Art Appreciation-Chapter 19

Africa, Oceania, and the Americas

Chapter 19

Copyright ©2011, ©2009 Pearson Prentice Hall Inc.

Africa.

Africa

• North of the Saraha, art is mostly influenced by Egyptian, Roman, and Islamic traditions

• We will be focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa in this chapter

• Much of the art was made of parishable materials, so little is still remaining of this art


Head. Nok culture, Nigeria. 500 B.C.E. – 200 C.E.Height 14-1/2".

Head, Nok Culture

• Made of terra cotta

• Life-size

• Dates from the time of the Greeks and Romans

• Beautiful detail on the hair ornaments

• Abstracted eyes and nose


Benin Head. ca. 1550.Height 9 1/4" (23.5 cm). Width 8-5/8". Depth 9".

Benin Head

• Bronze casting

• Portraits of royalty or distinguished ancestors

• Often placed in altars


Pendant Mask (Africa). Nigeria, Court of Benin. Early 16th Century.Height 9-3/8" (23.4 cm).

Pendant Mask

• Carved ivory• Portrays a Queen Mother who gazes

out with a serene expression• Her crown has alternating human heads

and salamanders• The salamanders represent immortality• The slots on her brow held consecrated

ointments during ceremonies


Olembe Alaye. House Post. Yoruba, Nigeria. Mid-20th Century.Height 83".

House Post by Olembe Alaye

• Literally a house post meant to hold up a roof• Also a meditation on the idea of support• The top figure is an elder seated in a chair, the

second figure is a woman holding a baby on her back, and last is a woman holding her breasts in a traditional gesture of welcoming

• All three of the figures represent the backbone of the community– Wisdom, nurturing, and hospitality

• This post was used on the tomb of a Chief


Tomb of Former Chief Lisa. Ondo, Nigeria.


Adire Cloth. Detail of “Women's Wrapper with Human Hands and Proverbs.” Yoruba, Lagos, Nigeria. 1984.

L 76" × W 62".

Adire Cloth

• Textile arts are highly developed in Africa• Many patterns have specific uses or

meanings• Adire cloth is made by using stencils made

from tin on the cloth and then pressing flour and water into the stencil– The flour and water resists the dye that is then

used on the fabric

Oceania and Australia


Oceania and Australia.

Basic Beliefs

• The world was created by the union of Earth Mother and Sky Father

• Ancestors are the intermediaries between people and the gods

• Mana-spiritual power that resides within a person

Coconut Grater

• Highly finished wood artwork

• One sits in the saddle and uses the blade to grate the coconut


Coconut Grater. Kapingamarangi, Caroline Islands. 1954.Height 19-1/2".


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


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

Moai

• There are around 600 of these large stone sculptures on Easter Island

• They were discovered by explorers in 1770• Many are up to 32 feet tall• They are head and torso carved from one

stone and a hat or topknot carved from a different stone

• They represent ancestors that protect and oversee


Aumakua. Wooden image from Forbes Cave, Hawaii.Height 29".

Aumakua

• Aumakua- ancestral deity

• Found in a burial cave of a chief

• Human hair and bones are used in this small sculpture

• Highly refined wood carving

• Exaggeration the the female form and roundness


Americas.


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

Jar

• Pueblo pottery • Each Pueblo has its own style, this jar is

Acoma• Made from local clay and shaped without a

wheel • Pigments are made from earthen powders• The patterns refer the the forces of nature


Marshall Lomakema. Hopi Kachina. Humis Katsina Figure. 1971. Shungopovi, Arizona. 1971.

Height: 86.36 cm, 34".

Hopi Kachina

• A kachina doll is made by fathers and given to sons to teach and pass on traditions


Tlingit Community House. Ketchikan, Alaska.

Tlingit Community House

• Abstracted animals depict their mythology

• Totem-animal or plant that serves as an emblem of a family or clan– They often symbolize prehuman ancestors


Teotihuacan

• Pyramid of the Sun• Among the largest of the pyramids in the

world• Many Mexican cultures believe that humanity

emerged from a hole in the ground and this pyramid may mark the spot– It sits over a deep cave

• The pyramid is aligned to face the sun on August 12, the first day of the Maya calendar


Detail of Temple of the Feathered Serpent

Temple of the Feathered Serpent

• Shows the storm god with goggle eyes and scaly face

• Feathered serpent is portrayed with it’s head emerging from a plume of feathers


Temple I. Maya. Tikal, Guatemala. c. 300–900 C.E.


Lintel 24. Yaxchilan, Maya. 709 C.E.Height: 43".

Lintel

• From Yaxchilan• Written symbols around the edges help

us to understand the meaning• The king is standing holding a flaming

torch• His wife, Lady Xoc has pierced her

tongue and will use the blood on sheets of paper in the basket in front of her


Machu Picchu. Inca. Peru. 16th Century.Kero Cup. Peru. Late 16th–17th Century.

7-3/8" × 6-15/16".

Technology

Art Appreciation-Chapter 19