Module 10

1.    Explain why you selected each of the TWO videos you choose from the selection listed above.

I chose Chinese Art: Treasures of the National Palace Museumbecause Chinese art to me seems really beautiful. When I think of China I envision the vibrant flowers, their army men sculptures, their china dinnerware, bamboo, lily pads and pandas! It just has a good vibe, and it seems beautiful. I chose African Artas well because Africa itself has so many awesome wild animals, and a very different environment than we do. Wild tigers and lions running through the savannah is what I think of, like the lion king. I imagine their art contains a lot of animals!  

2.    For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.

Chinese Art: Treasures of the National Palace Museum: This video was basically just showing one art work at a time and describing them one by one. It was different that I had imagined, kind of boring. I did like the blue perfume bottle shaped china, with blue floral design with plantain leaves in the background. This piece of art was beautiful to the eyes. Symmetrical. Vibrant blue over a white clear background, and the designs all balanced out. As I said in question 1, I really like the china and this is something I was expecting to see! Secondly there was a glazed sculpture of a Chinese official riding a horse, symbolizing great brilliance. This was exactly what I had in mind, a Chinese soldier made into a statue. As the video continued I saw a lot of beautiful china dinnerware in beautiful blues and other colors. We see a lot of vases, sculptures, pans, instead of paintings we see more 3-dimensional works of art! 

African Art: This art is a lot different than I thought! A lot of weird, distorted bodies and sculptures. There were masks and faces with paint on them. Bronze and gold heads. Also, a lot of wall art from those who were hunters and gatherers. We see animals running from humans. They also had a lot of sexual art. Large breasts, etc. African art to me seems very different from any other country/continent. It is not my favorite art. Figure sculptures are mostly in west Africa. Most of their art consists of masks, decorations, objects. They played a big role in everyday life, rituals and were symbolic. 

3.     How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?

Arts of Africa begins on page 417. This relates to the video, African Art. A golden ornament from an Egyptian tomb is shown on the first page, then we see a head sculpture of an African on the next page. Similar to the video, we see a lot of physical art, sculptures, ornament, bodies and figures made of wood, metal, cloth, bronze. It seems as though Africans liked to create human figures, but very distorted. As in the video and book we see how religious art is to them and how It is a part of spiritual rituals. Next, we have chapter 19: Arts of Asia: India, China and Japan. On page 437 I notice the exact sculptures of Chinese soldiers I was talking about when I referred to them in question 1. They are the terra-cotta army soldiers that guard the tomb of Shihuangdi. This is actually crazy because I have knowledge about these sculptures from movies and documentaries I have seen, that when I think of china I always think of those and it so happened to be on the first page of Chinese art in the book! Also, I am pretty sure the ritual wine vessel shown on the page 437 in the textbook is also in the video. We then see a bronze with gold  incense burner that looks similar to the china sculptures in the video. 

4. What is your opinion of the films? How do they add depth to understanding of the readings and art concepts?

The Chinese video was decent, but not what I had imagined. I saw a lot of art, but it was one by one and kind of boring to watch, hard to watch for that long! However, it gives you a very good idea of what Chinese art looks like. Like I said, we saw a ton of sculptures and dinnerware. There artwork seems more on the sculpture, handmaking side, rather than pencil/paintings. They are amazing at their china work. The blue on white is classic and beautiful. I would love a piece of china, very pleasing to the eye and is created with great skill and beauty. The second film,African art, was more exciting, but I didn’t like the art as much. African art is intertwined with magic and religion. It was a bit abstract. Animals, plants and stones are used for their rituals. Their art is very different from most. I think the Chinese was more beautiful and appealing to the eye.