Smithsonian American Art Musuem

Class Date: February 12th, 9:30am

Location: Your couch! See your weekly e-mail for Zoom link!

This week, we will be talking to the Smithsonian American Art Museum about Native Americans in art. Before we hear from our fabulous speakers, we’ll take a slightly different direction for this week’s reading to focus on the overall idea and history of art. Then we’ll take a look at some of the most famous American paintings (but hint: look who is and isn’t included in these famous works). Test your knowledge and then think about the styles used and see how they compare or contrast with the art we look at in class this week. 

Humans, since the dawn of civilization, have created works of art. Sculpture might be one of the oldest forms of art, as evidence suggests that people carved before they even painted the walls of caves. Most often, early sculptures were less about making a beautiful object and more about providing spiritual support or aiding in a ritual. Many sculptures were worshiped as good or evil figures, often to seek favor for survival, food, or good fortune.

Over time, art became more central to developing culture, and was expressed in thousands of ways. Ancient Egypt erected huge pyramids and made statues, sculptures, and paintings to praise their deities and assist their dead in transitioning beyond this life and into the next. Aegean cultures created scenes on pottery to tell of great deeds and everyday life. And the ancient Greeks, starting in the late 7th century B.C. endeavored to more perfectly represent the human figure in stone.  The list could go on and on (and on) of civilizations and cultures that developed their own unique art forms and styles. In almost every corner of the globe, one can find both ancient and modern examples of art out of thousands of mediums.

But what makes art special? Why does it exist? The answers to those questions are almost as varied and extensive as the art forms themselves. But it is important to note that it is almost exclusively humans that produce art, for art’s sake. There are some examples of elephants and gorillas who might paint and make pictures, but many of them have been trained and only do so with human intervention/assistance. Many plants and animals are their own forms of art (think of peacocks or beautiful flowers), but their art is largely about reproduction and survival. It seems to be a uniquely human experience to produce art as a creative expression. With that said, art is important for a number of reasons:

·   Art evokes emotion. It can be any sort of emotion: joy, love, excitement, nostalgia, even anger. But art often makes the artist and the viewer feel something.

·   Art relies on shared memory and experience. Art often relies on our shared memories to impart its importance. For example, Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup can paintings are likely not meaningful to a tribe of African bushmen, but they are meaningful to many who grew up in the United States.

·   Art preserves our memory – even before language, humans recorded their stories and events through art, creating a shared culture and a collective means of memory.

·   Art helps us teach. We use art to show someone else a concept, as a way of helping them to understand. We use art to communicate feelings and history in a way that words and stories can’t quite capture.

Read on to test your art knowledge and see how well you do!

No recommended reading this week, but you can read up a bit on Indigenous artists below!

https://www.culturefrontier.com/american-paintings/

Jo Marchant. “A Journey to the Oldest Cave Paintings in the World”. Smithsonian Magazine. January 2016. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/journey-oldest-cave-paintings-world-180957685/

Nathan H. Lents. “Why do Humans Make Art?”. Psychology Today. September 5, 2017. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/beastly-behavior/201709/why-do-humans-make-art