Art has played an important role in human culture for ages; even before the term “art” exists. In the essay “The Trouble with (the Term) Art”, Carolyn Dean questions about the universal definition of “art”, and examines “the consequences of identifying art in societies where such a concept did or does not exist” (p. 26). As the title of the article suggests, the term “art” provokes many discussions and questions. Although we have known the term “art” probably since we are in kindergarten, many of us neglect the profoundness of this simple term.
Dean starts off by pointing out that “art” is an ambiguous term because of the differences in people’s aesthetic. Viewers from another geographic region might misinterpret artist’s intention for his …show more content…
26) cause misinterpretation of the work, and can be summarized as “colonial mimicry” since artworks are reconstructed in the image of the colonizing west (27). However, the difficulty of correctly interpreting and valuing an artwork not only lies on the dominance of Western culture, but also lies on human nature itself. The human nature of categorizing, ranking, ordering and homogenizing create obstructions for understanding art. When we see a piece of art for the first time, we tend to identify patterns that we are familiar with from it, or normalize something that we are not familiar with into something recognizable such as animals or people. This concept can be described as “art by appropriation” (p. 26). Examples that are given by Dean include reconstituting African masks as sculptures (p. 26), mistakenly prioritizing the “Funerary Rock” from Machu Picchu over figurines (p. 27), and “[claiming] that the Inca’s capital of Cuzco was built in the shape of a puma stems […] rather than any congruence with Inca practices” (p. 28).
Another factor that makes interpreting art from another culture challenging is cultural stereotype. Just like the stereotype in the modern society, we tend to make assumption of things that we aren’t familiar with. The example Dean gives is of Inca rocks. When discussing about Inca rocks, people tend to assume those rocks are carved, but indeed, the Incas values uncarved rocks in the same way as carved ones (29). Therefore, making assumption about things or cultures that we are not familiar with distorts the truth and lead to falsified
Dean starts off by pointing out that “art” is an ambiguous term because of the differences in people’s aesthetic. Viewers from another geographic region might misinterpret artist’s intention for his …show more content…
26) cause misinterpretation of the work, and can be summarized as “colonial mimicry” since artworks are reconstructed in the image of the colonizing west (27). However, the difficulty of correctly interpreting and valuing an artwork not only lies on the dominance of Western culture, but also lies on human nature itself. The human nature of categorizing, ranking, ordering and homogenizing create obstructions for understanding art. When we see a piece of art for the first time, we tend to identify patterns that we are familiar with from it, or normalize something that we are not familiar with into something recognizable such as animals or people. This concept can be described as “art by appropriation” (p. 26). Examples that are given by Dean include reconstituting African masks as sculptures (p. 26), mistakenly prioritizing the “Funerary Rock” from Machu Picchu over figurines (p. 27), and “[claiming] that the Inca’s capital of Cuzco was built in the shape of a puma stems […] rather than any congruence with Inca practices” (p. 28).
Another factor that makes interpreting art from another culture challenging is cultural stereotype. Just like the stereotype in the modern society, we tend to make assumption of things that we aren’t familiar with. The example Dean gives is of Inca rocks. When discussing about Inca rocks, people tend to assume those rocks are carved, but indeed, the Incas values uncarved rocks in the same way as carved ones (29). Therefore, making assumption about things or cultures that we are not familiar with distorts the truth and lead to falsified