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12 pages, 734 KiB

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Mural as a Living Element of Urban Space: Seasonal Dynamics and Social Perception of “The Four Seasons with Kora” in Warsaw

by Aleksander Cywiński and Anita Karyń

Arts 2024, 13(4), 117; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13040117 - 10 Jul 2024

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Abstract

Street art, with a particular emphasis on murals, plays a crucial role in shaping the cultural DNA of contemporary cities. A prime example of this is the mural “Four Seasons with Kora” in Warsaw, which is dedicated to the renowned Polish [...] Read more.

Street art, with a particular emphasis on murals, plays a crucial role in shaping the cultural DNA of contemporary cities. A prime example of this is the mural “Four Seasons with Kora” in Warsaw, which is dedicated to the renowned Polish artist Kora (Olga Jackowska). This large-scale mural, which combines the artist’s portrait with a chestnut tree motif, visually changes with the season, influencing the artist’s social perception. This study analyzed murals’ functions in social, cultural, and ecological contexts, highlighting their role in informal education and as a platform for social dialogue and integration. Using research methods such as visual analysis and examining comments and reactions on social media, this work aimed to understand how a mural integrates with its surroundings and is perceived throughout different seasons. The results indicated that the mural has become an important element of public space, not only for beautifying the city but also for stimulating social and cultural reflection. Full article

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20 pages, 13906 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Reviving Ancient Egypt in the Renaissance Hieroglyph: Humanist Aspirations to Immortality

by Rebecca M. Howard

Arts 2024, 13(4), 116; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13040116 - 8 Jul 2024

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Abstract

In his On the Art of Building, Renaissance humanist Leon Battista Alberti wrote that the ancient Egyptians believed that alphabetical languages would one day all be lost, but the pictorial method of writing they used could be understood easily by intellectuals everywhere [...] Read more.

In his On the Art of Building, Renaissance humanist Leon Battista Alberti wrote that the ancient Egyptians believed that alphabetical languages would one day all be lost, but the pictorial method of writing they used could be understood easily by intellectuals everywhere and far into the future. Amidst a renewed appreciation of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics found on obelisks in Italy and the discovery of Horapollo’s Hieroglyphica, which purported to translate the language, Renaissance humanists like Alberti developed an obsession with this ancient form of non-alphabetical writing. Additionally, a growing awareness of the lost language of their Etruscan ancestors further ignited an anxiety among Italian humanists that their own ideas might one day become unintelligible. As Egyptomania spread through the Italian peninsula, some saw an answer to their fears in the pictorial hieroglyphics of the ancient Egyptians, for they perceived, in Egyptian writing, the potential for a universal language. Thus, many created Renaissance hieroglyphs based on those of the Egyptians. This essay examines the successes and failures of these neo-hieroglyphs, which early modern humanists and artists created hoping that a language divorced from alphabetical text might better convey the memory of their names and contributions to posterity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ancient Egyptian Art Studies: Art in Motion, a Social Tool of Power and Resistance)

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17 pages, 5181 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Forever Becoming: Teaching “Transgender Studies Meets Art History” and Theorizing Trans Joy

by Alpesh Kantilal Patel

Arts 2024, 13(4), 115; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13040115 - 1 Jul 2024

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Abstract

Academics often comment that their teaching affects their research, but how this manifests is often implicit. In this essay, I explicitly explore the artistic, scholarly, and curatorial research instantiated by an undergraduate class titled “Transgender Studies meets Art History,” which I taught during [...] Read more.

Academics often comment that their teaching affects their research, but how this manifests is often implicit. In this essay, I explicitly explore the artistic, scholarly, and curatorial research instantiated by an undergraduate class titled “Transgender Studies meets Art History,” which I taught during the fall of 2022. Alongside personal anecdotes—both personal and connected to the class—and a critical reflection on my pedagogy, I discuss the artwork and public programming connected to a curatorial project, “Forever Becoming: Decolonization, Materiality, and Trans* Subjectivity, I organized at UrbanGlass, New York City in 2023. The first part of the article I examine how “trans” can be applied to thinking about syllabus construction and re-thinking canon formation for a class focused on transgender studies’ relationship to art history. In the second half, I theorize trans joy as a felt vibration between/across multiplicity and singularity, belonging and unbelonging, and world-making and world-unmaking. Overall, I consider trans as a lived experience and its utility as a conceptual tool. As a coda, I consider the precarity of teaching this course in the current political climate of the United States. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Articulations of Identity in Contemporary Aesthetics)

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30 pages, 15273 KiB

Open AccessArticle

‘Bodhisattva Bodies’: Early Twentieth Century Indian Influences on Modern Japanese Buddhist Art

by Chao Chi Chiu

Arts 2024, 13(4), 114; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13040114 - 30 Jun 2024

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Abstract

The first decade of the twentieth century marked a turning point for Japanese Buddhism. With the introduction of Western academia, Buddhist scholars began to uncover the history of Buddhism, and through their efforts, they discovered India as the birthplace of Buddhism. As India [...] Read more.

The first decade of the twentieth century marked a turning point for Japanese Buddhism. With the introduction of Western academia, Buddhist scholars began to uncover the history of Buddhism, and through their efforts, they discovered India as the birthplace of Buddhism. As India began to grow in importance for Japanese Buddhist circles, one unexpected area to receive the most influence was Japanese Buddhist art, especially in the representation of human figures. Some artists began to insert Indian female figures into their art, not only to add a sense of exoticism but also to experiment with novel iconographies that might modernize Buddhist art. One example included the combination of Indian and Japanese female traits to create a culturally fluid figure that highlighted the cultural connection between Japan and India. Other artists were more attracted to “Indianizing” the Buddha in paintings to create more historically authentic art, drawing references from both Indian art and observations of local people. In this paper, I highlight how developments in Buddhist studies in Japan led to a re-establishment of Indo–Japanese relationships. Furthermore, I examine how the attraction towards India for Japanese artists motivated them to travel abroad and seek inspiration to modernize Buddhist art in Japan. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Japanese Buddhist Art of the 19th–21st Centuries)

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23 pages, 11671 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Verification and Establishment of Techniques of Ajami Artwork

by Ziad Baydoun, Tenku Putri Norishah Tenku Shariman and Fauzan Mustaffa

Arts 2024, 13(4), 113; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13040113 - 29 Jun 2024

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Abstract

Ajami, a technique of painted wood paneling, was popular in the Ottoman Empire from the 17th to the late 18th centuries. Ajami art became prominent in Syria after the decline of tile production, and it rose to a sophisticated level of art in [...] Read more.

Ajami, a technique of painted wood paneling, was popular in the Ottoman Empire from the 17th to the late 18th centuries. Ajami art became prominent in Syria after the decline of tile production, and it rose to a sophisticated level of art in both local and global markets. Today, however, Ajami art has become almost forgotten and unknown by the modern generation, due to being an exclusive art that can be seen only in palaces, museums, and historical houses. This study investigates the traditional method and techniques of making Ajami, with a focus on the work of a renowned Syrian Ajami art master artisan named Mr. Abdulraouf. The study aims to identify and document the traditional method of Ajami production and determine the materials and techniques used for making Ajami. The study found that Ajami art consists of natural elements that are utilized in four main stages; foundation, design, painting, and finishing. The artisans have a strong preference for floral and geometric designs, influenced by Islamic religious beliefs. The findings of this study could serve as an educational guide to preserve heritage and make it presentable for the present and future generations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Visual Arts and Design: Practice-Based Research)

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32 pages, 5156 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Liturgical Spaces and Devotional Spaces: Analysis of the Choirs of Three Catalan Nuns’ Monasteries during the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries

by Marta Crispí

Arts 2024, 13(4), 112; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13040112 - 25 Jun 2024

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Abstract

Choirs in female monastic and convent communities are spaces whose complexity has been highlighted because of their multipurpose and multifunctional nature. Although they are within the community’s private sphere of prayer of the divine office, it has also been noted that they play [...] Read more.

Choirs in female monastic and convent communities are spaces whose complexity has been highlighted because of their multipurpose and multifunctional nature. Although they are within the community’s private sphere of prayer of the divine office, it has also been noted that they play a liturgical role as the space from which the nuns ‘hear’ and follow the celebrations taking place in the church and even in the choral altars. The devotional–liturgical binomial is joined by other contrasting terms, like esglesia dintra–sgleya de fora, indicating a duality, as follows: the claustration (as an enclosed, internal and private space of the nuns) and the external church accessible to priests and laypeople, as well as private devotion versus community devotion. The Poor Clares of the monastery of Sant Antoni i Santa Clara actually mentioned the choir altar as nostro altar, underscoring the close bonds that joined them to a liturgical table in this private space, as opposed to those of the esglesia defora. The objective of this article is to study the choirs of three female monasteries in Barcelona during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries—Sant Pere de les Puel·les (Benedictines), Sant Antoni i Santa Clara and Santa Maria de Pedralbes (both Clarissan)—from a holistic standpoint, including spaces, functions, goods, furnishings and decorations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue History of Medieval Art)

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21 pages, 22234 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

How Many Lives for a Mesopotamian Statue?

by Imane Achouche

Arts 2024, 13(4), 111; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13040111 - 21 Jun 2024

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Abstract

Among the indicators of the value and power ascribed to statues in Mesopotamia, reuse is a particularly significant one. By studying some of the best-documented examples of the usurpation and reassignment of a new function to sculptures in the round from the 3rd [...] Read more.

Among the indicators of the value and power ascribed to statues in Mesopotamia, reuse is a particularly significant one. By studying some of the best-documented examples of the usurpation and reassignment of a new function to sculptures in the round from the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC, our study reveals the variety of motives and methods employed. We hereafter explore the ways in which the status of such artefacts is maintained, reactivated, or adapted in order to secure their agency. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ancient Egyptian Art Studies: Art in Motion, a Social Tool of Power and Resistance)

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Arts, Volume 13, Issue 4 (August 2024) – 7 articles

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