Images for Lecture October 29

Click below for the lecture slides for October 29:

Terms of the Day for October 29

• The Great Depression – a decade of high unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation, plunging farm incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth and personal advancement which followed the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and eventually spread worldwide.
• The New Deal – a  series of economic programs enacted in the United States between 1933 and 1936 in response to the Great Depression and focused on what historians call the "3 Rs": Relief, Recovery, and Reform. That is, Relief for the unemployed and poor; Recovery of the economy to normal levels; and Reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression.
• Works Progress Administration (WPA) – the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads.
• Federal Art Programs (FAP) – was the visual arts arm of the Great Depression-era New Deal Works Progress Administration program in the United States.  It’s primary goals were to employ out-of-work artists and to provide art for non-federal government buildings: schools, hospitals, libraries, etc.

Terms of the Day for October 24

• Mammy Archetype – a reference to African American women in a time where Africans worked as domestic servants/slaves. She is often portrayed within a narrative framework or other imagery as a domestic servant of African descent, generally good-natured, often overweight, very dark skinned, middle aged, and loud.
• Jezebel Archetype – a term with roots in the biblical character Jezebel often used to describe the stereotypical primitive, sexually promiscuous and sometimes controlling black woman.
• Primitivism – a Western art movement that borrows visual forms from non-Western or prehistoric peoples; those that were considered “primitive”.

Images for Lecture October 24

Click below for the lecture slides for October 24:

Terms of the Day for October 22

• Modern Age– the post-medieval historical period which was marked by the move from feudalism toward capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions and forms of surveillance.
• Late Modern Era – the final phase of the Modern Age, occurring between 1900 and the 1970s, which was marked by extreme industrialization, urbanization, and strides toward race and gender equality.
• Modern Art – artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of experimentation.
• The “New Negro” – a term popularized during the Harlem Renaissance implying a more outspoken advocacy of dignity and a refusal to submit quietly to the practices and laws of Jim Crow racial segregation. The term was made popular by Alain Locke.
• The Harlem Renaissance - a period in the 1920s and 1930s when African-American achievements in art and music and literature flourished, characterized by a deliberate reconnection with traditional and ancient African arts.

Images for Lecture October 22

Click below for the lectures slides for October 22:

Terms of the Day for October 19

• Cakewalk – dance that was developed from an older "Prize Walk" done in the days of slavery, generally at get-togethers on plantations in the Southern United States.  The dance is competitive, and originally a large and lavish cake was awarded to the winning couple.
• Negro Spirituals – religious (generally Christian) songs that were created by enslaved African people in the United States.  This songs are often mournful of the present world and highly praise God and the world to come.
• Double-consciousness – a term coined by W. E. B. Du Bois used to describe an individual whose identity is divided into several facets. Du Bois saw double consciousness as a useful theoretical model for understanding the psycho-social divisions existing within African American society.
• The Birth of a Nation –  a 1915 silent drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and based on the novel and play The Clansman, both by Thomas Dixon, Jr.  The film follows the lives of two families through the Civil War, the Reconstruction period, and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan.

Images for Lecture October 19

Click below for the lecture slides for October 19:

Term of the Day for October 17

• Ethnology – the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.  During Victorian imperialism, this science was used to classify certain ethnicities as “primitive” and “inferior” to whites and in need of white social control.

Images for Lecture October 17

Click below for the lecture slides for October 17:

Extra Credit Opportunity: Videos

The two videos below are recorded studio visits with two prominent African-American contemporary artists, Sanford Biggers and Kehinde Wiley.  If you are in need of an extra-credit assignment, then watch these two videos.  Pay attention to what the artists have to say about their work, their ideas, and their perceptions of "black".  Then, write a short essay (3 or 4 paragraphs is sufficient) that responds to what you saw and heard.  What were your own thoughts about what each artist had to say about his work?  Do you see any correlations between things they said in the videos and things we've talked about in class?  What are the similarities in Biggers' and Wiley's concepts?  What are the differences? etc.  Once you have written your response, either e-mail it to me (colej@bethelu.edu), or print it and give it to me in class.  This essay is worth up to 10 points that I will add to a test or quiz (wherever it is most needed) when I average grades at the end of the semester.  I will gauge how many of those 10 points you've earned based on how well you seem to have paid attention to and engaged with the material.  I want to see not only that you paid attention to the videos, but that you can make connections between the ideas communicated in them and your own personal experiences and other concepts that we have spoken about in class or that you have encountered in your reading.

Due no later than November 9.

Sanford  Biggers

Kehinde Wiley

My Visit to the Southeast Asian Art Exhibit at LACMA

Hey everyone.  I wanted to share these images with you.  While on fall break, my wife and I traveled to Los Angeles to see her sister.  Since we were there, we decided to hit up the art museums.  On Thursday we went to LACMA (L.A. County Museum of Art).  They actually have a huge area devoted to the art of Southeast Asia, so I started snapping photos with my phone like crazy with you guys in mind.  Check these out and see if you recognize any of the styles, periods, materials, or subject matter in these images:

P.S.  I posted this from my phone, which seems to have made the images unclickable.  I will see if I can fix that problem later on today.

Terms of the Day for October 15

• Diaspora – meaning “a scattering” and originally used as a term for the dispersal of the Hebrews after the Babylonian occupation, this word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of people with common roots, particularly movements of an involuntary nature, such as the African Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
• Imperialism –  the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationship between states or cultures, often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination.  Also referred to as Colonialism, this term is often specifically applied to the period of western domination during the 19th-20th centuries.
• A Priori –  meaning “from the earlier,” a type of knowledge or justification for an argument which is independent from experience or is generally accepted as truth by those on both sides of a debate or discussion.

Images From Lecture October 15

Again, I apologize for any inconvenience caused by these not being on the blog sooner.

 Las Castas (The Castes)

Annoymous

Late 18th century

The Emancipation Memorial

Thomas Ball

1876

The Spirit of Freedom

Ed Hamilton

1998

Midterm Study Guide

The midterm exam will cover chapters 1-7 of Arts of Southeast Asia and this is how it will be constructed:

20 vocabulary terms (match the term to its definition) worth 2 points each.

40 multiple choice questions worth 1 point each

1 essay question focusing on conversations and/or lectures we've had in class  worth 20 points.

The 20 vocabulary terms will be pulled directly from the "Terms Of The Day" lists I have given you at the beginning of each class period. Study these lists well enough to be able to match each term on the left side of the page with its particular definition on the right side of the page.

The 40 multiple choice questions come from both the class lectures and from the book. There will be a few questions on the test that we never addressed in class; they come directly from the book.  The questions in this section will range from those that test how well you understand the definitions of terms to questions about specific artworks that you have seen, to questions about the cultural, religious, and political environments that contributed to the work.

Let me give you four example questions (yes, these will be on the test just as you see them here):

Most artifacts dating from the                         in Southeast Asia are utilitarian.  Artistic sensibilities in the region weren't seen until the late Neolithic Era.

A. Bronze Age

B. Monolithic Era

C. Paleolithic Era

D. Modern Age

What religion was most dominant in the maritime region of Southeast Asia until the rise of Islam?

A. Judaism

B. Christianity

C. Buddhism

D. Hinduism

The visually unique style of sculpture that was designed to give literal interpretation to some of the poetic descriptions of what a Buddha should be was developed by which culture?

A. Ayutthaya

B. Sukhothai 

C. Central Java

D. Da Viet

The best advice I can give you on how to study for this portion of the exam is to comb through all your notes you've taken in class, remind yourself of all the main concepts you've learned, familiarize yourself with all the "Terms Of The Day," and to make sure you have read the material in the book. Pay special attention to how each artwork serves as an example to illustrate a concept. Don't just depend on what I have told you in class. Yes, 80% of these questions will come directly from lecture. But you don't want to be thrown off by the questions that are based on the book alone.

The essay topic focusing on conversations we had in class will require you to write a paragraph or two in response and will be chosen from the three topics listed below:

1. When Buddhism migrated into Southeast Asia, it had already split into two disciplines.  Theravada Buddhism ("The School of the Elders"), which emphasized the need for every individual to strive for enlightenment, was widespread on the mainland.  Mahayana Buddhism ("The Great Vehicle"), which focused more on the Bodhisattva, was widespread in the maritime region.  How are these differences in emphasis reflected in the Buddhist art of each region?

2. There were three major religions which were adopted by the people of Southeast Asia: Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam.  Taking into consideration our limited exploration of the tenets of each of these religions, compare and contrast the tree of them and their iconography/aesthetics.  What are the similarities?  What are the differences?  Give some examples of artworks that illustrate these differences.

3.  What are the five traditional themes in Southeast Asian art that we discussed in class?  Give examples of how these themes have been displayed in artwork that you have seen in class or in the book.  Cite specific works.  Describe them if you can not remember the titles.

The best way to study for this essay is to carefully read each of these questions and think about what you might write in response.  Each of them is based on lectures or a group discussion from class, but they are phrased to make you think critically about certain concepts. This is meant to test how well you have been paying attention to the concepts you've been learning in this class. If you understand the topics and concepts we've been going over in class well enough to apply them to questions that were never directly asked in class, then you have made good use of the first half of your semester. Consult your notes and the book.  Maybe practice what you would write for each question.

Study hard, and good luck to everyone. If you have taken good notes, if you have read the chapters, and if you have spent some time really trying to understand the "Terms Of The Day" then this exam shouldn't be difficult for you.

P.S. The exam will be the only thing we do next Wednesday. So, once you're finished with it, you are free to go.

Images for Lecture October 5

Musical Rhythm

Khien Yimsiri

1949

Harmony

Khien Yimsiri

1960

 Composition

Fua Haribhitak

1955

 Selling Fish

Hendra Gunawan

1974

 Borobudur – A Moment of Contemplation

Srihadi Sudarsono

1982

 Borobudur 

Srihadi Sudarsono

1994

Borobudur 

Srihadi Sudarsono

1994

 Lotus Sound

Montien Boonma

1992

 White Elephant

Sutee Kunavichyanant

1999

Concrete Euphoria

Mintio

2008

Borobudur on "Ancient Aliens"

Hey everyone!  Do you want a good laugh?  Check out this video, particularly from the 1:55 mark:

Images for Lecture October 3

Click below for the slide images for October 3:

Terms of the Day for October 3

• Dinh – a community house which serves as a shrine for the guardian spirit of villages in Vietnam.  During Chinese rule, a village was required to apply for permission to build a dinh.
• Confucianism –  a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius whose core teaching was humanism, the belief that human beings are teachable, improvable and perfectible through personal and communal endeavor.
• Peranakan –  a term which refers to the descendants of noble Chinese who migrated to the British Straits Settlements of Malacca and adopted the local Malay culture through intermarriage. 

Terms of the Day for October 1

• Kendi – an earthenware flask with a neck and spout, usually or drinking water.
• Celadon – a green glaze used in pottery, invented in China and widely adopted in Thailand, produced by the reaction of differing amounts of iron oxide in the solution to a burning atmosphere.
• Sawankhalok – a city and kiln site in Thailand that produced ceramics in high quantities during the Sukhothai and Ayutthaya periods.
• Finial –  an architectural device, typically carved in stone and employed decoratively to emphasize the apex of a gable or any of various distinctive ornaments at the top, end, or corner of a building or structure.

Images for Lecture October 1

Click below for the slide images for October 1st: