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Art, culture and diversity

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Lesson notes

Diversity within cultural labels

  • Culture includes changing practices, knowledge and relationships. National, continental and religious labels cover varied communities and individuals; artists also work across them and develop contemporary practices.
  • Identify a particular maker, community, place, date and function where known. Do not reduce Aboriginal art to dots, African art to masks or Mexican art to skulls. An art movement such as Impressionism is also cultural.

Replace a label with an enquiry

Replace a label with an enquiryAvoid assumingAsk insteadOne community, one styleWho made this particularwork?Every symbol has onemeaningWhat account is publiclygiven?A tradition never changesWhen, where and for whatuse?A visible design is freeto copyWhat guidance applies tothis use?

Aboriginal contexts and public knowledge

  • English terms such as Dreaming and Dreamtime translate different concepts imperfectly. Some desert accounts of Jukurrpa connect creation, law and continuing relationships; use the relevant community’s own public account rather than generalise to every Aboriginal tradition.
  • Western Desert and other Aboriginal artists have varied approaches and subjects, including Country, history and contemporary life. Respect restricted knowledge and source guidance; visible symbols are not a universal code available for anyone to decode or reproduce.

Use the relevant public account

Use the relevant public accountResearch subjectStarting pointWestern DesertpaintingArtist or community accountTā mokoMāori sources and guidanceCeremonial maskSpecific performance andcommunityCultural motifMeaning, authority and intendeduse

Islamic art: varied ornament and representation

  • Geometric, vegetal and calligraphic ornament are important across many Islamic contexts. Arabesque commonly describes intertwining stylised plant motifs; calligraphy concerns expressive and aesthetic formation of written characters across scripts.
  • Figural imagery also appears in many secular works. Attitudes and uses vary with place and period, so no single prohibition or religious explanation defines every object, manuscript or building.

Distinguish ornament and context

Distinguish ornament and contextTerm or featureQualificationGeometricornamentMany settings and purposesArabesqueStylised intertwined plant motifshereCalligraphyWritten characters across scriptsFigural imageryPresent in many secular Islamic works

Japanese and Mexican examples

  • Ukiyo-e includes prints, paintings and illustrated books associated with floating-world subjects. Hokusai designed The Great Wave; a particular woodblock print also reflects collaboration and the history of its impression.
  • Kahlo’s Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair (1940) and Rivera’s murals are precise practitioner references. Día de Muertos commemorations, calaveras and papel picado have varied contexts and uses; these do not make one national visual recipe.

Study a precise example

Study a precise exampleReferenceContext to investigateHokusai: Great WavedesignPrint production and a particularimpressionKahlo: namedself-portraitIndividual practice and sourcerecordRivera: named muralPublic setting, audience andhistoryDía de MuertosartworkLocal, family andoccasion-specific use

South Asian and Māori practices

  • Mughal painting developed in courtly manuscript and album contexts with exchanges among South Asian and Persian practices. Rangoli and related regional floor-design traditions vary in material, occasion and naming; henna adornment also spans different regions and communities.
  • Tā moko has Māori cultural and identity significance. Consult Māori sources and appropriate guidance rather than detach motifs as generic decoration. These examples are research subjects, not instructions to apply body decoration or imitate restricted designs.

Influence, exchange and collection history

  • Japonisme includes European engagement with selected Japanese visual forms; African sculpture also influenced modernists. Examine the particular source and formal relationship without treating its maker as anonymous or its value as created by European attention.
  • Collection and circulation histories may involve unequal colonial power. A museum display can detach an object from performance or use, so research what the object record establishes and what remains uncertain.

Study exchange with context

Study exchange with contextFormal enquiryContextual enquiryColour and compositionWho made and used the source?Stylisation andabstractionWhat did it mean in itssetting?Later artist adaptationHow did the object circulate?Museum presentationWhat context may be missing?

Appropriate use and cultural authority

  • Cultural appropriation is debated and context-dependent, with attention to power, permission, restriction and representation. A clear concern is disregarding a stated cultural restriction; not every exchange is harmful and not every credit makes a use appropriate.
  • Seek the relevant cultural holders’ guidance, respect agreed terms and identify the source. If the intended use is restricted, choose a permitted source or your own imagery rather than assume adaptation or classroom use removes the restriction.

Check a proposed cultural use

Check a proposed cultural useQuestionUseful actionWho can guide this use?Consult relevant culturalholdersIs knowledgerestricted?Respect limits on disclosureIs reproductionappropriate?Check agreed use andpermissionsIs credit enough byitself?No: distinguish credit fromauthority

Personal response and evidence

  • Use research to make an informed decision about a feature, enquiry or comparison relevant to your intention. Record source and context and distinguish your interpretation from an artist’s or community’s statement.
  • A personal response need not imitate a sacred design or reveal private identity. The invented classroom example changes to original imagery when a proposed motif is restricted; actual permissions require actual source guidance, not an imagined approval.

An invented proposal changes

An invented proposal changesStageStudent decisionInitial ideaWants to copy a motifResearchFinds a restriction on that useRevisionChooses original imageryAnnotationExplains source, context and change

Slides

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Practice questions

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  1. 1.What is culture?

    Easy
    • Ashared and changing practices, knowledge and meanings within and across communities
    • Ba colour
    • Ca tool
    • Da material

  2. 2.Why is Dreamtime an incomplete one-word description of all Aboriginal traditions?

    Easy
    • Aevery community uses identical symbols
    • Bit means only a sleeping dream
    • Cit names one universal dot-painting technique
    • Dcommunities have distinct terms and continuing relationships among Country, ancestors, law and story

  3. 3.In discussion of Islamic ornament, what does arabesque commonly describe?

    Easy
    • Aa type of mask
    • Ba type of paint
    • Cintertwining stylised plant and vine motifs
    • Da ballet position, regardless of the stated context

  4. 4.What is calligraphy?

    Easy
    • Aa mask
    • Bthe art of forming written characters with expressive or aesthetic attention
    • Ca type of pottery
    • Da sculpture

  5. 5.What is ukiyo-e?

    Easy
    • Aa Japanese floating-world genre including prints, paintings and illustrated books
    • BMexican skull art
    • CAfrican mask
    • DIslamic tile

  6. 6.Which Mexican artist made Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair (1940)?

    Easy
    • AHokusai
    • BMonet
    • CDalí
    • DFrida Kahlo

  7. 7.What is papel picado?

    Easy
    • Aa mask
    • Ba sculpture
    • Cdecorative cut or perforated paper used in banners and other displays
    • Da type of paint

  8. 8.What are Mughal miniatures?

    Easy
    • Amurals
    • Bpainting associated with Mughal court culture, including manuscript and album pages
    • Csculptures
    • Dmasks

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