Art Can Forge Racial Identity and Preserve the History and Values of aN Group

Affiliate viii: Fine art and Identity

Peggy Claret and Pamela J. Sachant

8.i LEARNING OUTCOMES

Afterwards completing this chapter, yous should be able to:

• Name and categorize ways that artists explore the concept of identity

• Understand how art serves as a commentary on order

• Clarify how politics and societal concerns may influence art

• Empathize how fine art expresses private and grouping identity

• Empathise how art preserves national culture and personal identity

eight.ii INTRODUCTION

One of the more than important themes emerging from the last century has been the individual's search for identity. For case, genealogical websites have proliferated and special television programs are devoted to the subject field. Since it offset aired on PBS in 2012, Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s Finding Your Roots has been a popular program. The British version, The Guardian , has been successful since 2006.

Some anthropologists suggest that the deep-rooted interest in identity or ancestry is partly shaped by evolutionary forces dating back to early humans supporting each other in extended family groups. Anthropologist Dwight Read theorizes that the Neolithic people were the first to understand the concept of the family tree and the perception of self in a family unit and in society. ^ane If continued through claret, people take the tendency to be more than willing to intendance for each other; a mutual involvement and back up arrangement is readily realized inside a clan or a group.

Early humans created twoand three-dimensional likenesses of themselves in their environment to assistance sympathize who they were in relation to the other members of their group. Contemporary humans practise the same; they brand records of themselves with family members, well-nigh commonly in photographs and Selfies, and on Instagram. It is the same fundamental concept and placement in an environment that collectively identifies who we are in society, for example, in social gatherings, organizations, and religious settings. This means, above all, that nosotros must place ourselves within the world in guild to obtain identity. Children search for their identity at a very young historic period by observing and recognizing their parents and family members. Their markings within a uncomplicated cartoon of self and family—similar to those of early humans—aid them to vindicate and confirm who they are and how they are perceived by their family unit group.

Similar children, artists sometimes explore their identity through self-portraits and symbolically in works of art that relate to beginnings or culture. Doing and then allows them to take a look within their core and see how they fit within their contemporary culture; this investigation of self plays an important role in how artists understand their environment and the world.

Vincent van Gogh is known as a person who spent much of his time in confinement. He painted more than thirty cocky-portraits between the years 1886 and 1889, placing him amongst the most prolific self-portraitists of all time. Indeed, some of his about respected works are his cocky-portraits that trace his image throughout the final years of his life, the most crucial to his career. (Figures eight.1, 8.two, and eight.3) While Van Gogh used the study of his own image to aid develop his skills equally an artist, these self-portraits also give us insights into the artist's life and well being, how he fit in society, and his place amid the groups with whom he associated.

Figure 8.ane | Self-Portrait with Straw Chapeau

Creative person: Vincent van Gogh

Author: Met Museum

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Figure viii.2 | Self-portrait equally a painter

Artist: Vincent van Gogh

Author: Spider web Museum

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Figure viii.three | Self-portrait with a bandaged ear

Creative person: Vincent van Gogh

Author: The Courtland Plant of Art

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Like Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso painted a number of self-portraits. Throughout his career, Picasso painted various likenesses that reflected changes in himself, his style, his creative development, as well as in his life style and behavior—all of which may be viewed closely from the content of his paintings. (Figures 8.iv and 8.5) The first self-portrait, painted in 1901 while he was establishing himself as an artist in Paris, France, and notwithstanding spending time in Barcelona, Spain, reflects the somber mode and tones of his Blueish Period (1901-1904). The 2d, dated to 1906, at the very end of his Rose Period (1904-1906), Picasso depicts himself as the artist who by that time was moving in artistic circles, gaining respect, and acquiring patrons.

Effigy viii.4 | Cocky-portrait

Artist: Pablo Picasso

Source: WikiArt

License: Public Domain

Figure 8.5 | Self-portrait

Artist: Pablo Picasso

Source: WikiArt

License: Public Domain

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954, United mexican states) used the iconography of her Mexican heritage to paint herself and the pain that had become an integral function of her life following a motorcoach blow at the age of 18 in which she suffered numerous injuries. She identified equally a group fellow member of her country, with Mexican civilisation and ancestry, and as belonging to the female person gender. Kahlo'south self-portraits are dramatic, bloody, brutal, and at times overtly political. ( Self-Portrait , Frida Kahlo ) In seeking her roots, she voiced business concern for her land as it struggled for an independent cultural identity. She spoke to her country and people through her art. Kahlo's art was inspired by her public beliefs and personal sufferings; she wanted her art to speak from her consciousness.

Although cocky-portraits of today may exist slightly different from those of earlier decades, they still draw cocky-exploration and identity through lodge and groups that communicate who we are. Cai Guo-Qiang (b. 1958, China, lives USA) exploded small-scale charges of gunpowder to create an image of himself. ( SelfPortrait: A Subjugated Soul , Cai Guo-Qiang ) Different from those by Van Gogh, Picasso, and Kahlo, Cai's self-portrait does non have any likeness or resemblance to his personal features, but it besides sends a message about our order and how Cai relates to information technology. For example, the artist associates the lack of identifying information, rendering him anonymous, with contemporary society, and the fired gunpowder with both chaos and transformation.

Despite the altitude in time that separates early and modern humans, the search for their place in society and who they are remains of fascination and a mystery to all humans regardless of their time in history.

8.3 INDIVIDUAL VS CULTURAL GROUPS

Often when one thinks of an artist, the epitome is of someone doing solitary work in a studio. During the Romantic period of the late eighteenth century until around 1850, artists, writers, and composers were associated with individualism and with working alone; this trend continued to develop up until contempo times. The Romantic menstruum valued and celebrated private originality with musical and literary geniuses such Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, John Keats, Edgar Allen Poe, and Mary Shelley. The visual arts boasted such geniuses as Francisco Goya, Eugène Delacroix, William Blake (1757-1827, England), and Antoine-Jean Gros (17711835, France). (Figures 8.6 and 8.seven) Artists of the menstruum exemplified the Romantic values of the expression of the artists' feelings, personal imagination, and creative experimentation as opposed to accepting tradition or pop mass stance. Artists in the period broke traditional rules; indeed, they considered it desirable to break the rules and overthrow tradition.

Figure 8.vi | Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing

Artist: William Blake

Author: Tate Great britain

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Figure 8.7 | The Battle of Abukir, 25 July 1799

Creative person: Antoine-Jean Gros

Author: User "DcoetzeeBot"

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

From the Medieval to the Baroque periods, yet, artists worked together in workshops and guilds, and schools were formed that stressed the importance of preserving heritage and history through rigorous and systematic artistic training. Big-scale commissions often required numerous hands to consummate a work, emphasizing collaboration. Nevertheless, the artwork was expected to have a consistent mode and quality of adroitness. To satisfy those various needs, artists oft specialized in a particular type of subject matter. For example, Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640, Germany, lived Flanders) and Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625, Flanders) collaborated on more than twenty paintings over twenty-v years. (Figure viii.8) In their Madonna in a Garland of Roses , Rubens's celebrated skill as a figurative painter can exist seen in the serenely glowing face up of the Virgin Mary and energetic cavorting of the cherubs surrounding the round organisation of flowers painted with accuracy and delicacy by Brueghel, who was known for his lively nature scenes.

Effigy 8.8 | Madonna in a Garland of Flowers

Artist: Peter Paul Rubens and January Brueghel the Elderberry

Author: The Bridgeman Art Library

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

A recent report past a Yale University researcher found the perception of high quality art today is that it is produced by a single individual. If produced by two or three people, as in a landscape or public piece of work projects, the value of the art drops. For creative works, perceptions of quality therefore announced to be based on perceptions of individual, rather than total try. Notwithstanding, a new tendency across the world in full general suggests that this tradition, which outset arose in the Due west during the Renaissance, is not the norm around the world; that is, the value of fine art as located in the unmarried artist who produces art individually and lone may exist more specifically based in sure cultures. Artists in the twenty-outset century are collaborating with others through social media and/or face-to-face encounters. Information technology is interesting to recall that the word "art" derives from a root that means to "join" or fit together. A whole constellation of ideas and practices can be achieved through networking and collaboration as artists participate in group residencies and apprenticeships like to workshop traditions of centuries agone to larn the customary methods and advanced techniques of their art.

8.three.1 Nation

The Kingdom of Benin, located in the southern region of modern Nigeria and home to the Edo people, was ruled by a succession of obas , or divine kings. It grew from a city-land into an empire during the reign of Oba Ewuare the Slap-up (r. 1440-1473). From 1440, obas ruled the kingdom until it was taken over by the British in 1897. Remarkably, the obas and people of Benin remained in command of their trading relations with Europeans and without interference from the rulers of the nations they traded with until the second one-half of the nineteenth century, prior to strange rule. The city of Benin prospered and grew through trade with the Portuguese, Dutch, and British.

One of the benefits of dealing with merchants-sailors who traveled the seas was the variety of goods they brought with them and were eager to trade for foodstuff grown or refined by the Edo people. In particular, the Edo treasured brass and coral, forth with the ivory they acquired through elephant hunts. Those materials were reserved for the oba and his court, and were used in abundance in the wide array of ceremonial and sacred objects created under each ruler. Kingship was passed from father to firstborn son, and, upon ascending to the throne, the new oba was expected to create an altar fabricated of contumely for his father, as well as one for his mother, by and large in ivory, if she had attained the condition of queen mother. The new oba also created a brass head to honor his predecessor. (Figure eight.9) Over time, objects such as plaques, bells, masks, chests, and boosted altars made of brass or ivory, some adorned with coral, were added. Some were used to commemorate momentous events and honor heroes, only the bulk of majestic objects were used in ceremonial and symbolic back up of the oba, his ancestors and subjects, and the kingship itself.

Effigy eight.9 | Head of an Oba

Source: Met Museum

License: OASC

This nineteenth-century contumely head of an oba, for example, is not meant to be a portrait of an individual king and so much as a representation of the divine nature and ability of beingness rex. The oba derives his power from his interactions with and control over supernatural forces. He is allied with and assisted by his deified ancestors, whom he honors through rituals, offerings, and sacrifices. In stressing this continuity of kingship and his rightful place in that unbroken chain, the oba strengthens his own power and that of his people and nation.

The welfare of the kingdom rests on the oba'due south head, a heavy burden, which is emphasized in representations of him using a proliferation of objects weighing upon him ( Oba Erediauwa ). Just, he does not bear the weight of ruling alone; he works with and relies on his advisors and subjects every bit they support him. That support is shown literally when the oba is in full ceremonial regalia. In this photograph of the current oba, Erediauwa, the King is shown in his regal garb, heavily beaded in coral with ivory bracelets and plaques at his waist; an attendant, supporting his correct arm, is helping Oba Erediauwa bear the weight of kingship on behalf of the nation of Edo people.

Post-obit George Washington'south celebratory visit to Charleston, South Carolina, in May 1791, the Charleston City Council voted to celebrate the national hero by having John Trumbull (1756-1843, U.s.) pigment a life-size portrait of the President and hero of the Revolutionary War (1775-1783) to "hand down to posterity the remembrance of the human being to whom they are so much indebted for the blessings of peace, liberty and independence." ² Having been Washington's aide-de-camp during the War of Independence, Trumbull chose to portray Washington as the steadfast and royal general at the commencement of the Battle of Trenton, a pivotal engagement for colonial troops discouraged in the aftermath of several recent defeats. (Figure 8.10) The painting depicts clouds in a nighttime, overcast sky turning pink with the rising sun juxtaposed with the general's horse, frightened past the ongoing battle, held tightly by his aide. Washington stands with confidence, one glove off to hold a spyglass in his right hand, looking in the altitude as if heeding a faraway telephone call for victory.

Figure viii.10 | General George Washington at Trenton

Creative person: John Trumbull

Source: Art Gallery at Yale

License: Public Domain

Trumbull was pleased with "the lofty expression of his animated expression, the high resolve to conquer or to perish" that he captured in George Washington before the Battle of Trenton. ³ His patrons in S Carolina were non, though, and rejected the portrait when he presented it to them in 1792. Speaking on behalf of the people of Charleston, South Carolina Congressman William Loughton Smith "thought the urban center would be better satisfied with a more matter-of-fact likeness, such equally they had recently seen him calm, tranquil, peaceful." ^iv This was non an isolated occurrence: the question of how a statesman and military hero should be represented had not been resolved to the satisfaction of artists or patrons in the eighteenth century, in the years both before and afterwards the founding of the United States. As a representative democracy, the country's leaders should be depicted every bit a commander-in-main who is also ane of the people, many argued. But American artists unfortunately had no articulate model for a "thing-of-fact likeness" in the portraits of European royalty and heads of state that they used as examples. Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641, Flanders), who was court painter to the King of England, effectually 1635 painted Charles I at the Chase . (Effigy 8.11) The informal yet dignified opinion van Dyck adopted for his paradigm of the sovereign, a admirer out in nature, quickly became the favorite pose for aristocrats and other dignitaries sitting for a non-ceremonial portrait. The pose still remained a standard at the time Trumbull painted George Washington before the Battle of Trenton , but, as indicated past the painting'due south reception, information technology was not considered appropriate in a representation of the leader of a democratic nation. In addition, equally the portrait was to commemorate Washington's visit to Charleston, townspeople idea the battle setting should be replaced with a view of that urban center.

Figure viii.xi | Charles I at the Hunt

Artist: Anthony van Dyck

Author: User "Tetraktys"

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Trumbull took note of his patrons' wishes and painted another version. ( General George Washington at Trenton , John Trumbull ) While Washington's pose remains virtually unchanged, Trumbull lightened the heaven and inserted a view of Charleston Bay with the city on the far shore. Charleston leaders were satisfied and Trumbull promised delivery of the painting after some pocket-sized additions. The addition turned out to be the General'south horse, but reversed from the original painting, with its hindquarters prominently displayed in the infinite between Washington's canary yellow breeches and his walking stick, and the distant city visible between the horse'due south legs. The painting nevertheless hangs in the Historic Quango Sleeping room of Charleston City Hall.

8.three.2 Cultural Heritage and Indigenous Identity

One important aspect of cultural and ethnic identity is shared histories or common memories. Such histories are our heritage. However, heritage is not the full history. Information technology connects to civilization and ethnicity in order to convey the total story about who nosotros were and who nosotros have become as a society or private. Cocky or national identity is built on its foundation. Defining terms will aid in understanding how each coaction to identify who we are as an individual or nation.

Christian Ellers, a pop contemporary writer on cultures, defines identity equally whatever a person may distinguish themselves by, whether it be a particular country, ethnicity, religion, organisation, or other position. Identity is ane mode among many to ascertain oneself. Ellers defines ethnicity equally a group that commonly has some connections or common traits, such every bit a mutual language, common heritage, and or cultural similarities. The American Dictionary defines culture as the way of life of a item people, especially as shown in ordinary behavior, habits, and attitudes toward each other or i's moral and religious beliefs ("Culture"). Nosotros will expect at these terms as they relate to artists, the visual documentarians of society.

Kimsooja (b. 1957, South Korea), a multi-disciplinary conceptual, reflects on her grouping identity by exploring the roots of her Korean culture. She draws upon tradition and history by selecting familiar everyday items such as textile to communicate her message. Fabric wrapped into a bundle known equally a "bottari" is commonly used to transport, carry, or store everyday objects in Korean culture. What is different is Kimsooja's use of cloth as an art course. Since 1991, Kimsooja has used material, sometimes in the form of a bottari, in an on-going serial, Deductive Objects , exploring Korean folk customs, daily and mutual activities, and her cultural background and heritage in relation to her life and experience. ( Bottari Truck-Migrateurs , "Je Reviendrai", Thierry Depagne and Jaeho Chong ) In this example, she photographed figures draped in Korean printed fabric that conceals their ethnicity, civilization, and identity. Their identity is left to the viewer's imagination, and their culture is left for the viewer to consider, using the print of the fabric as a inkling.

A number of artists such every bit Kimsooja choose to communicate through their art who they are in relation to their civilization and ethnicity. Their art becomes a means of validating their self-identity. Her Korean heritage represents a treasury of symbols that commemorates who they are as a people and a singled-out civilisation with a common artistic sensibility. Their national self-image is, on one level, unambiguously defined by the convergence of territorial, indigenous, and cultural identities. The geographical conditions of the Korean Peninsula provide a self-contained nautical and continental environment with plenty of resource with which to create and be innovative. These conditions have given the people since prehistoric times a rich and unique civilization to depict from and make contributions to humanity. Koreans take great pride in their homogeneous culture, and in their heritage.

Russia, similarly self-contained, for many centuries developed cultural characteristics and ethnic identities distinctly their ain, besides. Russian federation's rich cultural heritage is visually stunning, from its vivid folk costumes to its elaborate religious symbols and churches. (Figure 8.12) Most Russians identify with the Eastern Orthodox (Christian) organized religion, just Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism are also practiced in Russian federation, making it a rich state of diverse indigenous groups and cultures. St. Basil'southward Cathedral, located on the grounds of the Kremlin in Moscow, and hundreds of other orthodox churches symbolize Russian federation's heritage; indeed, citizens proudly identify pictures of the cathedrals in their homes and offices. The churches in Russia are astonishingly cute and very much a part of Russian federation'due south heritage.

Figure viii.12 | St. Basil Cathedral, Moscow

Author: User "Ludvig14"

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: CC Past-SA 3.0

Ironically, then, in light of such a rich internal history, why did Russia's rulers look to western European artists and creative traditions to develop a new artistic identity in eighteenth century?

Carlo Bartolomeo Rastrelli (1675-1744, Italy, lived Russia), an Italian sculptor who moved to Leningrad, Russia, in 1716, is associated with the formation of Russia'south "new" culture. As a young artist, Rastrelli moved from his native Florence during an economic downturn to Paris in search of greater opportunities. The lavish and regal works he created there in the late Baroque style did not earn him the success he sought, but did bring him to the attention of Tsar (and later Emperor) Peter the Neat (r. 1682-1725), who lured him and his son Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli (1700-1771, France, lived Russian federation) to the Russia court.

Peter the Not bad co-ruled with his blood brother, Ivan V, and other family members until 1696, when he was twenty-4 years old. At that time, Russian federation was however very much tied to its internal religious, political, social, and cultural traditions. Peter the Slap-up set out to modernize all aspects his land, from the construction of the military machine to education for children of the dignity. The Tsar traveled widely in Western Europe, implementing governmental reforms and adopting cultural norms he saw there. France was the model for sweeping changes he had carried out in court life, fashion, literature, music, fine art, compages, and even language, with French becoming the language spoken at court over the form of the eighteenth century.

Carlo Bartolomeo Rastrelli and his son Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli were among the painters, sculptors, and architects, so, who were instrumental in introducing to Russian federation the new conventions and styles that supplanted Russian federation's cultural heritage and identity. For example, Carlo Rastrelli's portrait bust of Peter the Great bears a striking stylistic resemblance to a portrait bust of French King Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715) by sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680, Italy). (Figures eight.13 and eight.14) Bernini's bust, created during a visit to Paris in 1665, shows Louis Xiv equally a visionary and majestic leader who is literally above vagaries of human existence such as the current of air that billows his mantle. Carlo Rastrelli'southward portrait of Peter the Great, completed posthumously in 1729, draws upon the aforementioned traditions—dating dorsum to images of Roman emperors such equally Augustus (run across Figure 3.23)—of showing accented authority through such devices as the lift of the head, optics scanning the distance, and wearing of military armor.

Figure 8.13 | Peter I

Author: User "shakko"

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: CC Past-SA iii.0

Figure 8.14 | Bust of Louis XIV of French republic

Artist: Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Author: User "Coyau"

Source: Wikimedia Eatables

License: CC Past-SA iii.0

His son Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli was an architect who also worked in the Baroque style. He received his first royal commission in 1721, at the age of 20-one, but he is mainly known for opulent and imposing buildings he designed after Peter the Smashing's death in 1725. Continuing the modernization and transformation of Saint petersburg, Francesco Rastrelli'due south structures are associated with luxurious exuberance of the Baroque, and Russia's Romanov rulers of the eighteenth century. 1 of Francesco Rastrelli's most famous buildings is the Winter Palace, also bears a hit stylistic resemblance to a French palace: Versailles, built for Louis Xiv by architects Louis Le Vau (1612-1670, France) and Jules-Hardouin Mansart (1746-1708, France). (Figures eight.15 and 8.xvi)

Figure 8.15 | Winter Palace, St. petersburg

Writer: User "Florstein"

Source: Wikimedia Eatables

License: CC BY-SA iv.0

Figure 8.16 | Versailles

Author: Marc Vassal

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: CC By-SA iii.0

eight.three.3 Sex/Gender Identity

Kehinde Wiley (b. 1977, U.s.a.) is a contemporary portrait painter. In his work, he refers back to poses and other compositional elements used by earlier masters in much the same way that Trumbull did in his portrait of George Washington. Wiley means for his viewers to recognize the before work he has borrowed from in creating his painting, to brand comparisons betwixt the ii, and to layer meaning from the earlier piece of work into his ain. Due to the strong contrasts between the sitters in Wiley's paintings and those who posed for the earlier portraitists, notwithstanding, this comparison often makes for a complex interweaving of meanings.

Wiley'south 2008 painting Femme piquée par un snake, or Woman bitten by a serpent, ( Femme Piquée par un Serpent, Kehinde Wiley ) is based upon an 1847 marble work of the same proper noun by French sculptor Auguste Clésinger (1814-1883, France). (Effigy 8.17) When Clésinger's flagrantly sensual nude was exhibited, the public and critics alike were scandalized, and fascinated. It was not uncommon in European and American art of the nineteenth century to use the subject of the work as justification for depicting the female person nude. For case, if the subject was a moral tale or a scene from classical mythology, that was an acceptable reason for showing a nude figure. In Clésinger'southward sculpture, the pretext for the adult female's indecent writhing was the serpent bite, which, coupled with the roses surrounding the woman, was meant to suggest an allegory of love or beauty lost in its prime rather than simply a salacious depiction of a nude. Unfortunately, the model was hands recognized as a real person, Apollonie Sabatier, a courtesan who was the writer Charles Baudelaire's mistress and well known amid artists and writers of the day. Clésinger defended his sculpture equally an artful study of the man form but, having used the features and body of a contemporary adult female, his sculpture's viewers objected to the image as too real. Wiley'south painting is the opposite: it is conspicuously intended to be a portrait of one individual, only he is clothed and inexplicably lying with his dorsum to the viewer while turning to expect over his shoulder. In his painting, Wiley retains the extended artillery, and twisted legs and torso of Clésinger'due south figure, only the sculpted woman's thrown back head and closed eyes are replaced past the man'due south turned head and mildly quizzical gaze.

Figure eight.17 | Femme Piquée par un Ophidian

Artist: Auguste Clésinger

Author: User "Arnaud 25"

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Wiley takes that pose and its meanings—indecency, exposure, vulnerability, powerlessness— and uses them in a context that seemingly makes no sense when the subject is a fully clothed black male. Or does information technology? Past using the conventions for depicting the female person nude, Wiley asks united states of america to examine the following: what happens when the figure is clothed—with a suggestion of eroticism in the glimpse of brown skin and white briefs above his depression-riding jeans; what happens when a immature man gazes at the viewer with an unguarded expression of open inquisitiveness; and what happens when a black male presents his body in a posture of weakness, potentially open to attack? The artist uses these juxtapositions of meaning to challenge our notions of identity and masculinity. By expanding his visual vocabulary to include traditions in portraiture going back hundreds of years, Wiley paints a young black homo at odds with contemporary conventions of (male) physicality and sexuality.

Ideas about gender identity, that is, the gender one identifies with regardless of biological sex, have developed scientifically and socially, and have in contempo years become both more than complex and more fluid in numerous cultures. Inside other cultures, withal, in addition to male person or female, in that location has traditionally been a third gender, and gender fluidity has been part of the fabric of order for thousands of years. Among the ancient Greeks, for instance, a hermaphrodite, an individual who has both male person and female sex characteristics, was considered "a higher, more powerful class" that created "a third, transcendent gender." ⁵ In Samoa, there is a potent emphasis on one's role in the extended family, or aiga . Traditionally, if there are non enough females within an aiga to properly run the household or if at that place is a male kid who is particularly drawn to domestic life, he is raised as fa'afafine or "in the manner of a woman." Thus, fa'afafine are male person at nascency just are raised as a tertiary gender, taking on masculine and feminine behavioral traits.

In India, those of a 3rd gender are known as hijra , which includes individuals who are eunuchs (men who have been castrated), hermaphrodites, and transgender (when gender identity does not match assigned sex). The role of hijras is traditionally related to spirituality, and they are frequently devotees of a god or goddess. For example, the hijras or devotees of the Hindu goddess Bahuchara Maja are oft eunuchs, having had themselves castrated voluntarily to offer their manhood to the deity. Other hijras live equally part of the mainstream customs and apparel equally women to perform only during religious celebrations, such equally a nativity or wedding, where they are invited to participate and bestow blessings.

Although hijras had been a respected third gender in much of Southeast Asia for thousands of years, their status changed in belatedly nineteenth-century India while nether British dominion. During the twentieth century, many hijras formed their ain communities, with the protection of a guru, or mentor, to provide some financial security and safekeeping from the harassment and discrimination under which they lived. In 2014, the supreme courtroom of Republic of india ruled that hijras should be officially recognized as a third gender, dramatically changing for the meliorate the educational and occupational opportunities for what is estimated to be one-half a million to two 1000000 individuals. ⁶

Tejal Shah (b. 1979, India) is a multi-media creative person who often works in photography, video, and installation pieces. She began the Hijra Fantasy Series in 2006, ( Southern Siren Maheshwari from Hijra Fantasy Serial, Tejal Shah ) creating "tableaux in which [three hijras ] enact their ain personal fantasies of themselves." ⁷ Shah was interested in how each woman—they all had transitioned from male person to female—envisions her own sexuality, dissever from the perceptions and projections of others. As described by Shah, "In Southern Siren—Maheshwari , the protagonist envisions herself every bit a classic heroine from Southward Indian movie theatre in the throes of a passionate romantic see with a typical male person hero." ⁸

In the tableau , or staged scene, Masheshwari sees herself as resplendently dressed in a blue sari, a traditional Indian draped gown, an object of admiration and desire. In this photograph and the others in the series, Shah constitute it noteworthy that each hijra , participating fully in the creative process, expressed feelings near herself past using visual cues and types from mainstream sources such as, in this example, Indian pop culture. How each hijra represented herself was the stuff of universal human fantasies, Shah establish, regardless of sexual or gender identity: "beingness cute, glamourous and powerful, having a family unit, giving honey and beingness loved in return." ⁹

8.iii.four Class

Maria Luisa of Parma was a member of the highest circles of European royalty. Born in 1751, she was the youngest girl of Phillip, Duke of Parma, Italy, and his married woman, Princess Louise-Élisabeth of France, the eldest daughter of King Louis Fifteen. In 1765, she married Charles IV, Prince of Asturias. She was the Queen espoused of Espana from 1788, when her husband ascended to the throne, until 1808, when Rex Charles IV abdicated his throne nether pressure from Napoleon.

Royal marriages were intended to foster allegiances and cement alliances. The bride and groom mostly did not meet one some other until afterward lengthy negotiations were completed and the wedding date was near. It was not uncommon for portraits of the prospective couple to be exchanged; in addition to the descriptions by the negotiators and others, an artist's representation was the simply way to larn what ane'south possible spouse looked like at a time when journeys were not hands or apace undertaken. At the time of their date, Laurent Pécheux (1729-1821, French) painted this portrait of Maria Luisa (Figure 8.18) in 1765 for Princess Maria Luisa fiancé'due south family.

Effigy 8.xviii | Maria Luisa of Parma

Artist: Laurent Pécheux

Source: Met Museum

License: OASC

Maria Luisa of Parma depicts the xiv-year-sometime bride-to-be holding a snuffbox in her right hand containing a miniature portrait of her future husband inside its lid. This detail was a formula in formal appointment portraits: the sitter holds a souvenir such as this finely made and plush trinket to express appreciation and budding affection for 1's matrimonial. Additionally, to demonstrate her wealthy and cultured family background, Maria Luisa is posed within an interior setting displayed in a silk brocade gown trimmed with lengths of fragile, handmade lace, a medallion of the Order of the Starry Cantankerous suspended from a diamond-encrusted bow on her breast, and diamond stars in her powdered hair. While this is indeed a likeness of the princess, the portrait is meant to convey far more than than the colour of her eyes or shape of her nose. This portrait is a statement about the prestige and power she will bring to the marriage, and a congratulatory note to the groom's family on the beauty and worth of the mutually beneficial nugget they are gaining.

Maria Luisa'due south dress is the exclamation point to that visual statement. She is wearing a manner known equally a mantua or robe a la française (in the French way), a dress for formal courtroom occasions, of silk brocade woven into alternating bands of golden thread and pink flowers on a foam field. This very costly fabric, probably fabricated in France, is stretched over panniers, or fan-shaped hoops made of cane, metal or whalebone extending side-to-side. The panniers create a horizontal simply flattened silhouette that immune the tremendous quantity of magnificent fabric required to be fully displayed. To wearable such a gown was a pronouncement of 1's wealth and status, a sign of which was one's comportment, that is, one'south begetting and behavior. And, it was indeed a challenge to stand up or move with the grace expected of a blue-blooded woman in eighteenth-century society while wearing such cumbersome, restrictive, and heavy clothing. Maria Luisa, however, is depicted as poised and charming, the perfect consort for a king.

Xx-four years afterward her portrait by Pécheux, Maria Luisa was 30-eight years old and had borne ten children, five of whom were still alive, when Francisco Goya created this portrait, Maria Luisa Wearing Panniers . (Figure eight.19) , Francisco Goya was named painter to the court of Charles Four and Maria Luisa in 1789, and in celebration of Charles Four'southward ascension to the throne, created a portrait of the Rex, to continue with the Queen's portrait. Neither the years nor Goya were kind to Maria Luisa. (Betwixt 1771 and 1799, she would take fourteen living children, six of whom grew to adulthood, and ten miscarriages.)

Figure eight.19 | Maria Luisa of Parma Wearing Panniers

Creative person: Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes

Author: Prado Museum

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

In Goya's depiction, she is even more richly dressed than in her earlier portrait, only her elaborate and sumptuous costume serves but to provide an unflattering contrast with the Queen'south demeanor. Goya depicts Maria Luisa with her artillery awkwardly held to each side to suit her rigid, box-like tontillo (the Spanish variation of panniers); her plain, expressionless face is nigh comically topped past a complexly constructed hat of lace, silk, and jewels. The hat represents one extravagant tendency in women's way of the 1780s, and Goya did paint its proliferation of textures and surfaces with cracking skill and sensitivity, but the contrast between the Queen's hat and her features makes them appear even more coarse and unrefined, regardless of her wealth and course.

What explanation could at that place accept been for the courtroom painter to create such an unflattering representation of Maria Luisa, Queen consort of Spain? In her years of living in her adopted land, she had not endeared herself to members of courtroom or her subjects. Considering that the King preferred to hunt, running the country barbarous largely on the shoulders of Maria Luisa, who was vain and bad-tempered. Goya's presentation does non, in fact, contradict that cess. The emphasis on her luxurious and elegant attire and on the robe and crown to Maria Luisa's right—signaling her condition as Queen consort—correspond that she is the individual who is literally in touch with the robes of country. This work and her date portrait of nearly twenty-five years earlier were not so much depictions of her as a person as they were means to communicate the power and prestige of her place and her part.

Honoré Daumier (1808-1879, French republic) in 1864 painted a different sign of prestige, or lack thereof, in The Third-Grade Wagon ; it was one of three paintings in a series commissioned by William Thomas Walters. (Effigy 8.20) The other two paintings were The First-Class Carriage and The Second-Course Carriage , the only one in the series thought to be finished. (Figures 8.21 and 8.22) Walters, an American businessman and art collector, would afterward found the Walters Fine art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, with work from his drove, including these 3 paintings.

Figure 8.twenty | The Third Course Carriage

Artist: Honoré Daumier

Source: Met Museum

License: OASC

Figure 8.21 | The First Course Railroad vehicle

Artist: Honoré Daumier

Author: Walters Fine art Museum

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Figure eight.22 | The Second Class Wagon

Artist: Honoré Daumier

Writer: Walters Art Museum

Source: Wikimedia Eatables

License: Public Domain

When Daumier created the works, he had been working prolifically every bit a painter, printmaker, and sculptor for forty years. In his lifetime, he would create approximately v,000 prints, 500 paintings, and 100 sculptures. From the beginning of his career, he was interested in the impact of industrialization on mod urban life, the plight of the poor, the quest for social equality, and the struggle for justice. He was peculiarly known for his biting satire of politics and political figures, and his less stinging, ironic commentary on current club and events. Because of the bailiwick affair he chose—everyday people, gimmicky life—and the straightforward, truthful, and sincere manner in which he depicted them, Daumier is considered to be part of the Realist motion or fashion in art.

In The Third-Form Wagon , the creative person presents iv figures in the foreground, bathed in calorie-free, with numerous, less individualized figures crowded in the background. The immature mother nursing her babe, an elderly woman sitting with folded hands, and a male child sleeping with his easily in his pockets cover 4 generations, too as unlike stages of life. Although the passengers sit near one another, they appear isolated from each other. They, including the boy, are probably traveling to or from work in the metropolis, and both their body postures and facial expressions convey the price of hard labor and long hours. Daumier shows compassion for these workers whose lives hold nothing simply repetitious drudgery.

Forever changing the mainly agronomical guild that existed in much of Europe and the United States prior to the 2d half of the eighteenth century, the Industrial Revolution is the start of the mechanization and manufacturing that would lead to people shifting from state to metropolis life, and from farms to factories. While the shift to an industrial, money-based society improved the lives of many and created the middle class as we know it today, Daumier was well aware that others were existence left behind and were essentially trapped in a bicycle of trivial education, unskilled labor, and depression wages.

The artist represents different life expectations based on class through the way he paints the windows and through his utilize of light in each of the three paintings. In The Third-Course Railroad vehicle , the figures in the foreground take light shining on them from a window to the left, outside the picture aeroplane. There are windows in the groundwork, as well, but nothing can be seen outside of them. Daumier is implying in that location is nothing to be seen, especially in the case of the literally non-existent window. In The 2d-Form Wagon , a landscape can be seen through the window, and one of the figures looks out intently. The other 3, paying no attention to the world exterior, are cocooned in their winter clothes in an endeavor to fend off the cold in their unheated train car. But the man who leans forrad to observe the passing scenery appears to be younger and is perhaps more than eager and capable of adapting to and moving upwardly in the world of business concern—suggested by the bowler chapeau he is wearing, which at the time was associated in city life with ceremonious servants and clerks. In Kickoff-Class Carriage , the passengers are all alert, each attending to their own business. One young woman looks out at a light-green landscape; because her lightweight outerwear, it appears this is a springtime scene, which is suggested, likewise, by the colorful ribbons on the two women'south fashionable bonnets. With their relaxed postures and placid, composed expressions, these first-grade passengers give the impression of confidence. They are more secure in themselves and their places in the earth than either the second-class or third-form passengers.

8.iii.five Grouping Affiliation

History suggests that the quality of homo survival is best when humans function every bit a group, allowing for collective support and interaction. Social psychological research indicates that people who are affiliated with groups are psychologically and physically stronger and better able to cope when faced with stressful situations. Gregory Walton, a social psychologist who studies group interaction, has ended that i benefit individuals receive is the satisfaction of belonging (to a group, culture, nation or) to a greater community that shares some common interests and aspirations. The unity of groups is accomplished through members' similarities or their having experiences based on the history that brought them together.

Artists throughout history have been associated with groups, movements, and organizations that protect their interests, forward their cause, or promote them as a group or as individuals. The nearly visible groups during the Renaissance period in Italy, for example, were people belonging to the Catholic Church building and other religious organizations, wealthy merchant families, civic and government groups, and guilds, including artists' guilds. (Figures 8.23 and 8.24)

Effigy 8.23 | The Syndics of the Amsterdam Drapers' Guild,

known as the "Sampling Officials"

Creative person: Rembrandt

Writer: Google Cultural Institute

Source: Wikimedia Eatables

License: Public Domain

Figure 8.24 | Officers of the St. George Borough Guard, Haarlem

Artist: Frans Hals

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

8.3.half dozen Personal Identity

The city of Palmyra, in modern Syria, had long been at the crossroads of Western and Eastern political, religious, and cultural influences, every bit it was a caravan stop for traders traveling the Silk Route between the Mediterranean and the Far East. In the first century CE, the urban center came under Roman rule and under the Romans, the metropolis prospered, and the arts flourished. Following a rebellion by Queen Zenobia of Palmyra in 273 CE, Roman Emperor Aurelian destroyed the metropolis, ending the flow of Roman control.

The Palmyrenes, or people of Palmyra, congenital three types of elaborate, large-scale monuments for their dead called houses of eternity. The first was a tower tomb , some as high equally iv stories. The 2d was a hypogeum , or underground tomb, and the tertiary was a tomb built in the shape of a temple or house. All were used by many generations of the same extended family unit and were located in a necropolis, a city of the dead, what nosotros today call a cemetery. Inside the tombs were loculi , or small, divide spaces, each of which formed an individual sarcophagus, or stone bury. Inside the opening to the tomb, the first sarcophagus held the remains of the clan'due south founder; it was frequently faced with a rock relief sculpture depicting him as if attending a banquet and inviting others to join him. Surrounding the founder in the loculi , on the confront of each family fellow member'due south sarcophagus would be a relief portrait of each person interred there. ( Loculi )

This stele, a portrait of a begetter, his son, and two daughters, dates to between 100 and 300 CE, sometime during the era of Roman rule. (Effigy 8.25) The human is reclining on a couch decorated with flower motifs within circles and diamonds. He holds a bunch of grapes in his right paw and, in his left, a wine loving cup busy with flowers similar to those on the burrow. His two daughters flank his son in the groundwork; the son holding grapes and a bird. The son and daughters all wear necklaces. Additionally, the daughters wear pendant earrings and brooches property the drapery at their left shoulders. The chiton, or tunic, and himation, or cloak, that each daughter wears has some affinities with Greco-Roman types of clothing, only the manner of the ornamented veil covering their heads is a local type of garment, based on Parthian, or Persian, styles. Also wearing local garments, the two males wear a loose fitting tunic and trousers, each with a decorative edge. The fine fabrics indicated by the embellished borders of both men and women's wearable signal goods and wealth amassed from trade, as does the abundant use of precious metals and gems in the variety of jewelry adorned by the Palmyrenes. Thus, the stele is a alloy of Greco-Roman and Palmyrene (and larger Parthian) styles and cultural influences.

Figure 8.25 | Funerary Relief

Source: Met Museum

License: OASC

Coupled upon many Palmyrenes grave steles are inscriptions of text in both Aramaic and Latin that give the person's name and genealogy, markers of distinctive individual and family traits. While many of the depictions of the frontal-facing, wide-eyed figures—a defining feature of Palmyrene art—show picayune individualization of features, the coupling with such inscriptions are evident signs that each stele was intended to announce the characteristics of the person entombed within. The figures actively engage the viewer, and provide the reminder that personal identity is an amalgamate of individual, socio-cultural, spiritual, and historical influences.

In July 2015, the city of Palmyra, its people, and its fine art were once more in danger. In April of 2015, Islamic State (ISIS) forces overtook the iii,000-year-erstwhile Assyrian city of Nimrud and destroyed its buildings and art. On May 21, 2015, ISIS overtook the city of Palmyra, inducing fright that they would destroy buildings and fine art there as they did in Nimrud. On July 2, 2015, ISIS was reported to have destroyed grave markers similar to the 1 discussed hither. ( Grave Mark Reliefs ) They lined up six bosom-length reliefs of people who lived in Palmyra near 2,000 years ago, and smashed them, obliterating the visual and written record of each person. So many have had their portraits made for posterity with the hopes of staying alive, against the odds. And, this is why we need art: information technology gives us memories of ourselves and our deeds, who nosotros place with, and how we identify others.

8.4 Earlier Y'all MOVE ON

Key Concepts

National and personal identities do not magically happen; they are built on and influenced by immediate and past events, environments, traditions, and cultural legacies. Artists capture and certificate non but the physical atmospheric condition of a society merely as well the emotional and mental conditions. They construct a sense of who we were and are every bit a person and as a nation. Society's identity is always fluid. When we see identity every bit static, nosotros record people with stereotypes and do not meet them for who they are. Art is one way to claiming static notions of identity by engaging the viewer in visual narratives that are unfamiliar to them, and that educate and challenge their previously held notions.

Since the 1970s, postmodern theories have challenged historical and traditional notions of indigenous and cultural identity by developing a model that views identity as existence multifaceted, fluid, and socially constructed. Some scholars debate that nosotros are in a period of post-identity and post-ethnicity, repudiating the onetime essentialist view of identity. Globalization of people, the Internet, and travel have all brought almost fluid cultures—which may have contributed to people's more fluid sense of identity, and also to their interest in researching their heritage, civilisation, and ethnic identity. Heritage is the treasure and symbols of pride for an private, country, and nation. Many works of art are seen as part of national heritage because they assistance citizens appreciate their by. Art provides life to the past, something that can be visualized, touched, walk through, and identified equally being part of a legacy and culture.

Test Yourself

1. On the surface Kim Sooja'southward art seems simple, merely underneath it is an enigma of traditions that make a metaphoric identity statement; for example, her utilise of fabric as an art grade evokes intimacy and honor of her culture and history. Discuss and place at-least 2 artists whose work makes a personal and historical statement. Exist specific as you reference each image associated with your essay. (minimum of 500 words).

2. A number of circumstances throughout history have compelled artists to confront the context of social issues, select at-least 2 works of fine art that all-time describe an event or outcome. Discuss the problems associated with the issue, and how the event and fine art shaped the legacy or identity of the country or nation. Describe the ability the work communicates, hash out the significance of the work and how it convey a message, and identity of the people in that period of time. At the stop of your essay make commentary on why yous selected the art works what you think nigh the art. (Adhere selected work with captions.) Answer to the question is located throughout the chapter)

3. Throughout history building were constructed in a mode to symbolize power; spirituality; and godlessness. Structures firm institutions that guide, influence and shape a club's morals, values, politics, religious and social conditioning. Select 4 structures that best symbolize the identity or culture of a society. Describe its impact on influencing a nation, significance to the nation and how the structure contributes to national or individual identity. At the end of your essay discuss why you selected the structures and the aesthetics of the building. (Adhere selected structures with captions.)

4. Compare and contrast four works of art that all-time describe a personal or national identity. Discuss with specifics how the artist is able to capture the grapheme of the person or nation. At the cease of your essay add a commentary why you selected the works and their significance. (Adhere selected works with captions.)

viii.nine KEY TERMS

Baroque : a style of compages and fine art that originating in Italy in the early seventeenth century

Bottari : Cloth wrapped and tied around clothes , fabric, or/and items into a packet for deport

Grave stele : is a stone or wooden slab, more often than not taller than it is wide, erected usually in Greek cemeteries as a monument, for funerary or commemorative purposes.

Hypogeum : an underground prehistoric burying site

Impressionism : is a nineteenth-century art movement that developed in France during the belatedly nineteenth century by a group of artists chosen the Bearding Guild of Painters, Sculptors

Impressionist : A painter whose painting have characteristics of the impressionism movement, emphasizing accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities, uses small-scale, thin, still visible castor strokes, open composition,

Individualism : emphasizes potential of manand self development own behavior. The Individualism during the Renaissance period became a prominent theme in Italy

Industrial Revolution : flow during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in western Europe and the United States when industry apace developed due to the invention of steampowered engines and the growth of factories. Fundamental changes occurred in agriculture, textile and metallic manufacture, transportation, economic and policies, and had a major bear on on how people lived

Obas : The title of "oba," or king, is passed on to the firstborn son of each successive king of Benin, Africa at the fourth dimension of his expiry

Renaissance Period : a period of time from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century in Europe. The era bridged the time between the Middle Ages and modern

Tableau : is an incidental scene, as of a group of people

Tower tomb : are mausoleums, built in 1067 and 1093

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1. Ghose, Tia (Oct. 26, 2012). Why we care about our beginnings, Live Science. ↩

2. George and Martha Washington: Portraits from the Presidential Years , exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC, 1999, accessed July 6, 2015, http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/gw/trenton.htm ↩

3. Ibid ↩

4. Ibid ↩

5. Aileen Ajootian, "The Only Happy Couple: Hermaphrodites and Gender" in Naked Truth: Women, Sexuality and Gender in Classical Art and Architecture , ed. Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow and Claire L. Lyons (New York: Routledge, 1997), 228. ↩

6. http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/04/18/304548675/a-journeying-of-pain-and-beauty-on-condign-transgenderin-republic of india ↩

7. Tejal Shah, Artist Statement, Hijra Fantasy Series , accessed July seven, 2015, http://tejalshah.in/project/what-are-yous/hullo jrafantasy-series/ ↩

8. Ibid. ↩

9. Ibid. ↩

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