colors, the depicted
objects and any text that may be included in them. For example, each white star on the
American flag represents one of the fifty states that comprise the nation. In comparison,
the flag of Mongolia uses a sky blue central bar, the country’s national color, and
incorporates Buddhist religious symbols in yellow on the left.
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“Uncle Sam” (below) is a figurative representation that symbolizes the United States
(“Uncle Sam” stands for “U.S”). He is dressed in America’s symbolic colors red, white
and blue. This stern-faced visage was used in state advertising to recruit young men to
the Army during World War I and is now an icon of American political history.
Above: James M. Flagg, Uncle Sam Recruiting Poster, 1916. Collection: Library of
Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.
This image is in the public domain.
Until now we have looked at examples that infer war and conflict. Let’s take a look at
one that shows the battle as it happens.
The Japanese war epic The Tale of Heiji contains a series of texts and scroll paintings
describing the Heiji Rebellion from the tenth century. The scroll section below shows
rebels burning the Imperial Sanjo Palace in Kyoto. While flames and smoke rise from
the palace the chaos of battle goes on around it. Here war itself becomes the subject
matter of the artwork, giving an historical account of the action but also a graphic
aesthetic description of the event.
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The Burning of the Sanjo Palace, Detail from the Heiji monogatori scrolls. Ink and colors
on paper, 13th century. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
This material is in the public domain.
One of the most famous testaments to the horrors of war is Pablo
Picasso’sGuernica from 1937. We saw this work in module 2 in the context of how the
artist prepared and organized the final painting through sketches, studies and changes
in the actual work. Picasso painted Guernica in response to the bombing of the Spanish
Basque town by the German air force at the request of Spain’s General Franco during
the Spanish Civil War. Picasso shows us a nightmarish scene of death and destruction
within an orchestrated chaos of black, white and gray. The bull on the left is interpreted
as Franco himself, watching passively over the carnage in front of him. The gored horse
near the middle represents the Spanish people – wounded and flailing as they try to
resist. A figure thrusts a candle through the open window at the upper right, a reference
to the rest of the world as they watch the atrocities taking place. The only direct
evidence of battle lies in the dead soldier on the floor, still clutching his broken sword
(refer back to the right hands of the Mayan Standing Male Warrior and the figures in
the Terra Cotta Army to see visual comparisons to Picasso’s soldier).
During the 1970’s and 1980’s artist Leon Golub created a series of paintings
documenting the abuses that can arise in unstable political
climates. Golub’s Mercenaries shows soldiers for hire as they call out and taunt each
other in an atmosphere of disorder. They lack the discipline of a trained army,
and Golub capitalizes on this idea by arranging the figures in a disjointed, asymmetrical
composition. His use of a large-scale format (the painting is nearly 8 feet high) and the
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compliments red and green increases the menace and power of the figures. In the
artist’s words:
“The mercenary is not a common subject of art, but is a near-universal means of
establishing or maintaining control under volatile or up-for-grabs political
circumstances”*.
*Leon Golub The Mercenaries, Interview with Matthew Baigell (1981)
Memorials
The aftermath of war gives rise to memorials as vessels of remembrance for those who
died. They are literally touchstones for families, friends, communities and entire nations
to grieve. As works of art they provide a public space of honor and resolve to never
forget the lives and sacrifices made by those who go to war.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. (below) is an example. Designed
by the architect and sculptor Maya Lin, Its abstract formal design, wedge shape and
placement created a new approach to traditional memorial design ideas. The work is set
into an earthen embankment facing out to the viewer.
It’s made with a dark gabbro stone that when polished produces a highly reflective
surface. The names of 58,191 soldiers killed or missing during the conflict are cut into
the stone face. Visitors walks a gently descending pathway towards the center of the
memorial, the wall of names becoming larger as you go, to a height of ten feet at the
middle. As they stare at the rows of names on the wall visitors see their own image
reflected back. The path rises as you walk toward the other end (see the second image
below).
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Maya Lin: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 1982, Washington, D.C. Aerial view.
This material is in the public domain
Maya Lin: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 1982. Washington, D.C.
This material is in the public domain
Peace
Like so many other things we experience in our world that translate into art, those that
engender ideas of peace and tranquility take many different forms. Some of these are
iconic, others transitory and changing. One such icon is a 19th century painting by
Edward Hicks. In the Peaceable Kingdom Hicks describes the world with a visually
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literal translation of bible verse: "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard
shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and fatling together; and a
little child shall lead them." Hicks’ painting (of which there are many versions), includes
the scene of English colonist William Penn’s signing of a treaty with
the Leni Lanape tribe of Native Americans.
In the photograph below, a young woman participating in a peaceful demonstration in
the 1960’s holds a flower out to a military police officer. This small gesture is significant
because it breaks the tension of the standoff between them and is akin to a
universal symbol of peace: a dove carrying an olive branch.
Female Demonstrator Offering a Flower to a Military Police Officer, 1967.
This material is in the public domain.
Other artistic expressions of peace include large public monuments. One example is
the Peace Arch in Blaine, Washington (see the image below). Built in 1921, the stone
arch straddles the international boundary between the two countries and
commemorates the ongoing peaceful coexistence between Canada and the United
States.
Related to this arch are many others collectively called Arches of Triumph. These
arches stretch through art history starting from Roman times. They signify peace
through the idea of military victory and national pride. The Arc de Triomphe in Paris is
perhaps the most famous (see the image below). Built in the fist half of the nineteenth
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century, the arch stands as a victory monument to all French soldiers who fought in the
Napoleonic Wars, and since then has become an icon of French victory over aggression
and war. At 162 feet high, its massive bulk and beautiful proportions are a testament to
permanence.
The Peace Arch, Blaine, Washington. 1921. 67 feet high.
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holder of this file allows anyone to use it for any purpose, provided that the copyright
holder is properly attributed. Redistribution, derivative work, commercial use, and all
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Arc de Triomphe, Paris, France. Inaugurated in 1836.
This material is in the public domain
A more contemporary example of peace, and one that is etched into popular culture, is
the graphic Peace Symbol (below) designed by Gerald Holtom in 1958 for use in the
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. It is a universal signifier for peace and can be
found on flags, buttons, banners and clothing. The symbol is incorporated on theLennon
Wall, a public space in the city of Prague in the Czech Republic dedicated to the
memory of John Lennon, the late member of the Beatles rock band and an activist for
peace. In the 1980’s Czech youths tagged graffiti on the wall as an outlet for their
frustration against the Communist regime in power at the time. One of Lennon’s bestknown songs about peace and love is titled Imagine.
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Peace Symbol, Gerald Holtom, 1958.
This material is in the public domain.
Graffiti on the Lennon Wall, Prague, Czech Republic.
The image above is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-CommercialShare-Alike License 3.0 (HTML). It is attributed to Juliano Mattos and the original
version can be found here (HTML).
Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/courses/arth101b
Attributed to: www.sbctc.edu (adapted)
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Conclusion
Artistic expression documents, anticipates and translates what we experience in our
world. Ideas of our identity, everyday life, our social interactions and the natural world
around us become subject matter. Art of the past is a resource in understanding how
different cultures use the visual language to explain shared experience. Some of the
artworks are timeless and sustaining, others are gritty and challenging to look at. All
leave footprints on the path we tread: our lives and our world.
Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/courses/arth101b
Attributed to: www.sbctc.edu (adapted)
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