WORLD OF ART EIGHTH EDITION CHAPTER 25 The Individual and Cultural Identity World of Art, Eighth Edition Henry M Sayre Copyright © 2016, 2013, 2010 by Pearson Education, Inc or its affiliates All rights reserved Learning Objectives Define nationalism and describe how the arts have been used to construct and critique national identities Describe how the visual signs of class inform works of art Discuss racial identity as it manifests itself in African-American art Introduction of • Gender plays an important role in the formation of identity, as does ethnic/class distinctions, as well as social and political allegiances to community and state • The masked dance is a ritual activity universally practiced from one culture to the next Introduction of • It unites the creative efforts of sculptors, dancers, musicians, etc • The banda mask is used by the Baga Mandori people who live on the Atlantic coastline of Guinea This is usually performed at night, but for the sake of creating a photographic record, villagers agreed to perform it at dusk Banda dance, Baga Mandori, Guinea 1987 Photograph courtesy of Frederick John Lamp [Fig 25-1] National Identity in Europe and America of • Throughout the nineteenth century and part of the twentieth, people around the world increasingly began to define themselves as part of larger groups • Nationalists claimed that people sharing the same language, historic experience and often ethnic identity, made up a nation National Identity in Europe and America of • Nationalism was closely tied to the idea of throwing off the yolk of monarchs and rulers • One of the great artistic expressions of this sentiment is Eugène Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People A bare-breasted Lady Liberty is symbolic of freedom's nurturing power Eugène Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People 1830 Oil on canvas 8' 6-3/8" × 10' 8" Musée du Louvre, Paris Louvre-Lens, France/Bridgeman Images [Fig 25-2] National Identity in Europe and America of • Nationalist sentiment in the U.S was tied to the country's self-definition as the home of rugged individuals able to fend for themselves in the frontier wilderness • John Gast illustrated this sense of American national identity in his popular painting American Progress John Gast, American Progress 1872 Oil on canvas 20-1/4 × 30-1/4" Private collection Photo © Christie's Images/Bridgeman Images [Fig 25-3] Double Consciousness and the Great Migration of • This Great Migration was later celebrated in a series of 60 paintings by the African-American artist Jacob Lawrence They represent the race itself, the shared humanity (or inhumanity) of what it means to be a black person in America Jacob Lawrence, The Migration of the Negro, Panel No 60: And the Migrants Kept Coming 1940–41 Casein tempera on hardboard panel 18 × 12" Museum of Modern Art, New York Double Consciousness and the Great Migration of • Aaron Douglas's Aspiration celebrates many of the same themes as Lawrence's Migration series • It depicted the progression out of slavery, out of the South, and toward the promise of the industrial North Aaron Douglas, Aspiration 1936 Oil on canvas × 5' Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Photo © Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Art © Heirs of Aaron Douglas/Licensed by VAGA, New York [Fig 25-17] New African-American Identities of • The "calling cards" of artist Adrian Piper were designed to rebuke the offenders who made racist comments near her or assumed she was "available" during social events • Piper identified as a woman, an American, and racially mixed; and these identities didn't rest easily with each other Adrian Piper, My Calling (Card) #1 (for Dinners and Cocktail Parties) 1986–90 Performance props: business cards with printed text on cardboard 3-1/2 × 2" Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN Gift of John P Bowles, 2006.558, 2006.559 Photo: Michael Cavanagh and Kevin Montague © APRA Foundation Berlin [Fig 25-18] Adrian Piper, My Calling (Card) #2 (for Bars and Discos) Performance props: business cards with printed text on cardboard, 3-1/2 × 2" Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN Gift of John P Bowles, 2006.558, 2006.559 Photo: Michael Cavanagh and Kevin Montague © APRA Foundation Berlin [Fig 25-18] New African-American Identities of • Thelma Golden's exhibition Freestyle introduced the phrase "Post-Black" into the discussion—artists who were first and foremost artists and only secondarily black • Rashid Johnson's shelf-like sculpture Souls of Black Folk—"a thing to put things on"—embodies just this "PostBlack" sensibility Rashid Johnson, Souls of Black Folk 2010 Black soap, wax, books, vinyl, brass, shea butter, plants, space rocks, mirrors, gold paint, stained wood 9' 6" × 10' 4-3/4" × 24-1/8" © Rashid Johnson Courtesy of the artist, Hauser & Wirth and David Kordansky Gallery The Critical Process of • Thinking about the Individual and Cultural Identity Flags were not commonly used as symbols of national identity until the eighteenth century Americans came to identify closely with their flag The Critical Process of • Thinking about the Individual and Cultural Identity One of the most controversial works of art that has ever addressed the politics that surround the American flag is Dread Scott's What Is the Proper Way to Display a U.S Flag? The Critical Process of • Thinking about the Individual and Cultural Identity It consisted of an American flag draped on the floor beneath photographs of flag-draped coffins and South Koreans burning the flag Beneath the photos was a ledger in which viewers were asked to record their opinions The Critical Process of • Thinking about the Individual and Cultural Identity The problem was that the flag was on the floor, and that it was hard to write in the ledger without stepping on it Viewers had to choose which they revered more—the flag or freedom of speech Dread Scott What Is the Proper Way to Display a U.S Flag? 1988 Gelatin silver print, U.S flag, book, pen, shelf, audience 6' 8" × 10' 8" × 5' [Fig 25-20] Thinking Back Define nationalism and describe how the arts have been used to construct and critique national identities Describe how the visual signs of class inform works of art Discuss racial identity as it manifests itself in African-American art ... 18-3/4" Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York ex coll.: C C Wang Family, Gift of Oscar L Tang Family, 2006.571 © 2015 Image copyright Metropolitan Museum of Art/ Art Resource/Scala, Florence [Fig 25- 5]... transformer, programming circuit, painted steel, and haniwa figures; dimensions variable Installation at the Museum of Art, Kochi, Japan Courtesy of Miyake Fine Art, Tokyo and Yanagi Studio [Fig 25- 6]... County Museum of Art Los Angeles County Fund 16.4 Image courtesy of LACMA [Fig 25- 7] George Bellows, A Day in June 1913 Oil on canvas 36-1/2 × 48" Detroit Institute of Arts Detroit Museum of Art