Final Examination Question

Please identify and explain two or three of the greatest difficulties American students face when they study non-Western art. Then explain how a serious and dedicated student can attempt to overcome these difficulties. 


Please base your answer on discussion of at least two specific works (or types of works) from the course.


Open book, open note.  No web access, however.  

Indigenous Australian Art 2

Elizabeth Nyumi Nungurrayi.  =Parwalla= (2003)

=Parwalla= detail

"Contemporary Indigenous Australian Art" at Wikipedia

"Icons of the Desert"
Exhibition Site from the Johnson Museum (Cornell)

"Lands of Enchantment"
Exhibition Site from the National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington DC)

"Contemporary Aboriginal Painting from Australia" 
Exhibition Site from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY)

Indigenous Australian Art 1

To begin, we'll look at Ancient Rock Art Sites & Styles in Arnhem Land (Northern Territory)

Helpful Links & Articles include:

• "Indigenous Australian art" at Wikipedia
• "X-Ray Style in Arnhem Land Rock Art" at the Timeline of Art History

and these sites about Kakadu National Park:

• Kakadu National Park Visitor Guide
• Rock Art Sites in Kakadu National Park
• Seasons of Kakadu
• Kakadu National Park at Wikipedia

Japan: Contemporary Art

Photo of Takashi Murakami by ~FacelessRebel at deviantart

Naturally there are many, many contemporary Japanese artists worthy of attention.  Here are some links to a few of them.

To start with, there was a famous exhibition at the Asia Society in NYC called "Little Boy" in 2005; a 2007 exhibition at the same place called "Making a Home" was also very interesting.

Probably the most famous contemporary Japanese artist is Takashi Murakami. There's a Wikipedia entry with some useful links.  His page at Kaikai Kiki, the art company he founded is also useful, as is this page from an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles.  (There are tons of YouTube videos featuring Murakami as well.  Here's one where he's interviewed by fashion designer Mark Jacobs about, among other things, Murakami's collaboration with Louis Vuitton.)  And he shows in galleries and other museums too.

Besides Murakami, Kaikai Kiki handles a number of artists
Yamamoto Gendai is a Japanese gallery handling many contemporary artists.

Other artists to look at:

• Tsuchiya Kimio
• Yoshitomo Nara
• Kohei Nawa  
• Motohiko Odani
• Chiharu Shiota
• Markio Mori
• Chinatsu Ban
• Yayoi Kusuma 

Japan: Hokusai's "The Great Wave"

Article on “The Great Wave” at the Met’s “Timeline of Art History”

Hokusai article at Wikipedia

Article on the Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji at Wikipedia

More of Hokusai’s work at Wikimedia Commons

"Hokusai:  Mad About Painting" at the Freer/Sackler (Smithsonian) 

Ukiyo-e article at Wikipedia 

Hiroshige.  ”Two Men on a Sloping Bridge in the Rain.”

“Art of the Edo Period” at the Timeline of Art History (Met)

“Woodblock Prints in the Ukiyo-e Style” (Met)
”Art of the Pleasure Quarters at the Ukiyo-e Style” (Met)

The Production of Japanese Woodcut Blocks (J. Noel Chiappa) explains and shows the whole process 

Lots of other examples by lots of artists:

Japanese prints at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Japanese prints at the Minneapolis Institute of Art 

(On Wednesday, we’ll proceed to Hokusai and “The Great Wave”)

You could spend your whole life attempting to understand the Tea Ceremony.  Here's a start.  

Chashitsu (at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts)
Wikipedia article on the Japanese Tea ceremony 
Wikipedia article on the Chashitsu
Website on everything related to the Tea Ceremony 

“Japanese Aesthetics, Wabi-Sabi, and the Tea Ceremony” (.pdf)