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Visualizing Cultural Collisions

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Saved by Abigail Heiniger
on August 27, 2014 at 8:59:42 pm
 

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Visualizing Cultural Collisions

 


Heroes: Leading the Clash of Titans

As we said yesterday, heroes were used to define the individual and community. Today, we're going to explore heroes in visual media.

 

Let's begin with the ancient world and compare it with the heroes of Modernity.

 

Mentuemher, Egyptian prince. Early sixth century BCE. Granite. Cairo Museum.

 

Compare this Egyptian statue with later Greek Kurous statues.

 

 

The Ghetty Kouros. Marble. 540-520 BCE.

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. Identify similarities and differences. What is the significance of the cultural overlap? What is significant about the distinctions between these two statues?  
  2. How do these statues construct masculinity (as a cultural entity).
    1. What is the significance of clothing and nudity?
      1. Male nudity appeared in Greek art during the Geometric period (centuries before the Archaic period). This distinguishes Greek art from that of neighboring cultures (none of which allowed depictions of male nudity in art).
    2. What is the significance of body stance (one leg forward, arms rigidly held at the side, clenched fists, eyes forward)?

Carrying the Classical Hero into Modernity

The Renaissance marks the beginning of Modernity in Western culture. 

 

  

Michelangelo. David. 1501-1504. Marble.

Michelangelo was a part of the High Renaissance in Italy. This statue carries Classical traditions into Modernity.

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. How does this statue resemble Greek and Egyptian statuary?
  2. How does this statue modify Classical traditions?
  3. How does this visual object reflect shifting personal and cultural needs?

 

Analyzing the Nude Male Sculpture with Visual Rhetoric  

The ideal of masculinity (and humanity) generated by the male nude in sculpture and the visual art is:

 

  1. Masculinity is a NATURAL role (generated internally/biologically).
    1. Ironically, this is a social construction (masculinity is socially constructed as NATURAL through the male nude)!
  2. The male nude is the default human/default citizen.  

 

These ideas about masculinity and humanity became paramount in cultural collisions.

  • For example, Greek viewers (who associated masculinity with nudity) saw clothed sculptures as feminine (see Greek Kore statues). Thus, when Greek viewers encountered statues or images (like the Mentuemher above) perceived it as effeminate (this led to stereotypes about all non-Greeks being effeminate and Greeks being the only "true" men).  
  • Do we make similar cultural assumptions today?

 Cultural Collisions

Let's look at heroic images from modern cultures and discuss the ways in which the hero is used to represent ideals about the individual and the community.

 

 

Jacques David. "Napoleon Crossing the Alps" (1809) Oil paint and canvas.

 

Discussion Questions:

  • How does this image conflate the hero's individual identity with the community (nation)?
  • How does this image capture the collision of cultures?  

 

Long Life to the Victory of Chairman Mao's Art and Literature Revolutionary Line

Date: 1972

Culture: China

Medium: Printed poster; ink and color on paper

 

 

Chatting over Tea

Wu Jide 
(Chinese, born 1942)

Date: 1984

Culture: China

Medium: Multiblock woodcut; ink and color on paper

 

Weiqi Players

Period: Qing dynasty (1644–1911)

Date: ca. 1644–1753

Culture: China

Medium: Woodblock print; ink and color on paper

 

 

Training at a Tianjin Girls' High School

Date: 1920–30

Culture: China

Medium: Woodblock print; ink and color on paper

 

Bryant Baker (American, born England, 1881–1970). Pioneer Woman, 1927. Woolaroc Museum, Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

 

Cyrus Edwin Dallin (American, 1861–1944). Appeal to the Great Spirit, 1912 (cast ca. 1922). Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire.

 

Alexander Phimister Proctor (American, born Canada, 1860–1950). Buckaroo, 1914 (cast 1915 or after). Denver Art Museum. 

 

 

Henry Thompson, Outfield, New York Giants, from the series Picture Cards (no. 249)

Issued by Bowman Gum Company

Date: 1952

Medium: Commerical color lithograph

Dimensions: sheet: 3 1/8 x 2 1/16 in. (8 x 5.3 cm)

Classification: Prints

 

"Stan" Kostka, Touchdown Next Stop!, from the "Baseball and Football" set (R311), issued by the National Chicle Company to promote Diamond Stars Gum

Issued by National Chicle Gum Company, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Date: 1936

Medium: Albumen print (glossy finish)

 

Red Grange, from the "Baseball and Football" set (R311), issued by the National Chicle Company to promote Diamond Stars Gum

Issued by National Chicle Gum Company, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Date: 1936

Medium: Albumen print (glossy finish)

 

See the "Gridiron Greats" exhibit in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

 


 

Aesthetic Trends

Realistic

Imaginative

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