an introduction to the visual arts - columbia southern … · title slide 1 author jen baker...

Prebles' ArtformsAn Introduction to the Visual Arts

CHAPTER

ELEVENTH EDITION

Prebles' Artforms, Eleventh EditionPatrick Frank

Copyright © 2014, 2011, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.All Rights Reserved

Africa, Oceania, and the Americas

20



Learning Objectives

1. Describe art's integral role in the daily activities of native cultures in Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.

2. Recognize the variety of materials, styles, and cultural purposes that characterize traditional African art.

3. Compare ways that art serves a commemorative function in society.



Learning Objectives

4. Analyze the range of visual characteristics and meaning found in Oceanic art.

5. Examine the continuation of artistic traditions in native North American cultures.

6. Discuss art tracing historical developments in Central and South America.



Africa

• North of the Sahara, art forms fall under either Egyptian, Roman, or Islamic traditions.

• Here, we refer to sub-Saharan Africa.

• Head from Nok culture, Nigeria

Some of the earliest art forms

Terra cotta and nearly life-size

Vivid facial expressions



Africa.[Fig. 20-1]



Head. Nok culture. Nigeria.500 BCE–200 CE. Terra cotta. Height 14-1⁄2".

National Museum, Lagos, Nigeria. Photograph: Werner Forman Archive. [Fig. 20-2]

Closer Look: Nok Head

Web Resource: Nok Terracottas

http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/art/web_resources/Web_Resource_Nok_Terracottas.html

http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/art/web_resources/Web_Resource_Nok_Terracottas.html

http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/art/2012_CL_redirects/ART/CL2012_189_Nok_Head.html

http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/art/2012_CL_redirects/ART/CL2012_189_Nok_Head.html



Africa

• Ife, a Yoruba city in southwest Nigeria

Male portrait head

Skill in bronze casting

• Thin-walled, hollow

• Naturalistic

• Neighboring Benin culture

Head

• Somewhat more abstracted

Bronze-casting a guarded secret



Male Portrait Head. 13th century. Bronze. Height 11-7⁄16".

Ife, Nigeria. University of Glasgow Archive Services, Frank Willett collection.[Fig. 20-3]



Benin Head. c.1550.Metalwork-bronze, 9-1⁄4" × 8-5⁄8" × 9".

Nigeria. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection. Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979. Acc.n.: 1979.206.86. Photograph:

Schecter Lee. Image © The MoMA/Art Resource/Scala, Florence. [Fig. 20-4]



Africa

• Ivory pendant from Benin

Carved in 16th century

Portrays a queen mother

Human heads and mudfish

• Bamana people of Mali

Carved wooden antelope figure headdresses

• Dance performed to imitate mythology of male and female tyi wara



Pendant Mask. Court of Benin, Nigeria. Early 16th century.Ivory, iron, copper. Height 9-3⁄8".

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller,

(1978.412.323). Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence. [Fig. 20-5]

Closer Look: Hip Pendant Representing an Iyoba("Queen Mother")

http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/art/2012_CL_redirects/ART/CL2012_190_Hip_mask.html

http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/art/2012_CL_redirects/ART/CL2012_190_Hip_mask.html



Tyi Wara Dancers. Mali.Photograph: Dr. Pascal James Imperato. [Fig. 20-6]



Africa

• Cameroon

Style far removed from Ife and Benin

Separate areas of headdress defined by different patterns and textures

• Yoruba peoples of Nigeria

House post

• Meditation on the idea of support

• Diminutive proportions and almond-shaped parts



Large Dance Headdress. Bamenda area, Cameroon, Africa.19th century. Wood. Height 26-1⁄2".

Museum Rietberg, Zurich. Edward von der Heydt Collection. Photograph: Wettsin & Kauf.[Fig. 20-7]



Olembe Alaye. House Post. Yoruba, Nigeria.Mid-20th century. Wood and paint. Height 83".

Fowler Museum at UCLA. Photograph by Don Cole. [Fig. 20-8]



Africa

• Yoruba peoples of Nigeria

House post

• Seen in a 1959 photograph, Tomb of Former Chief Lisa

• Adds to meaning of community’s support

• Mangaaka power figure from Congo

Used to house medicinal matter

Metal pieces signifying agreement from civil cases, laws, etc.



Tomb of Former Chief Lisa. Ondo, Nigeria.Our featured House Post is third from left.

Photograph: W. Fagg, 1959. William B. Fagg Archive. Fowler Museum at UCLA. [Fig. 20-9]



Mangaaka Power Figure. 19th century.Yombe people, Republic of the Congo.

Wooden figure with iron nails. Height 345⁄8".Photograph: Claudia Obrocki. Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen, Berlin,

Germany. Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, NY. [Fig. 20-10]



Art Forms Us: Commemoration

• Veneration

Statue of Shyaam the Great

• King and founder of Kuba peoples

• Introduced iron smelting

• After Shyaam's death

• Successor slept with statue to facilitate transmission of wisdom

• Replica created if a royal portrait statue is damaged



Royal Portrait Figure. Kuba peoples. 18th century.Wood. Height 22".

Congo. The British Museum © The Trustees. [Fig. 20-11]




• Veneration

The Death of Marat

• A scientist, physician, and activist in the time of the French Revolution

• Stabbed brutally while in his home by a member of a competing faction

• David's interpretation

• Serene death with minimized bloodshed and skin imperfections



Jacques-Louis David. The Death of Marat. 1793.Oil on canvas. 5' 5" × 4' 2-1⁄2".

Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels/The Bridgeman Art Library. [Fig. 20-12]




• Veneration

Warhol, Double Elvis

• Publicity photo from film Flaming Star scaled close to life-size

• Displayed with 27 other single, double, and triple Elvises

• Multiplicity of copies undercutting the uniqueness of celebrity status

• Reproducible, as on the silver screen



Andy Warhol. Double Elvis. 1963.Silkscreen and acrylic on canvas. 83" × 53".

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Gift of the Jerry and Emily SpiegelFamily Foundation in honor of Kirk Varnedoe. Acc. n.: 2480.2001. © 2013. Digital image

MoMA, New York/Scala, Florence; the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. [Fig. 20-13]



Africa

• Textile arts

Kente cloth pattern "Mmeeda"

• Worn when something unprecedented happens

• Famously worn by Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana when he won the national election for president

Adire cloth

• Nigerian proverbs and sayings about the hand



Kente Cloth, Ghana."Mmeeda" ("Something that has not happened before"). 20th

century.Cloth (strip weave). 59-1⁄16".

Seattle Art Museum, Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company. Photograph: Paul Macapia. [Fig. 20-14]

Web Resource: Kente Cloths

http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/art/web_resources/Web_Resource_Kente_Cloths.html

http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/art/web_resources/Web_Resource_Kente_Cloths.html



Adire Cloth. "Women' s Wrapper with Human Hands and Proverbs" (detail). 1984.Dark and light blue cotton cloth, paste-resist and stencils, natural indigo dye. 76" × 62".Yoruba, Lagos, Nigeria. Collection of Flora Edouwaye S. Kaplan, NY. Photograph: Sheldan

Collins. [Fig. 20-15]



Oceania and Australia

• Oceania

Name for thousands of Pacific islands that comprise Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia

• Shared traditional beliefs

Creation of world from Earth Mother and Sky Father

Mana

• Spiritual power in people, places, things




• Little pottery due to clay shortage

• Tools of stone, bone, or shell

• Materials of wood, bark, and small plants

• Solomon Islands

Woodcarvings and masks for rituals

Prow figure with bird

• Guides voyagers that looks out for shoals and reefs



Oceania and Australia.[Fig. 20-16]



Protective Prow Figure from a War Canoe. 19th century.Wood, inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Height 6-1⁄2".

New Georgia Island, Solomon Islands. Werner Forman Archive/Museum fur Volkerkunde, Basle, Switzerland. Location: 03. [Fig. 20-17]




• New Ireland bird mask

Strong carved patterns

Chickens holding snakes symbolizing opposition of sky and earth

• Carvings in Micronesia/Polynesia

Streamlined and highly finished

Female figure Nukuoro Atoll

• Unusual degree of abstraction

• Likely a set of traditional carving rules



Mask. New Ireland. c.1920.Painted wood, vegetable fiber, shell. 37-1⁄2" × 21-1⁄3".

Fowler Museum at UCLA. Photograph by Don Cole. [Fig. 20-18]



Female Figure. Nukuoro Atoll, Central Carolines.19th century. Wood. Height 15-9⁄16".

Honolulu Museum of Art, by exchange, 1943 (4752). [Fig. 20-19]




• Easter Island, Polynesia

Moai stone figures

• Represent ancestors who have taken on spiritual power

• On platforms overlooking small settlements

• Hawaiian aumakua

Elimination of extraneous body details

Powerful stance of female figure



Moai. Easter Island. c.1000–1500.Volcanic rock. Height 12'.

Photograph: Patrick Frank. [Fig. 20-20]

Web Resource: Secrets of Easter Island

http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/art/web_resources/Web_Resource_Secrets_of_Easter_Island.html

http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/art/web_resources/Web_Resource_Secrets_of_Easter_Island.html



Aumakua. Forbes Cave, Hawaii.Koa wood. Height 29".

Photograph: Seth Joel, Bishop Museum. [Fig. 20-21]




• Maori meeting house

Used for extended family gatherings and ancestor-honoring rituals

Ruatepupuke

• Named for the ancestor

• Symbolizes presence via architecture

• Face at the top of the gable

• Ridge pole with abstracted Earth Mother, Sky Father



Maori Meeting House called "Ruatepupuke," New Zealand; front view. 1881.

Length 56'. Height 13' 10".The Field Museum, Chicago. Photograph: Diane Alexander

White, Linda Dorman. Neg. #A112508c. [Fig. 20-22a]

Web Resource: Maori Meeting Houses

http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/art/web_resources/Web_Resource_Maori_Meeting_Houses.html

http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/art/web_resources/Web_Resource_Maori_Meeting_Houses.html



Maori Meeting House called "Ruatepupuke," New Zealand; ridge pole. 1881. Length 56'. Height 13' 10".

The Field Museum, Chicago. Photograph: Diane Alexander White, Linda Dorman. Neg. #A112508_c. [Fig. 20-22b]




• Australia

Humans present 40,000 years ago

• Semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers

• Bond between humans and nature in the Eternal Dreamtime

• Consistent imagery for hundreds of years

Funerary Rites... bark painting

• Story told in four sections

• Spirit leaving the body after death



Bunia. Funerary Rites and the Spirit' s Pathway After Death. Mid-20th century.Natural colors on bark.

Groote Eylandt, Arnhem Land, Northern Australia. © The Art Gallery Collection/Alamy. [Fig. 20-23]



Native North America

• Hopewell culture (modern Ohio)

2nd–6th century CE

Large burial mounds

• Later Adena culture

Great Serpent Mound, c. 1070 CE

• Many Native American artists today making traditional works

After period of disuse when reservations first established



Americas.[Fig. 20-24]



Great Serpent Mound. Ohio. Adena culture.c.1070 CE. Uncoiled length 1,370'.

Photograph: Mark Burnett/Photo Researchers, Inc. [Fig. 20-25]




• Weaving

Second Phase Chief Blanket

• Navajo pre-exile work

• Dense fabric that is nearly waterproof

• Austere, symmetrical pattern

• Pottery

Jar from Ácoma, Pueblo peoples

• Shaped without a wheel

• Abstract symbols without fixed meaning



Navajo. Second Phase Chief Blanket. c.1830–1850. Handspun wool with natural dyes. 74" × 60".

Private Collection. Photograph: Tony Berlant. [Fig. 20-26]



Jar. Ácoma Pueblo. c.1850–1900. Height 12-1⁄2".

Museum of Indian Arts & Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology Collections,Museum of New Mexico. Photographer Blair Clark. 7912/12. [Fig. 20-27]




• Kachinas

Spirits of invisible life forces

Zuni Pueblo and Hopi areas

Likenesses used by costumed male members in ceremonies

• Baskets

In Pacific Coast region

Weaved so tightly they can hold water

Art passed down maternally



Marshall Lomakema. Hopi Kachina. 1971.Shungopovi, Arizona. Painted wood. Height: 34".

Courtesy of National Museum of the American Indian/Smithsonian Institution (24/7572). Photograph: Carmelo Guadagno. [Fig. 20-28]



Pomo Feather Basket. California. Before 1920.Feathers, beads, and shells. 4" × 13" × 13".

Southwest Museum of the American Indian Collection, Autry National Center of American West, Los Angeles; 811.G.1683/CT.294. Photograph by Larry Reynolds. [Fig. 20-29]




• Plains Indians

Mato Tope (Four Bears)

• Buffalo hide exploit painting

• Moving figures in profile with no horizon line

• Northwest Coast tribes

Totem poles dedicated to mythology

Tlingit Community House

• Abstract animal shapes



Mato Tope (Four Bears). Robe with Mato Tope' s Exploits. c.1835.Buffalo hide, red wool cloth, sinew, dyed porcupine quills, horsehair and human hair;

brown, yellow, and black pigment. 63" × 83-3⁄4".Ethnographic Collection at the Bernisches Historisches Museum.

Photograph: S. Rebsamen. [Fig. 20-30]



Tlingit Community House. Ketchikan, Alaska.Photograph: Steve McCutcheon. [Fig. 20-31]



Pre-Conquest Centraland South America

• Olmec culture near today's Mexico City

• City of Teotihuacan

Pyramid of the Sun

• Sits over a deep cave

• Aligned to face sunset on August 12, the first day of Mayan calendar

Temple of the Feathered Serpent

• Opposite the Pyramid of the Sun

• Relief heads of the storm god



Pyramid of the Sun. 1st–7th century CE.700' wide, 200' high.

Teotihuacan. © John Flannery/Photoshot. [Fig. 20-32]

Architectural Panorama: Teotihuacán

Video: Pre-Hispanic City of Teotihuacán

http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/art/archSim/Teotihuacan.html

http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/art/archSim/Teotihuacan.html

http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/art/web_resources/Video_Pre-Hispanic_City_of_Teotihuacan.html

http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/art/web_resources/Video_Pre-Hispanic_City_of_Teotihuacan.html



Temple of the Feathered Serpent (detail). 150–200 CE.Teotihuacan. Photograph: The Art Archive/Dagli Orti. [Fig. 20-33]




• Maya

Hundreds of stone temples at Tikal

Temple I

• 200-foot pyramid with temple at top

Walls and roofs richly carved and painted

Lintel 24 from Yaxchilan

• Written symbols along edges

• Fleshy figures performing ritual



Temple I. Tikal, Guatemala. Maya. c.300–900 CE.Photograph: Danny Lehman/Corbis. [Fig. 20-34]

Video: Maya Rise and Fall

http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/art/web_resources/Video_Maya_Rise_and_Fall.html

http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/art/web_resources/Video_Maya_Rise_and_Fall.html



Lintel 24. 709 CE.Limestone. Height 43".

Yaxchilan. Maya. British Museum, London. © Justin Kerr, K2887. [Fig. 20-35]

Closer Look: Shield Jaguar and Lady Xok, Lintel 24, Yaxchilan

http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/art/2012_CL_redirects/ART/CL2012_244_Lintel_24_Yaxchilan.html

http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/art/2012_CL_redirects/ART/CL2012_244_Lintel_24_Yaxchilan.html




• Toltec civilization

Bridge between Maya and Aztec peoples

Recumbent figure from Chichen Itza ("Chacmool")

• Bowl held sacrificial offerings

• Massive carved figure



Chacmool. 10th–12th century.Toltec. Stone. Length 42".

akg-images/François Guénet. [Fig. 20-36]




• Aztecs

Artistic style sums up preceding styles

Human sacrifices at pyramid honoring both storm god and war god

Vessel of the Feathered Serpent Quetzalcoatl

• For sacrificial offerings

• Typical of Aztec art's menacing aspects



Vessel of the Feathered Serpent Quetzalcoatl. 1450–1521.Stone. Height 19".

Aztec. Museo Nacional de Antropologia, Mexico City. [Fig. 20-37]




• Incas

Skillful shaping and fitting of stone

Royal retreat center of Machu Picchu (modern-day Peru)

• Escaped Spanish detection

• Seems to be part of the mountainside

• Nazca peoples

Geometric lines and patterns in sand

Perfectly straight lines for miles



Machu Picchu, Peru. Early 16th century.Inca. © Kent Kobersteen/National Geographic Society/Corbis.

[Fig. 20-38]

Video: Historic Sanctuary of Macchu Picchu

Web Resource: Machu Picchu Flashback

http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/art/web_resources/Web_Resource_Machu_Picchu_Flashback.html

http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/art/web_resources/Web_Resource_Machu_Picchu_Flashback.html

http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/art/web_resources/Video_Historic_Sanctuary_of_Machu_Picchu.html

http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/art/web_resources/Video_Historic_Sanctuary_of_Machu_Picchu.html



Hummingbird.Nazca Valley, Peru. Photograph: Georg Gerster/Photo Researchers, Inc. [Fig. 20-39]




• Kero cups

One of few surviving Inca art forms

Carved and painted for ancient rituals

Flat patterns

• Stylistic descendants of pottery and textile design



Kero Cup. Peru. Late 16th–17th century. Wood with pigment inlay. 7-3⁄8" × 61-5⁄16".

Brooklyn Museum of Art, Museum Expedition 1941, Frank L. Babbott fund. 41.1275.5. [Fig. 20-40]

an introduction to the visual arts - columbia southern … · title slide 1 author jen baker...

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