After traversing the East Asian Art section, I was able to come across the Native American art section. The room had strong beige accents and L shaped floor tiles to give it a distinct look. The first thing that greeted me when I entered this section was this:
This Native American crest is one of the first things that occur to the casual person when they think of these indigenous Indians. Indeed, to see an ancient feather crest is amazing. This is not just an aesthetic marvel, but it also a fascinating example of human craftsmanship. Imagine, trying to put together an entire crest by hand, carefully arranging the feathers into harmonious shapes. Not only that, to find features that have nearly equidistant length is no small feat. There is a fine attention to detail, such as the different colors on the crest. There is a pleasant blue, red, black and white motif going on here. This demonstrates that Native Americans have cultivated a sense of color theory. The classic black borders on white is prominently displayed on the headdress. To add red accents to the ends of the feathers provided another dimension to the visual look. This headdress also represent the essence of Native American lifestyle; it's very much based around nature, without emphasis on worldly materials like gold or silver. Indeed, this headdress is likely given to a chieftain or high ranking person in an Indian tribe. The headdress not only demonstrates the sovereignty of the chieftain over the people, but the natural source of the headdress also signify an authority over the rights to the land around their tribe. I think, to closely examine these kinds of artifacts is understand some of the context of Native American art. I very much enjoyed looking at this amazing artifact.
It's rather amazing to see bright, vibrant colors on this coloring of a skin. The presence of various amounts of colors indicates that the artists who produced this had knowledge of different chemicals that produced certain colors. In addition, the relatively consistency and ordered manner of the horses also show how disciplined the artist was. Of course, while there aren't any blue horses, I believe the artist was attempting to convey the importance that horses were to the Native Americans. Because of the depiction of horses, it's certain that this occurred after the Spanish arrived in the Americas, as there were no horses in the Americans before European exploration. The shapes of the horses seem to indicate an artistic form of shape abstraction. Even though the shapes aren't real to life, it's enough to convey to us that these were horses. In a way, when I think about it designers today tend to practice shape abstraction to simplify UI and other types of design. To this artist though, the abstraction of the horses also reflect the emphasis on symbolism in Native American religion. Overall, this work of art was very interesting.
It's rather difficult to point out exactly what makes this to be a Mayan/Aztec art, but the intricate boxy swirls on this clay tablet is consistent with other Mayan art. The characters and shape of the person depicted seemed to indicate this. The ironic thing is that I know this because Mayan/Aztec gods tend to have elaborate headdress and are often depicted in false profile. It's ironic because without archaeology, art historians wouldn't be able to know that fact either. Regardless, I'm impressed by how distinctive these Mesoamerican design are, which certainly contributed to cultural preservation.
This one is a tricky beast. At first, I would have attributed this pottery to the ancient Greeks because of the similar colors and overall shape. Other than the fact that I'm currently at the Native American and African Art section, the subjects portrayed are not orderly and the overall shape is unlike anything the Greeks produce (they like their handles). The depiction on this pottery show various androgynous faces, which is unheard of on Greek pottery. In addition, the lack of any exterior protrusions signify that this pottery was likely very old. Indeed, I would surmise that this pottery exists on a functional basis only. But the presence of decorative elements certainly demonstrate it's relative position on the chronological timeline of pottery.
I must say that being in a museum meant that I could stand in front of these artworks and ponder it's many merits. Pieces of art that are reduced to abstraction are often viewed only in terms of it's initial aesthetic output. For example, if I was to see the Native American headdress again, obviously, the first thing that would pop to my head would be Native Americans. Rather than discounting the simplistic context of the art, it's sometimes wise to understand the cultural context behind it. That, is why I believe museums exist. When people take things to an simplistic context, that is where stereotypes and other popularly defined context affect the intended purpose of art.
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