Art (Updated)

Definition of Aesthetics: Morphy (1989)

way in which something appeals to the senses, usually in terms of pleasure

Argument against aesthetics in anthropology: Overing (In Ingold 1996)

-category of aesthetics specific to modernist philosophical study of art

-tied up in its historic bourgeois and elitist origins

-Western (fine) art seen as disengaged from social, moral, cosmological, technological, and everyday aspects of life

-most cultures’ art traditions belong to domain of the everyday so cannot be analyzed using western category of aesthetics

Argument against aesthetics in anthropology: Gow (In Ingold 1996)

Because aesthetics based in cultural practices of discrimination and judgement, impossible to study aesthetics as cross-cultural category b/c we will always be subject to our own western aesthetics of judgement and discrimination when viewing other cultures’ art

Argument for aesthetics in anthropology: Coote (In Ingold 1996)

-if all cross-cultural categories did not vary cross-culturally, no need to study them

-’aesthetics’ no different from other metalanguage in anthropology like lineage, moiety, pot, etc

-thus culturally informed notions of aesthetics useful tool for analysis of beauty and value in other societies

Bir’yun (Morphy 1989)

-Yolngu of Northern Australia

-Bir’yun/brilliance effect in Yolngu paintings produced by fine cross-hatched lines over the surface, said to make painting shimmer

-do not conceptualize aesthetics in same way as West: do not have categories like art critics or aestheticians, unlikely to refer to painting as beautiful or well-balanced

-however like western art great concern for producing effects on the senses, judge work based on this

-not all art viewed as equal, individuals chosen to paint on ceremonial occasions based on their skill

Yonata (Gow 1999)

-Piro people of Amazonia/Eastern Peru

-Yonata: practice of painting yonchi geometric designs

-practiced by women, applied to objects like pots, clothing, human body for certain rituals

Yonata and concepts of beauty (Gow 1999)

-things painted with yonchi considered beautiful

-beauty increases as painter becomes more skilled

-view themselves as categorically different from Amazonian people who do not know how to paint with design

-when girl emerges for her initiation ritual covered in yonchi guests proclaim “she is beautiful indeed!”

Why narrow Western art definition not crosscultural (Morphy 2007)

-In Western sense art defined as objects made primarily for aesthetic contemplation, valued according to aesthetic criteria

-neglects the role that art objects play in other spheres of sociality in other cultures and even sometimes in West (eg religious art)

Bir’yun and functionality (Morphy 1989)

-quality of brilliance associated with not only beauty but ancestral power

-tied to other ritual activities like bloodletting that create similar emotional responses like lightness and happiness

-content and form also important in ritual use

Yonchi and functionality (Gow 1999)

-deep ritual significance+ role in everyday life

-yonchi designs occur within nature and are admired

-painted on everyday items like clothing

-also associated with ritual activities like consumption of kamalampi/ayahuasca during curing rituals, fluids associated with girl’s initiation rituals

-three flowing substances at initiation ritual: menstrual blood, beer that mother and kinswomen produce, and designs grandmother paints on her body

Aboriginal art and canon of Australian art (Morphy 2007)

-indigenous and non-indigenous traditions in Australia now exist side by side in canon of Australian art, share many aspects

-result of restructuring what is considered acceptable within Western art (eg body arts and abstract art) and efforts of indigenous artists in incorporating themselves into wider art world

Paradox of indigenous art (Morphy 2007)

-traditional art not considered fine art but an ethnographic object

-modern works by indigenous artists shunned for being inauthentic

-led to exclusion of Aboriginal works from art world

Ashanti tourist arts (Silver 1979)

-Asante of Ghana

-transformation of traditional carving practices result of absorption of Western artistic influence and catering to western art market

-however still intellectually rich in meaning and social commentary
-ex: incorporate carvings of modern market woman and Westernized men while still respecting traditional aesthetic ideals of balance, naturalism, and proportion

Western view of tourist arts (Silver 1979)

-tourist arts that cater to foreign audiences often viewed by western art critics and anthropologists as a cultural tragedy

-ignores the social and cultural dimensions they embody

A creative product with the potential for symbolic interpretation

Art Definition

Distinction (Bourdieu 1979)

-argued taste not universal or innate, culturally constructed, closely related to social position

-taste means of naturalizing class differentiation, making it ‘of one’s nature’ and thus demonstrating and justifying class distinction

Bourdieu (1979) on art

-defines art as anything that has a form more important than its function

-art piece must be intended as an art piece, by both producer and viewer, who are in turn shaped by social norms

-when status institutionalised (eg in a museum) all ambiguity of form/function is lost, artistic questions now have a ‘right’ answer

-forms basis of the ‘popular aesthetic’ which involves hostility to all forms of experimentation caused by lack of familiarity and the need for participation

Art and agency (Gell 1998)

-artist as an agent, art as extension of artists’ agency

-at different moments ways art acts on viewer based on distributed agency of within these relational networks

-no ‘inherent meaning’

-anthropology of art should not be rooted in aesthetics or symbolic approaches but social and material relations

Nature of street art (Schacter 2019)

-inherently public and ornamental (to the surfaces it is made on)

-impermanent and ephemeral

-performative : about the act as much as the artifact

-uncollectable and inalienable: can be given but never sold

-need to move away from restrictive discourse of ‘art vs. vandalism’, see it as implicitly pro- not anti-social act of commitment to the city

-in curated contexts intermural art= ‘art in between the walls’

Tate Modern Street Art Project 2008 (Schacter 2019)

-6 large scale murals painted directly upon the north facade of the Tate Modern+ a ‘walking tour’ in the surrounding Southwark area

-project started with the artists’ own inputs of what they wanted to make, used institutional power to get city permission

-however began to steer the perception of street art as big, graphic public paintings singular form of neo-muralism rather than the range of complex and plural aesthetic practices

-turned the practice into one in which financial rather than cultural value was at the fore

-company employed to remove murals from the Tate walls paid more than the artists themselves