1. Cross-Cultural Perspectives
1.1. Form
1.1.1. Connoisseurs of Form
1.1.1.1. Formalism: identify principles of composition, such as organic unity among elements, balanced sense of symmetry, and recurring shapes.
1.1.1.2. No historical, cultural, or personal context needed in analysis
1.1.1.3. Objective to identify the finest works of a style based on: Truths, values, feelings
1.1.2. Form in Northwest Coast Art
1.1.2.1. Ethnology-the analysis and comparison of ethnographic data across cultures
1.1.2.2. Franz Boas artistic form deeper meaning
1.1.3. Structure in Northwest Coast Art
1.1.3.1. Structuralist-deep inherit universal patterns of human mind that culture is built on
1.1.3.2. Speculations of Claude Levi-Strauss: Analysis superficial and based on assumptions
1.1.4. Structure in Northwest Coast Culture
1.1.4.1. Potlatch-giving festival to bestow titles inherited by ancestors and raise prestige using mask and ceremonial regalia
1.1.4.2. Hunger carries on many meanings: greed, immorality, and children
1.1.4.3. Big house is metaphor for their cosmology
1.2. Meaning
1.2.1. Reading Symbols
1.2.1.1. Denotative: denoting the literal and explicit meaning
1.2.1.2. Heraldry: "the tradition of graphic emblems that represent the histories and prerogatives of high-status individuals, families, and corporate bodies in Europe” (Burt 98).
1.2.1.3. British Heraldry changes depending on what family or distinction have been earned
1.2.2. Explicit Meanings
1.2.2.1. Western iconography requires cultured understanding
1.2.2.2. Benin is well-ordered hierarchal society
1.2.3. Limits to Iconographic Analysis
1.2.3.1. Iconic imagery may not be so easily deciphered.
1.2.3.2. Franz Boas attempts to decode Pacific Northwest artifacts
1.2.3.3. Haplin (1994) clarifies interpretive mistakes of Boas
1.2.4. Hidden Meanings
1.2.4.1. Beyond the social connotation of iconography
1.2.4.2. Researchers are trapped by our own linguistic and symbolic universe
1.3. Performance
1.3.1. Showing Off
1.3.1.1. People in all societies use dress to describe or communicate something
1.3.1.2. Grandmother paint flowing designs with menstrual blood
1.3.1.3. Chinese's customs strictly enforced as part of the states control
1.3.2. Parades
1.3.2.1. Costumes and performance of Papua New Guinea Highlands: feathered headdress, painted faces, oiled bodies, and shell ornaments
1.3.2.2. In Britain, the parade functions to display: power, tradition, and solidarity
1.3.3. The Art of Impersonation
1.3.3.1. Costumes make people into artifacts
1.3.3.2. Community Solidarity through Ritual can take 10-20 years construct
1.3.3.3. In the Niger Delta, Nigeria, masquerade impersonating and invoking water spirits of the creeks
1.3.4. Performance by Proxy
1.3.4.1. Shadow puppets are silhouettes on a cloth screen
1.3.4.2. Stories change to the needs of the community
1.4. Archaeology
1.4.1. Archaeological Methodology in Peru
1.4.1.1. 1960s archaeologist started to decipher glyphs, identify dates, and important rulers
1.4.1.2. Horizon: a period shared over many localities
1.4.1.3. Moche and Nazca cradle of complex culture
1.4.2. Moche Iconography
1.4.2.1. Scenes: certain human and other figures and objects as motif that recurred in certain combinations
1.4.2.2. Sacrificial Ceremony: Motif based on common sense recognition.
1.4.2.3. Moche are becoming syncretic and adapted to Christian iconography
1.4.3. Moche Culture
1.4.3.1. Fantastic creatures show natures challenges
1.4.3.2. Rituals to deposit sacrificial victims in the sea renewed connection with sacred deities
1.4.3.3. Sacrificial pot is filled with symbolic meaning
1.4.4. Nasca Iconography
1.4.4.1. Unlike Moche, Nazca pottery does not lay out a scene
1.4.4.2. Researchers looked not at one image but the entire artifact
1.5. The Work of Art
1.5.1. Art in Anthropology
1.5.1.1. Anthropologist have provided deeper meaning to: - Religion-beyond Christianity and gods - Economics-beyond capitalism and markets
1.5.1.2. Ghost dance as art, religion, and politics
1.5.1.3. Two distinct elements: - Form of an artifact - Ideas linked to the form
1.5.2. Art in Cosmology
1.5.2.1. Art and artifacts function well to explain deep complex things: origins, morality, and values
1.5.2.2. Papua New Guinea Cosmology: relics represent relationship between men.
1.5.3. Art at Work
1.5.3.1. Alfred Gell (1990s): Art as part of social relations not a reflection of social relations
1.5.3.2. Power of Art: artifacts could act as social agents, power of metaphor, and patterns affect the way we understand things
1.5.3.3. All colors are important elements of society and valued for different reasons
1.5.4. Art in Cosmic Agency
1.5.4.1. Visual forms have special power to show patterns of meaning and describe
1.5.4.2. Walibiri Designs: - Simple line shapes - Common meanings of lines and circles
2. Artistic Globalization
2.1. The Art World
2.1.1. Art History as ideology
2.1.1.1. Challenge of Freedom from the concept of art
2.1.1.2. The art world is connected to complex culture and economic system
2.1.1.3. Western concept of Art is a socially constructed catalog
2.1.2. Reappraising Art History
2.1.2.1. Art Historians rethink the discipline
2.1.2.2. New Art History looks like the Old Art History
2.1.2.3. Entire system and institutions
2.1.3. Art as Collectibles
2.1.3.1. Beauty is in the eye of the shareholder
2.1.3.2. Institutions developed magazine
2.1.3.3. Metropolitan elite can invest in collectibles
2.1.4. The Art Brokers
2.1.4.1. Museums will not hold on to items with recent controversial past
2.1.4.2. Genre are maintained by a balance but is also challenged
2.1.4.3. In 2011, Chinese Academy of Art was ready to join the dialogue
2.2. The Exotic Primitive
2.2.1. Primitivism and Primitive Art
2.2.1.1. Primitivism developed during Atlantic slave trade
2.2.1.2. British stereotyped Benin society as brutal, savage and superstitious peoples
2.2.1.3. Museums did not change language or ideology but was an exception to the rule
2.2.2. Adopting Primitive Art
2.2.2.1. Copying Cultures without Copyrights
2.2.2.2. Western presentation of Tribal Art did not include African classification
2.2.2.3. Individual creative artist rather than ethnographic identity
2.2.3. The Primitive Art Market
2.2.3.1. ethnographic present - a description of a culture as it was prior to contact with colonial nations
2.2.3.2. Authentic pieces focused of tribal art focused on what the West wanted
2.2.3.3. Producers usually poor and powerless
2.2.3.4. Museums receiving private collections continues cycle of development of high value
2.2.4. Exhibiting Exotic Artefacts
2.2.4.1. New Approach to Primitive Art
2.2.4.2. The exhibits represented a shift of attitude of own civilization.
2.2.4.3. British Museum maintaining elite ideology
2.3. Marketing Exotic Art
2.3.1. Exporting Local Artefacts
2.3.1.1. Indigenous groups have been systemically marginalized
2.3.1.2. Haida of Queen Charlotte Islands: Increased trade depleted furs
2.3.1.3. Carving their new future: Carved argillite, tobacco pipes, human figurines, European images
2.3.2. Reconsidering Authenticity
2.3.2.1. Collectors market represent apparent contradiction
2.3.2.2. Nelson Graburn, Art of acculturation
2.3.2.3. Art forms from “Ethnic” markets has become big business
2.3.3. Market Contributions to Local Culture
2.3.3.1. Selling Local Culture
2.3.3.2. Nationalized Authentic Primal Culture
2.3.3.3. Art produced for the market and for ritual purposes
2.3.4. The Homogenization of Exotic Art
2.3.4.1. Small communities carry symbolic property
2.3.4.2. Former colonized people of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas
2.4. Artistic Colonialism
2.4.1. Images of Appropriation
2.4.1.1. Images function for descendants have inclination to reflect nostalgically on colonial history
2.4.1.2. North America Land of the “noble savage”
2.4.1.3. Uneasy Admirations and Critical Analysis
2.4.2. Finding a Place in the Art World
2.4.2.1. Colonized minorities have included art in national dialogue
2.4.2.2. Oklahoma style of Native American painting: - Market developed in Santa Fe. - Developed Santa Fe Indian School
2.4.3. Art Goes Global
2.4.3.1. India: Established schools and challenged local artistic concepts
2.4.3.2. Crafting Concept of Fine Art
2.4.3.3. Bijutsu=beautiful technique
2.4.4. Global but Exclusive
2.4.4.1. Artist different from what is expected usually receive prejudice
2.4.4.2. People treated as ethnic if different
2.5. The Global and the Local
2.5.1. The Commodification of Art
2.5.1.1. Past 100 years the world has hanged more than in the past 300 years
2.5.1.2. Crises and the rise of Tigers and Dragons
2.5.1.3. Exporting art to developed wealthier countries
2.5.2. Universal and National Museums
2.5.2.1. 2002 North American and European museum directors released "Declaration on the Importance and Value of Universal Museums"
2.5.2.2. “World as one” is Western perspective
2.5.2.3. Shared responsibility of human creativity
2.5.3. Alternative Museums
2.5.3.1. Colonies have been devastated and continue to be devastated
2.5.3.2. Locals less interested in museums as repository for artifacts
2.5.3.3. Archaeologist have tried to rebuild and rethink relationships.
2.5.4. New Art Communities
2.5.4.1. Finding meaning in the survival
2.5.4.2. Britain has innumerable national and ethnic organizations
3. Western Perspectives
3.1. Prehistoric Art
3.1.1. Discovering Antiquity
3.1.1.1. Times inscribed on Greek and Roman structures, sculptures, coins
3.1.1.2. Archeological interpretation trace: - Culture history - Identify artifacts style, time, and place
3.1.1.3. Theorist developed ages: The Drift, Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age
3.1.2. The Dawn of Art
3.1.2.1. Archeologist analysis of artifacts make assumptions about their use
3.1.2.2. European myth of meaning of archeological remains
3.1.3. Prehistoric Myths
3.1.3.1. Women held original positions of power and evolved to male supremacy
3.1.3.2. Gendered research emphasized solar vs. lunar elements.
3.1.3.3. Lewi Morgan and E.B. Tylor (Important Anthropologist) - Claimed matriarchal origins - Described Iroquois connection and matriarchal societies
3.1.4. The Politics of Prehistory
3.1.4.1. Artifacts and art are extremely political
3.1.4.2. Native American Prehistory in a Colonized Country
3.2. Primitive Art
3.2.1. Savages and Anthropologists
3.2.1.1. Primitive used by British to describe Aboriginal peoples; and represent primal stage in human evolution.
3.2.1.2. Characteristics of small societies
3.2.1.3. European believed “primitive” societies represent window to their own origins
3.2.2. Evolution, Diffusion, and Speculation
3.2.2.1. Largely speculative based on collections of colonial agents, not firsthand experiences or research
3.2.2.2. Pitt Rivers evolutionary analysis 1874-1884
3.2.2.3. Typology-arranging artifacts from around the world in sequence
3.2.3. Identifying Cultures, Areas, and Styles
3.2.3.1. 20th Century anthropologist collected empirical facts among colonized Native North Americans, Africans, and Pacific Islanders
3.2.3.2. Cultural areas still used even after colonial America and Manifest Destiny has altered cultural landscape
3.2.4. The Survival of Evolution and Diffusion
3.2.4.1. Barry Craig (2005) researched shield in Papua New Guinea
3.2.4.2. "'Primitive art' has gone through several transformations in recent generations" (Burt 65).
3.3. The Origins of Art
3.3.1. New Worlds and Histories
3.3.1.1. "The revival of ancient knowledge and skills produced new theories of history" (Burt 8).
3.3.1.2. The riches brought home to Europe helped shift the balance of power in society, challenging the political and intellectual certainties of the state and church" (Burt 8).
3.3.2. Industrial and Intellectual Revolutions
3.3.2.1. 18th century classified fine arts as: Painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and dance
3.3.2.2. Artifacts were collected and classified as curiosities of God’s creations
3.3.2.3. Carl Linnaeus devised system of classification
3.3.3. British Museum
3.3.3.1. The origins of the museum system give us clues of the social and cultural significance
3.3.3.2. British Museum distinguished from Natural History Museum
3.3.3.3. British Museum: Collecting and Classifying
3.3.4. Politics and Commerce, Art and Craft
3.3.4.1. National museums are a source of national pride
3.3.4.2. Art has always been investment opportunities
3.4. Oriental Art
3.4.1. Orientalism
3.4.1.1. Europeans did not understand the art, but appreciated the sophistication as “Oriental art”
3.4.1.2. Orient is European construct Europe's greatest and richest colonies
3.4.2. Islamic Art: An Orientalist Stereotype?
3.4.2.1. "Islamic art has continued to flourish in museums and universities in Europe and North America” (Burt 40)
3.4.2.2. Islamic art that is portrayed is identified as decorative not fine art.
3.4.2.3. Islamic Art is viewed as homogenous
3.4.3. Indian Art: Decorative and Denigrated
3.4.3.1. Concentrated on naturalistic images rather than aesthetic form
3.4.3.2. Archeological categories of specific periods: Brahmanical, Buddhist, Muhammadan
3.4.4. Chinese Art: Unrecognized Connoisseurship
3.4.4.1. Luxury artifacts were allocated according to official regulation controlling quality and quantity
3.4.4.2. The Europe Trade
3.4.4.3. Chinese tea and porcelain in high demand from Europeans
3.5. Classical Art
3.5.1. The Obsession with Ancient Greece
3.5.1.1. Greek reimagines Parthenon marbles
3.5.1.2. Greek Statues also used to proliferate racial superiority
3.5.2. Biblical Antiquity
3.5.2.1. European claims heritage to Ancient Civilization
3.5.2.2. Two areas: Ancient Egypt and Ancient Mesopotamia
3.5.2.3. French and English competed for in acquiring and replicating Ancient Egyptian style
3.5.3. Classical Art History
3.5.3.1. Art is part of a Zeitgeist- spirit of the age, spirit of a culture
3.5.3.2. Hegel believed: Art should idealize nature Art should not portray it exactly
3.5.4. Classicism and Eurocentrism
3.5.4.1. Art historians personal and cultural judgements
3.5.4.2. No interest in cultural relativism