How Have Artists Variously Confronted Questions of Identity and the Forces of the Art Market?

Chapter eight: Art and Identity

Peggy Blood and Pamela J. Sachant

8.i LEARNING OUTCOMES

After completing this chapter, you should exist able to:

• Proper noun and categorize ways that artists explore the concept of identity

• Understand how art serves equally a commentary on society

• Analyze how politics and societal concerns may influence art

• Sympathise how fine art expresses individual and grouping identity

• Sympathise how art preserves national culture and personal identity

8.2 INTRODUCTION

One of the more than important themes emerging from the last century has been the private's search for identity. For case, genealogical websites accept proliferated and special television programs are devoted to the subject. Since it get-go aired on PBS in 2012, Henry Louis Gates Jr.'south Finding Your Roots has been a pop program. The British version, The Guardian , has been successful since 2006.

Some anthropologists advise that the deep-rooted interest in identity or beginnings is partly shaped by evolutionary forces dating back to early humans supporting each other in extended family groups. Anthropologist Dwight Read theorizes that the Neolithic people were the showtime to understand the concept of the family tree and the perception of self in a family and in society. ¹ If continued through blood, people accept the tendency to be more willing to treat each other; a common interest and support system is readily realized within a clan or a group.

Early humans created twoand iii-dimensional likenesses of themselves in their environment to help empathize who they were in relation to the other members of their group. Contemporary humans do the aforementioned; they make records of themselves with family unit members, near normally in photographs and Selfies, and on Instagram. Information technology is the same fundamental concept and placement in an environment that collectively identifies who we are in social club, for example, in social gatherings, organizations, and religious settings. This means, above all, that we must identify ourselves within the world in order to obtain identity. Children search for their identity at a very young age by observing and recognizing their parents and family unit members. Their markings within a simple cartoon of cocky and family unit—similar to those of early humans—aid them to vindicate and confirm who they are and how they are perceived by their family group.

Like children, artists sometimes explore their identity through self-portraits and symbolically in works of art that relate to ancestry or culture. Doing and then allows them to take a wait within their core and run into how they fit within their contemporary civilization; this investigation of cocky plays an important role in how artists understand their surround and the world.

Vincent van Gogh is known every bit a person who spent much of his time in solitude. He painted more thirty self-portraits between the years 1886 and 1889, placing him amidst the nearly prolific self-portraitists of all time. Indeed, some of his nearly respected works are his self-portraits that trace his image throughout the final years of his life, the nearly crucial to his career. (Figures eight.1, 8.2, and 8.3) While Van Gogh used the study of his own prototype to help develop his skills equally an artist, these cocky-portraits also give u.s.a. insights into the artist'south life and well being, how he fit in society, and his place amidst the groups with whom he associated.

Figure 8.1 | Cocky-Portrait with Straw Hat

Artist: Vincent van Gogh

Writer: Met Museum

Source: Wikimedia Eatables

License: Public Domain

Effigy 8.2 | Self-portrait as a painter

Artist: Vincent van Gogh

Author: Web Museum

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Figure eight.3 | Self-portrait with a bandaged ear

Artist: Vincent van Gogh

Writer: The Courtland Institute of Fine art

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Like Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso painted a number of self-portraits. Throughout his career, Picasso painted various likenesses that reflected changes in himself, his style, his artistic development, likewise every bit in his life style and beliefs—all of which may be viewed closely from the content of his paintings. (Figures 8.4 and 8.5) The first self-portrait, painted in 1901 while he was establishing himself as an artist in Paris, France, and all the same spending time in Barcelona, Kingdom of spain, reflects the somber mode and tones of his Bluish Menstruation (1901-1904). The second, dated to 1906, at the very end of his Rose Period (1904-1906), Picasso depicts himself as the artist who by that time was moving in artistic circles, gaining respect, and acquiring patrons.

Figure 8.four | Self-portrait

Artist: Pablo Picasso

Source: WikiArt

License: Public Domain

Effigy 8.5 | Cocky-portrait

Artist: Pablo Picasso

Source: WikiArt

License: Public Domain

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954, United mexican states) used the iconography of her Mexican heritage to paint herself and the pain that had become an integral office of her life following a autobus blow at the historic period of 18 in which she suffered numerous injuries. She identified as a grouping fellow member of her country, with Mexican culture and beginnings, and every bit belonging to the female gender. Kahlo'due south self-portraits are dramatic, bloody, brutal, and at times overtly political. ( Self-Portrait , Frida Kahlo ) In seeking her roots, she voiced business for her land every bit it struggled for an independent cultural identity. She spoke to her country and people through her art. Kahlo'due south art was inspired past her public beliefs and personal sufferings; she wanted her art to speak from her consciousness.

Although cocky-portraits of today may be slightly dissimilar from those of before decades, they still depict self-exploration and identity through social club and groups that communicate who we are. Cai Guo-Qiang (b. 1958, China, lives The states) exploded small charges of gunpowder to create an image of himself. ( SelfPortrait: A Subjugated Soul , Cai Guo-Qiang ) Unlike from those by Van Gogh, Picasso, and Kahlo, Cai'due south self-portrait does not have any likeness or resemblance to his personal features, but it too sends a message about our order and how Cai relates to it. For example, the creative person associates the lack of identifying information, rendering him bearding, with gimmicky society, and the fired gunpowder with both chaos and transformation.

Despite the distance in time that separates early on and mod humans, the search for their identify in society and who they are remains of fascination and a mystery to all humans regardless of their time in history.

viii.3 Private VS CULTURAL GROUPS

Oft when one thinks of an artist, the image is of someone doing solitary work in a studio. During the Romantic period of the late eighteenth century until around 1850, artists, writers, and composers were associated with individualism and with working alone; this trend continued to develop upward until contempo times. The Romantic period valued and celebrated individual originality with musical and literary geniuses such Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, John Keats, Edgar Allen Poe, and Mary Shelley. The visual arts boasted such geniuses equally Francisco Goya, Eugène Delacroix, William Blake (1757-1827, England), and Antoine-Jean Gros (17711835, French republic). (Figures 8.6 and viii.7) Artists of the menses exemplified the Romantic values of the expression of the artists' feelings, personal imagination, and creative experimentation equally opposed to accepting tradition or popular mass opinion. Artists in the flow broke traditional rules; indeed, they considered it desirable to break the rules and overthrow tradition.

Figure viii.vi | Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing

Artist: William Blake

Writer: Tate Britain

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Effigy 8.7 | The Battle of Abukir, 25 July 1799

Artist: Antoine-Jean Gros

Author: User "DcoetzeeBot"

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

From the Medieval to the Bizarre periods, notwithstanding, artists worked together in workshops and guilds, and schools were formed that stressed the importance of preserving heritage and history through rigorous and systematic artistic grooming. Large-calibration commissions ofttimes required numerous hands to complete a work, emphasizing collaboration. Yet, the artwork was expected to have a consistent way and quality of craftsmanship. To satisfy those diverse needs, artists oft specialized in a particular blazon of subject matter. For instance, Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640, Deutschland, lived Flemish region) and Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625, Flanders) collaborated on more than xx paintings over twenty-five years. (Effigy 8.eight) In their Madonna in a Garland of Roses , Rubens'south celebrated skill as a figurative painter can be seen in the serenely glowing face of the Virgin Mary and energetic cavorting of the cherubs surrounding the circular arrangement of flowers painted with accurateness and effeminateness by Brueghel, who was known for his lively nature scenes.

Figure eight.8 | Madonna in a Garland of Flowers

Creative person: Peter Paul Rubens and January Brueghel the Elderberry

Author: The Bridgeman Art Library

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

A recent study by a Yale University researcher found the perception of high quality fine art today is that it is produced by a single individual. If produced by ii or three people, as in a mural or public work projects, the value of the art drops. For creative works, perceptions of quality therefore appear to be based on perceptions of individual, rather than total effort. Nevertheless, a new trend across the world in general suggests that this tradition, which first arose in the West during the Renaissance, is not the norm effectually the globe; that is, the value of art every bit located in the single artist who produces art individually and lone may be more specifically based in sure cultures. Artists in the xx-first century are collaborating with others through social media and/or face-to-face up encounters. It is interesting to remember that the discussion "art" derives from a root that means to "join" or fit together. A whole constellation of ideas and practices can exist accomplished through networking and collaboration as artists participate in group residencies and apprenticeships similar to workshop traditions of centuries ago to larn the customary methods and advanced techniques of their art.

8.3.ane Nation

The Kingdom of Benin, located in the southern region of modern Nigeria and home to the Edo people, was ruled by a succession of obas , or divine kings. It grew from a city-land into an empire during the reign of Oba Ewuare the Great (r. 1440-1473). From 1440, obas ruled the kingdom until information technology was taken over past the British in 1897. Remarkably, the obas and people of Benin remained in command of their trading relations with Europeans and without interference from the rulers of the nations they traded with until the second half of the nineteenth century, prior to foreign dominion. The urban center of Republic of benin prospered and grew through trade with the Portuguese, Dutch, and British.

One of the benefits of dealing with merchants-sailors who traveled the seas was the variety of appurtenances they brought with them and were eager to trade for foodstuff grown or refined by the Edo people. In particular, the Edo treasured brass and coral, along with the ivory they acquired through elephant hunts. Those materials were reserved for the oba and his court, and were used in abundance in the wide array of ceremonial and sacred objects created under each ruler. Kingship was passed from father to firstborn son, and, upon ascending to the throne, the new oba was expected to create an altar made of brass for his father, as well as one for his female parent, mostly in ivory, if she had attained the status of queen mother. The new oba also created a brass head to laurels his predecessor. (Figure 8.ix) Over time, objects such as plaques, bells, masks, chests, and boosted altars fabricated of brass or ivory, some adorned with coral, were added. Some were used to commemorate momentous events and honor heroes, simply the majority of royal objects were used in ceremonial and symbolic support of the oba, his ancestors and subjects, and the kingship itself.

Figure viii.9 | Head of an Oba

Source: Met Museum

License: OASC

This nineteenth-century brass caput of an oba, for case, is not meant to be a portrait of an individual king so much equally a representation of the divine nature and power of being king. The oba derives his power from his interactions with and command over supernatural forces. He is allied with and assisted past his deified ancestors, whom he honors through rituals, offerings, and sacrifices. In stressing this continuity of kingship and his rightful identify in that unbroken chain, the oba strengthens his own power and that of his people and nation.

The welfare of the kingdom rests on the oba's head, a heavy brunt, which is emphasized in representations of him using a proliferation of objects weighing upon him ( Oba Erediauwa ). Simply, he does not bear the weight of ruling alone; he works with and relies on his advisors and subjects as they back up him. That support is shown literally when the oba is in full ceremonial regalia. In this photograph of the current oba, Erediauwa, the King is shown in his royal garb, heavily beaded in coral with ivory bracelets and plaques at his waist; an bellboy, supporting his correct arm, is helping Oba Erediauwa bear the weight of kingship on behalf of the nation of Edo people.

Following George Washington'due south celebratory visit to Charleston, South Carolina, in May 1791, the Charleston City Council voted to celebrate the national hero by having John Trumbull (1756-1843, USA) paint a life-size portrait of the President and hero of the Revolutionary War (1775-1783) to "hand down to posterity the remembrance of the man to whom they are and so much indebted for the blessings of peace, liberty and independence." ² Having been Washington'due south aide-de-military camp during the War of Independence, Trumbull chose to portray Washington as the steadfast and majestic general at the start of the Boxing of Trenton, a pivotal engagement for colonial troops discouraged in the backwash of several recent defeats. (Figure 8.10) The painting depicts clouds in a nighttime, clouded sky turning pink with the rising sunday juxtaposed with the general'due south horse, frightened past the ongoing battle, held tightly by his aide. Washington stands with conviction, one glove off to hold a spyglass in his right mitt, looking in the distance as if heeding a faraway call for victory.

Figure eight.10 | General George Washington at Trenton

Artist: John Trumbull

Source: Art Gallery at Yale

License: Public Domain

Trumbull was pleased with "the lofty expression of his animated expression, the loftier resolve to conquer or to perish" that he captured in George Washington before the Battle of Trenton. ³ His patrons in Southward Carolina were not, though, and rejected the portrait when he presented it to them in 1792. Speaking on behalf of the people of Charleston, Due south Carolina Congressman William Loughton Smith "idea the city would be better satisfied with a more than affair-of-fact likeness, such as they had recently seen him at-home, tranquil, peaceful." ⁴ This was not an isolated occurrence: the question of how a statesman and military machine hero should be represented had non been resolved to the satisfaction of artists or patrons in the eighteenth century, in the years both before and after the founding of the United States. As a representative democracy, the land'due south leaders should be depicted every bit a commander-in-master who is also one of the people, many argued. But American artists unfortunately had no clear model for a "affair-of-fact likeness" in the portraits of European royalty and heads of land that they used as examples. Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641, Flanders), who was courtroom painter to the King of England, around 1635 painted Charles I at the Hunt . (Figure eight.11) The informal yet dignified stance van Dyck adopted for his image of the sovereign, a gentleman out in nature, apace became the favorite pose for aristocrats and other dignitaries sitting for a non-ceremonial portrait. The pose still remained a standard at the time Trumbull painted George Washington before the Battle of Trenton , but, as indicated by the painting'due south reception, it was not considered appropriate in a representation of the leader of a democratic nation. In addition, every bit the portrait was to commemorate Washington'southward visit to Charleston, townspeople thought the boxing setting should be replaced with a view of that city.

Figure eight.11 | Charles I at the Hunt

Artist: Anthony van Dyck

Author: User "Tetraktys"

Source: Wikimedia Eatables

License: Public Domain

Trumbull took note of his patrons' wishes and painted another version. ( General George Washington at Trenton , John Trumbull ) While Washington'south pose remains most unchanged, Trumbull lightened the sky and inserted a view of Charleston Bay with the metropolis on the far shore. Charleston leaders were satisfied and Trumbull promised delivery of the painting subsequently some small-scale additions. The addition turned out to be the General'southward equus caballus, but reversed from the original painting, with its hindquarters prominently displayed in the space between Washington's canary yellow breeches and his walking stick, and the distant metropolis visible betwixt the horse'south legs. The painting however hangs in the Historic Council Bedchamber of Charleston City Hall.

8.3.two Cultural Heritage and Indigenous Identity

One important aspect of cultural and ethnic identity is shared histories or mutual memories. Such histories are our heritage. However, heritage is not the total history. It connects to culture and ethnicity in lodge to convey the full story about who we were and who nosotros have become as a society or individual. Cocky or national identity is built on its foundation. Defining terms will help in agreement how each interplay to identify who nosotros are as an individual or nation.

Christian Ellers, a popular contemporary writer on cultures, defines identity equally whatsoever a person may distinguish themselves by, whether it be a item state, ethnicity, religion, organization, or other position. Identity is i way among many to ascertain oneself. Ellers defines ethnicity equally a group that ordinarily has some connections or common traits, such as a mutual linguistic communication, common heritage, and or cultural similarities. The American Lexicon defines civilisation as the way of life of a detail people, especially as shown in ordinary behavior, habits, and attitudes toward each other or ane's moral and religious beliefs ("Culture"). We volition await at these terms as they chronicle to artists, the visual documentarians of guild.

Kimsooja (b. 1957, Republic of korea), a multi-disciplinary conceptual, reflects on her group identity past exploring the roots of her Korean culture. She draws upon tradition and history by selecting familiar everyday items such as fabric to communicate her bulletin. Fabric wrapped into a package known as a "bottari" is commonly used to transport, carry, or shop everyday objects in Korean civilization. What is unlike is Kimsooja'south utilize of fabric as an fine art form. Since 1991, Kimsooja has used fabric, sometimes in the form of a bottari, in an on-going series, Deductive Objects , exploring Korean folk community, daily and common activities, and her cultural groundwork and heritage in relation to her life and experience. ( Bottari Truck-Migrateurs , "Je Reviendrai", Thierry Depagne and Jaeho Chong ) In this example, she photographed figures draped in Korean printed textile that conceals their ethnicity, culture, and identity. Their identity is left to the viewer'southward imagination, and their culture is left for the viewer to consider, using the print of the fabric equally a clue.

A number of artists such every bit Kimsooja choose to communicate through their art who they are in relation to their civilisation and ethnicity. Their fine art becomes a means of validating their self-identity. Her Korean heritage represents a treasury of symbols that commemorates who they are as a people and a distinct culture with a common artistic sensibility. Their national self-epitome is, on one level, unambiguously defined by the convergence of territorial, ethnic, and cultural identities. The geographical conditions of the Korean Peninsula provide a cocky-contained nautical and continental environment with plenty of resources with which to create and be innovative. These atmospheric condition have given the people since prehistoric times a rich and unique culture to draw from and make contributions to humanity. Koreans accept great pride in their homogeneous culture, and in their heritage.

Russian federation, similarly self-contained, for many centuries developed cultural characteristics and ethnic identities distinctly their own, as well. Russia's rich cultural heritage is visually stunning, from its vivid folk costumes to its elaborate religious symbols and churches. (Figure eight.12) Almost Russians place with the Eastern Orthodox (Christian) religion, but Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism are also practiced in Russia, making information technology a rich land of diverse ethnic groups and cultures. St. Basil'south Cathedral, located on the grounds of the Kremlin in Moscow, and hundreds of other orthodox churches symbolize Russian federation's heritage; indeed, citizens proudly identify pictures of the cathedrals in their homes and offices. The churches in Russian federation are astonishingly cute and very much a part of Russian federation'due south heritage.

Figure 8.12 | St. Basil Cathedral, Moscow

Author: User "Ludvig14"

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: CC BY-SA 3.0

Ironically, then, in lite of such a rich internal history, why did Russia's rulers expect to western European artists and creative traditions to develop a new artistic identity in eighteenth century?

Carlo Bartolomeo Rastrelli (1675-1744, Italian republic, lived Russia), an Italian sculptor who moved to Saint petersburg, Russian federation, in 1716, is associated with the germination of Russia's "new" culture. As a immature artist, Rastrelli moved from his native Florence during an economic downturn to Paris in search of greater opportunities. The lavish and purple works he created in that location in the late Bizarre mode did not earn him the success he sought, but did bring him to the attention of Tsar (and later on Emperor) Peter the Great (r. 1682-1725), who lured him and his son Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli (1700-1771, France, lived Russia) to the Russian federation courtroom.

Peter the Great co-ruled with his blood brother, Ivan 5, and other family members until 1696, when he was twenty-iv years old. At that time, Russia was nevertheless very much tied to its internal religious, political, social, and cultural traditions. Peter the Great prepare out to modernize all aspects his country, from the structure of the war machine to education for children of the dignity. The Tsar traveled widely in Western Europe, implementing governmental reforms and adopting cultural norms he saw there. French republic was the model for sweeping changes he had carried out in courtroom life, fashion, literature, music, fine art, architecture, and even linguistic communication, with French becoming the language spoken at court over the form of the eighteenth century.

Carlo Bartolomeo Rastrelli and his son Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli were amidst the painters, sculptors, and architects, then, who were instrumental in introducing to Russia the new conventions and styles that supplanted Russia'southward cultural heritage and identity. For example, Carlo Rastrelli's portrait bust of Peter the Great bears a striking stylistic resemblance to a portrait bust of French King Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715) by sculptor and builder Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680, Italian republic). (Figures 8.13 and eight.14) Bernini'due south bust, created during a visit to Paris in 1665, shows Louis XIV as a visionary and regal leader who is literally above vagaries of human existence such as the wind that billows his drapery. Carlo Rastrelli's portrait of Peter the Groovy, completed posthumously in 1729, draws upon the same traditions—dating back to images of Roman emperors such every bit Augustus (run across Effigy 3.23)—of showing absolute authority through such devices as the elevator of the head, eyes scanning the altitude, and wearing of military armor.

Figure 8.13 | Peter I

Author: User "shakko"

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: CC BY-SA three.0

Figure 8.14 | Bust of Louis 14 of French republic

Creative person: Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Author: User "Coyau"

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: CC BY-SA 3.0

His son Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli was an architect who also worked in the Bizarre style. He received his first regal commission in 1721, at the age of twenty-1, simply he is mainly known for opulent and imposing buildings he designed subsequently Peter the Keen'southward death in 1725. Continuing the modernization and transformation of Leningrad, Francesco Rastrelli's structures are associated with luxurious exuberance of the Baroque, and Russia's Romanov rulers of the eighteenth century. Ane of Francesco Rastrelli'due south most famous buildings is the Winter Palace, also bears a striking stylistic resemblance to a French palace: Versailles, congenital for Louis XIV by architects Louis Le Vau (1612-1670, France) and Jules-Hardouin Mansart (1746-1708, France). (Figures 8.xv and 8.16)

Figure 8.15 | Winter Palace, St. Petersburg

Writer: User "Florstein"

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: CC By-SA 4.0

Figure 8.xvi | Versailles

Author: Marc Vassal

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: CC BY-SA 3.0

viii.3.three Sex activity/Gender Identity

Kehinde Wiley (b. 1977, USA) is a contemporary portrait painter. In his work, he refers back to poses and other compositional elements used by earlier masters in much the same mode that Trumbull did in his portrait of George Washington. Wiley ways for his viewers to recognize the before work he has borrowed from in creating his painting, to make comparisons between the two, and to layer meaning from the before piece of work into his ain. Due to the strong contrasts between the sitters in Wiley's paintings and those who posed for the earlier portraitists, still, this comparison often makes for a complex interweaving of meanings.

Wiley'southward 2008 painting Femme piquée par united nations serpent, or Adult female bitten by a serpent, ( Femme Piquée par un Serpent, Kehinde Wiley ) is based upon an 1847 marble work of the same name by French sculptor Auguste Clésinger (1814-1883, French republic). (Figure 8.17) When Clésinger'south flagrantly sensual nude was exhibited, the public and critics alike were scandalized, and fascinated. Information technology was not uncommon in European and American fine art of the nineteenth century to use the subject of the work as justification for depicting the female nude. For case, if the discipline was a moral tale or a scene from classical mythology, that was an acceptable reason for showing a nude figure. In Clésinger's sculpture, the pretext for the woman's indecent writhing was the ophidian seize with teeth, which, coupled with the roses surrounding the woman, was meant to suggest an allegory of dearest or beauty lost in its prime number rather than just a salacious delineation of a nude. Unfortunately, the model was hands recognized as a existent person, Apollonie Sabatier, a courtesan who was the writer Charles Baudelaire's mistress and well known among artists and writers of the 24-hour interval. Clésinger defended his sculpture as an artful study of the human grade just, having used the features and body of a gimmicky adult female, his sculpture's viewers objected to the prototype as besides real. Wiley'southward painting is the opposite: it is clearly intended to be a portrait of one private, but he is clothed and inexplicably lying with his dorsum to the viewer while turning to expect over his shoulder. In his painting, Wiley retains the extended artillery, and twisted legs and torso of Clésinger's figure, but the sculpted woman's thrown back head and closed eyes are replaced by the human'due south turned head and mildly quizzical gaze.

Figure 8.17 | Femme Piquée par un Snake

Artist: Auguste Clésinger

Author: User "Arnaud 25"

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Wiley takes that pose and its meanings—indecency, exposure, vulnerability, powerlessness— and uses them in a context that seemingly makes no sense when the field of study is a fully clothed black male. Or does it? By using the conventions for depicting the female nude, Wiley asks u.s. to examine the post-obit: what happens when the figure is clothed—with a suggestion of eroticism in the glimpse of brown skin and white briefs above his depression-riding jeans; what happens when a young man gazes at the viewer with an unguarded expression of open inquisitiveness; and what happens when a black male person presents his torso in a posture of weakness, potentially open to assault? The artist uses these juxtapositions of meaning to challenge our notions of identity and masculinity. By expanding his visual vocabulary to include traditions in portraiture going back hundreds of years, Wiley paints a immature black man at odds with gimmicky conventions of (male person) physicality and sexuality.

Ideas about gender identity, that is, the gender one identifies with regardless of biological sex, have developed scientifically and socially, and have in recent years become both more circuitous and more fluid in numerous cultures. Within other cultures, however, in addition to male or female, there has traditionally been a third gender, and gender fluidity has been role of the fabric of society for thousands of years. Amidst the ancient Greeks, for instance, a hermaphrodite, an individual who has both male and female person sex activity characteristics, was considered "a college, more than powerful form" that created "a 3rd, transcendent gender." ⁵ In Samoa, at that place is a strong emphasis on one's role in the extended family, or aiga . Traditionally, if there are non plenty females within an aiga to properly run the household or if at that place is a boy who is especially drawn to domestic life, he is raised every bit fa'afafine or "in the fashion of a adult female." Thus, fa'afafine are male at birth but are raised as a third gender, taking on masculine and feminine behavioral traits.

In India, those of a tertiary gender are known as hijra , which includes individuals who are eunuchs (men who have been castrated), hermaphrodites, and transgender (when gender identity does not match assigned sex). The role of hijras is traditionally related to spirituality, and they are oftentimes devotees of a god or goddess. For instance, the hijras or devotees of the Hindu goddess Bahuchara Maja are often eunuchs, having had themselves castrated voluntarily to offer their manhood to the deity. Other hijras live equally role of the mainstream community and wearing apparel as women to perform but during religious celebrations, such as a nativity or wedding, where they are invited to participate and bequeath blessings.

Although hijras had been a respected 3rd gender in much of Southeast Asia for thousands of years, their status changed in late nineteenth-century Republic of india while under British rule. During the twentieth century, many hijras formed their own communities, with the protection of a guru, or mentor, to provide some financial security and safekeeping from the harassment and discrimination under which they lived. In 2014, the supreme court of India ruled that hijras should be officially recognized as a third gender, dramatically irresolute for the ameliorate the educational and occupational opportunities for what is estimated to be half a one thousand thousand to 2 million individuals. ⁶

Tejal Shah (b. 1979, Bharat) is a multi-media artist who ofttimes works in photography, video, and installation pieces. She began the Hijra Fantasy Series in 2006, ( Southern Siren Maheshwari from Hijra Fantasy Series, Tejal Shah ) creating "tableaux in which [iii hijras ] enact their own personal fantasies of themselves." ^vii Shah was interested in how each woman—they all had transitioned from male to female—envisions her own sexuality, split up from the perceptions and projections of others. As described by Shah, "In Southern Siren—Maheshwari , the protagonist envisions herself equally a classic heroine from South Indian movie theater in the throes of a passionate romantic encounter with a typical male hero." ⁸

In the tableau , or staged scene, Masheshwari sees herself as resplendently dressed in a bluish sari, a traditional Indian draped gown, an object of adoration and desire. In this photograph and the others in the series, Shah found information technology noteworthy that each hijra , participating fully in the creative process, expressed feelings about herself by using visual cues and types from mainstream sources such as, in this example, Indian popular civilisation. How each hijra represented herself was the stuff of universal man fantasies, Shah found, regardless of sexual or gender identity: "being beautiful, glamourous and powerful, having a family, giving love and being loved in return." ⁹

8.3.four Class

Maria Luisa of Parma was a member of the highest circles of European royalty. Born in 1751, she was the youngest daughter of Phillip, Duke of Parma, Italy, and his wife, Princess Louise-Élisabeth of France, the eldest daughter of King Louis XV. In 1765, she married Charles 4, Prince of Asturias. She was the Queen espoused of Spain from 1788, when her husband ascended to the throne, until 1808, when Rex Charles Iv abdicated his throne nether force per unit area from Napoleon.

Majestic marriages were intended to foster allegiances and cement alliances. The bride and groom generally did not meet one another until after lengthy negotiations were completed and the wedding appointment was near. It was not uncommon for portraits of the prospective couple to exist exchanged; in addition to the descriptions by the negotiators and others, an artist's representation was the only way to acquire what i'south possible spouse looked like at a time when journeys were not easily or quickly undertaken. At the fourth dimension of their engagement, Laurent Pécheux (1729-1821, French) painted this portrait of Maria Luisa (Figure viii.18) in 1765 for Princess Maria Luisa fiancé's family.

Figure 8.18 | Maria Luisa of Parma

Artist: Laurent Pécheux

Source: Met Museum

License: OASC

Maria Luisa of Parma depicts the fourteen-twelvemonth-quondam bride-to-be holding a snuffbox in her right hand containing a miniature portrait of her future hubby inside its hat. This detail was a formula in formal appointment portraits: the sitter holds a gift such as this finely made and costly trinket to express appreciation and budding amore for one's betrothed. Additionally, to demonstrate her wealthy and cultured family groundwork, Maria Luisa is posed within an interior setting displayed in a silk brocade gown trimmed with lengths of delicate, handmade lace, a medallion of the Guild of the Starry Cross suspended from a diamond-encrusted bow on her breast, and diamond stars in her powdered hair. While this is indeed a likeness of the princess, the portrait is meant to convey far more than the color of her eyes or shape of her nose. This portrait is a statement well-nigh the prestige and power she will bring to the marriage, and a congratulatory annotation to the groom'southward family on the beauty and worth of the mutually beneficial nugget they are gaining.

Maria Luisa'southward wearing apparel is the exclamation indicate to that visual statement. She is wearing a style known as a mantua or robe a la française (in the French mode), a dress for formal courtroom occasions, of silk brocade woven into alternating bands of gold thread and pinkish flowers on a cream field. This very costly fabric, probably made in France, is stretched over panniers, or fan-shaped hoops fabricated of cane, metal or whalebone extending side-to-side. The panniers create a horizontal simply flattened silhouette that allowed the tremendous quantity of magnificent fabric required to be fully displayed. To clothing such a gown was a pronouncement of one'southward wealth and condition, a sign of which was 1'south comportment, that is, ane'southward bearing and beliefs. And, it was indeed a challenge to stand or move with the grace expected of a highborn woman in eighteenth-century order while wearing such cumbersome, restrictive, and heavy clothing. Maria Luisa, nevertheless, is depicted every bit poised and charming, the perfect consort for a king.

Twenty-iv years after her portrait past Pécheux, Maria Luisa was 30-eight years quondam and had borne x children, five of whom were even so live, when Francisco Goya created this portrait, Maria Luisa Wearing Panniers . (Effigy 8.19) , Francisco Goya was named painter to the court of Charles IV and Maria Luisa in 1789, and in celebration of Charles Iv's ascension to the throne, created a portrait of the Rex, to go forth with the Queen'south portrait. Neither the years nor Goya were kind to Maria Luisa. (Between 1771 and 1799, she would take fourteen living children, half dozen of whom grew to adulthood, and ten miscarriages.)

Figure eight.19 | Maria Luisa of Parma Wearing Panniers

Creative person: Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes

Author: Prado Museum

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

In Goya'south depiction, she is even more richly dressed than in her earlier portrait, but her elaborate and sumptuous costume serves only to provide an unflattering contrast with the Queen's demeanor. Goya depicts Maria Luisa with her arms awkwardly held to each side to suit her rigid, box-like tontillo (the Spanish variation of panniers); her plain, expressionless face up is about comically topped by a complexly constructed hat of lace, silk, and jewels. The hat represents 1 extravagant trend in women's fashion of the 1780s, and Goya did paint its proliferation of textures and surfaces with keen skill and sensitivity, but the contrast betwixt the Queen's hat and her features makes them appear even more coarse and unrefined, regardless of her wealth and course.

What explanation could there have been for the court painter to create such an unflattering representation of Maria Luisa, Queen espoused of Spain? In her years of living in her adopted country, she had not endeared herself to members of court or her subjects. Considering that the King preferred to hunt, running the land brutal largely on the shoulders of Maria Luisa, who was vain and bad-tempered. Goya's presentation does non, in fact, contradict that assessment. The emphasis on her luxurious and elegant attire and on the robe and crown to Maria Luisa's correct—signaling her status as Queen consort—represent that she is the individual who is literally in bear on with the robes of country. This work and her engagement portrait of nearly twenty-five years before were non and so much depictions of her as a person as they were means to communicate the ability and prestige of her place and her role.

Honoré Daumier (1808-1879, French republic) in 1864 painted a different sign of prestige, or lack thereof, in The Tertiary-Class Carriage ; information technology was one of three paintings in a series commissioned past William Thomas Walters. (Effigy 8.twenty) The other two paintings were The Excellent Carriage and The 2nd-Class Carriage , the just one in the series thought to be finished. (Figures 8.21 and 8.22) Walters, an American businessman and fine art collector, would later found the Walters Fine art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, with work from his collection, including these three paintings.

Effigy 8.20 | The Third Course Railroad vehicle

Creative person: Honoré Daumier

Source: Met Museum

License: OASC

Effigy 8.21 | The First Class Railroad vehicle

Artist: Honoré Daumier

Author: Walters Art Museum

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Effigy eight.22 | The Second Class Railroad vehicle

Artist: Honoré Daumier

Author: Walters Art Museum

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

When Daumier created the works, he had been working prolifically as a painter, printmaker, and sculptor for forty years. In his lifetime, he would create approximately 5,000 prints, 500 paintings, and 100 sculptures. From the beginning of his career, he was interested in the impact of industrialization on modern urban life, the plight of the poor, the quest for social equality, and the struggle for justice. He was particularly known for his bitter satire of politics and political figures, and his less stinging, ironic commentary on current guild and events. Because of the subject thing he chose—everyday people, contemporary life—and the straightforward, truthful, and sincere fashion in which he depicted them, Daumier is considered to be function of the Realist movement or fashion in art.

In The Third-Class Carriage , the artist presents 4 figures in the foreground, bathed in calorie-free, with numerous, less individualized figures crowded in the background. The young female parent nursing her baby, an elderly woman sitting with folded easily, and a boy sleeping with his hands in his pockets cover four generations, as well as unlike stages of life. Although the passengers sit down near one another, they appear isolated from each other. They, including the boy, are probably traveling to or from piece of work in the metropolis, and both their body postures and facial expressions convey the toll of hard labor and long hours. Daumier shows compassion for these workers whose lives concur nothing but repetitious drudgery.

Forever changing the mainly agricultural order that existed in much of Europe and the United States prior to the second half of the eighteenth century, the Industrial Revolution is the commencement of the mechanization and manufacturing that would atomic number 82 to people shifting from country to city life, and from farms to factories. While the shift to an industrial, money-based society improved the lives of many and created the middle class equally we know information technology today, Daumier was well aware that others were being left behind and were substantially trapped in a cycle of lilliputian education, unskilled labor, and low wages.

The artist represents dissimilar life expectations based on class through the manner he paints the windows and through his use of light in each of the three paintings. In The Third-Class Carriage , the figures in the foreground have low-cal shining on them from a window to the left, outside the picture aeroplane. There are windows in the groundwork, likewise, but nothing tin can be seen outside of them. Daumier is implying there is nothing to be seen, especially in the case of the literally non-existent window. In The Second-Class Carriage , a landscape can be seen through the window, and one of the figures looks out attentively. The other three, paying no attention to the world outside, are cocooned in their wintertime clothes in an effort to fend off the cold in their unheated train car. But the man who leans forward to detect the passing scenery appears to be younger and is maybe more eager and capable of adapting to and moving upward in the earth of business organisation—suggested by the bowler hat he is wearing, which at the time was associated in urban center life with ceremonious servants and clerks. In Splendid Carriage , the passengers are all alarm, each attending to their own business. Ane young woman looks out at a dark-green landscape; considering her lightweight outerwear, it appears this is a springtime scene, which is suggested, as well, past the colorful ribbons on the ii women'south fashionable bonnets. With their relaxed postures and placid, composed expressions, these get-go-class passengers give the impression of conviction. They are more than secure in themselves and their places in the world than either the second-class or third-class passengers.

8.3.5 Grouping Affiliation

History suggests that the quality of human survival is best when humans function every bit a grouping, assuasive for collective support and interaction. Social psychological research indicates that people who are affiliated with groups are psychologically and physically stronger and better able to cope when faced with stressful situations. Gregory Walton, a social psychologist who studies group interaction, has concluded that one benefit individuals receive is the satisfaction of belonging (to a group, culture, nation or) to a greater customs that shares some mutual interests and aspirations. The unity of groups is achieved through members' similarities or their having experiences based on the history that brought them together.

Artists throughout history have been associated with groups, movements, and organizations that protect their interests, forrard their cause, or promote them as a group or as individuals. The most visible groups during the Renaissance period in Italy, for example, were people belonging to the Catholic Church building and other religious organizations, wealthy merchant families, civic and authorities groups, and guilds, including artists' guilds. (Figures 8.23 and 8.24)

Figure 8.23 | The Syndics of the Amsterdam Drapers' Lodge,

known as the "Sampling Officials"

Artist: Rembrandt

Author: Google Cultural Institute

Source: Wikimedia Commons

License: Public Domain

Figure 8.24 | Officers of the St. George Civic Baby-sit, Haarlem

Artist: Frans Hals

Source: Wikimedia Eatables

License: Public Domain

8.iii.6 Personal Identity

The city of Palmyra, in modernistic Syrian arab republic, had long been at the crossroads of Western and Eastern political, religious, and cultural influences, as it was a caravan end for traders traveling the Silk Road between the Mediterranean and the Far East. In the first century CE, the urban center came under Roman rule and under the Romans, the city prospered, and the arts flourished. Following a rebellion by Queen Zenobia of Palmyra in 273 CE, Roman Emperor Aurelian destroyed the city, ending the menstruation of Roman control.

The Palmyrenes, or people of Palmyra, built iii types of elaborate, large-scale monuments for their expressionless called houses of eternity. The first was a tower tomb , some as high as four stories. The second was a hypogeum , or secret tomb, and the 3rd was a tomb built in the shape of a temple or house. All were used by many generations of the same extended family and were located in a necropolis, a city of the dead, what we today call a cemetery. Inside the tombs were loculi , or small, separate spaces, each of which formed an individual sarcophagus, or stone coffin. Inside the opening to the tomb, the get-go sarcophagus held the remains of the clan's founder; information technology was oftentimes faced with a stone relief sculpture depicting him as if attending a banquet and inviting others to join him. Surrounding the founder in the loculi , on the face up of each family member's sarcophagus would exist a relief portrait of each person interred there. ( Loculi )

This stele, a portrait of a begetter, his son, and two daughters, dates to between 100 and 300 CE, sometime during the era of Roman rule. (Effigy 8.25) The man is reclining on a couch busy with flower motifs within circles and diamonds. He holds a bunch of grapes in his right hand and, in his left, a vino loving cup decorated with flowers similar to those on the couch. His ii daughters flank his son in the background; the son holding grapes and a bird. The son and daughters all wear necklaces. Additionally, the daughters wear pendant earrings and brooches belongings the drapery at their left shoulders. The chiton, or tunic, and himation, or cloak, that each daughter wears has some affinities with Greco-Roman types of habiliment, only the style of the ornamented veil covering their heads is a local type of garment, based on Parthian, or Farsi, styles. Also wearing local garments, the two males wear a loose plumbing equipment tunic and trousers, each with a decorative border. The fine fabrics indicated by the embellished borders of both men and women's clothing indicate appurtenances and wealth amassed from trade, as does the abundant use of precious metals and gems in the variety of jewelry adorned by the Palmyrenes. Thus, the stele is a alloy of Greco-Roman and Palmyrene (and larger Parthian) styles and cultural influences.

Effigy 8.25 | Funerary Relief

Source: Met Museum

License: OASC

Coupled upon many Palmyrenes grave steles are inscriptions of text in both Aramaic and Latin that give the person'south name and genealogy, markers of distinctive individual and family traits. While many of the depictions of the frontal-facing, broad-eyed figures—a defining feature of Palmyrene art—prove little individualization of features, the coupling with such inscriptions are evident signs that each stele was intended to denote the characteristics of the person entombed within. The figures actively engage the viewer, and provide the reminder that personal identity is an amalgamate of individual, socio-cultural, spiritual, and historical influences.

In July 2015, the city of Palmyra, its people, and its art were again in danger. In April of 2015, Islamic State (ISIS) forces overtook the 3,000-year-one-time Assyrian city of Nimrud and destroyed its buildings and fine art. On May 21, 2015, ISIS overtook the city of Palmyra, inducing fear that they would destroy buildings and art in that location as they did in Nimrud. On July 2, 2015, ISIS was reported to have destroyed grave markers like to the one discussed hither. ( Grave Marker Reliefs ) They lined upward six bust-length reliefs of people who lived in Palmyra most 2,000 years ago, and smashed them, obliterating the visual and written tape of each person. So many take had their portraits fabricated for posterity with the hopes of staying alive, against the odds. And, this is why we need art: it gives us memories of ourselves and our deeds, who we place with, and how nosotros place others.

eight.4 Earlier YOU MOVE ON

Key Concepts

National and personal identities do not magically happen; they are built on and influenced past immediate and past events, environments, traditions, and cultural legacies. Artists capture and document not only the physical conditions of a gild merely also the emotional and mental conditions. They construct a sense of who we were and are as a person and equally a nation. Society'south identity is e'er fluid. When we encounter identity as static, we record people with stereotypes and do not see them for who they are. Art is ane manner to challenge static notions of identity by engaging the viewer in visual narratives that are unfamiliar to them, and that brainwash and claiming their previously held notions.

Since the 1970s, postmodern theories take challenged historical and traditional notions of ethnic and cultural identity past developing a model that views identity as being multifaceted, fluid, and socially synthetic. Some scholars contend that nosotros are in a menstruation of post-identity and postal service-ethnicity, repudiating the old essentialist view of identity. Globalization of people, the Net, and travel have all brought about fluid cultures—which may have contributed to people's more fluid sense of identity, and also to their interest in researching their heritage, culture, and ethnic identity. Heritage is the treasure and symbols of pride for an private, country, and nation. Many works of fine art are seen as office of national heritage because they help citizens appreciate their past. Art provides life to the past, something that can be visualized, touched, walk through, and identified as being role of a legacy and culture.

Test Yourself

1. On the surface Kim Sooja's art seems unproblematic, but underneath it is an enigma of traditions that brand a metaphoric identity argument; for example, her use of textile as an art course evokes intimacy and honor of her culture and history. Hash out and identify at-least two artists whose work makes a personal and historical statement. Exist specific as you reference each image associated with your essay. (minimum of 500 words).

2. A number of circumstances throughout history have compelled artists to face the context of social problems, select at-to the lowest degree two works of art that best describe an issue or consequence. Discuss the bug associated with the issue, and how the result and fine art shaped the legacy or identity of the state or nation. Describe the power the piece of work communicates, hash out the significance of the work and how it convey a bulletin, and identity of the people in that menses of time. At the end of your essay make commentary on why yous selected the fine art works what you call back well-nigh the art. (Adhere selected piece of work with captions.) Answer to the question is located throughout the affiliate)

3. Throughout history building were constructed in a style to symbolize power; spirituality; and godlessness. Structures house institutions that guide, influence and shape a society'due south morals, values, politics, religious and social conditioning. Select 4 structures that all-time symbolize the identity or civilisation of a gild. Describe its impact on influencing a nation, significance to the nation and how the structure contributes to national or private identity. At the terminate of your essay discuss why you selected the structures and the aesthetics of the edifice. (Attach selected structures with captions.)

4. Compare and contrast four works of art that all-time describe a personal or national identity. Discuss with specifics how the artist is able to capture the graphic symbol of the person or nation. At the end of your essay add a commentary why yous selected the works and their significance. (Attach selected works with captions.)

8.nine Key TERMS

Bizarre : a style of compages and art that originating in Italian republic in the early seventeenth century

Bottari : Cloth wrapped and tied around dress , textile, or/and items into a packet for carry

Grave stele : is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected normally in Greek cemeteries equally a monument, for funerary or commemorative purposes.

Hypogeum : an underground prehistoric burial site

Impressionism : is a nineteenth-century fine art move that adult in France during the late nineteenth century by a group of artists called the Bearding Gild of Painters, Sculptors

Impressionist : A painter whose painting have characteristics of the impressionism movement, emphasizing accurate delineation of low-cal in its irresolute qualities, uses small, sparse, yet visible castor strokes, open limerick,

Individualism : emphasizes potential of manand cocky development ain beliefs. The Individualism during the Renaissance catamenia became a prominent theme in Italy

Industrial Revolution : period during the tardily eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in western Europe and the United States when industry rapidly developed due to the invention of steampowered engines and the growth of factories. Fundamental changes occurred in agriculture, textile and metallic manufacture, transportation, economic and policies, and had a major bear on on how people lived

Obas : The title of "oba," or rex, is passed on to the firstborn son of each successive king of Benin, Africa at the fourth dimension of his death

Renaissance Period : a period of time from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century in Europe. The era bridged the time between the Centre Ages and modern

Tableau : is an incidental scene, every bit of a group of people

Tower tomb : are mausoleums, built in 1067 and 1093

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1. Ghose, Tia (Oct. 26, 2012). Why we care about our ancestry, Live Science. ↩

2. George and Martha Washington: Portraits from the Presidential Years , exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC, 1999, accessed July 6, 2015, http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/gw/trenton.htm ↩

3. Ibid ↩

4. Ibid ↩

5. Aileen Ajootian, "The Only Happy Couple: Hermaphrodites and Gender" in Naked Truth: Women, Sexuality and Gender in Classical Art and Architecture , ed. Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow and Claire 50. Lyons (New York: Routledge, 1997), 228. ↩

6. http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/04/18/304548675/a-journey-of-pain-and-beauty-on-becoming-transgenderin-republic of india ↩

7. Tejal Shah, Artist Statement, Hijra Fantasy Serial , accessed July vii, 2015, http://tejalshah.in/project/what-are-you/howdy jrafantasy-series/ ↩

8. Ibid. ↩

9. Ibid. ↩

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