Contents
- Year of publication: 2013
- Source: Show
- Pages: 3-6
- DOI Address: -
- PDF: sal/3/sal3toc.pdf
Mant’o: the rock painting in the place of transit and transition in the Amazonian Andes of Cuzco’s Department
An article which discusses the exceptional paintings of Mant’o in the Calca, province of Department Cusco, Peru. After outlining a geographical and historical context of the area and refering to the state of research into the paintings, the author presents a detailed and illustrated description of each of the six subsites of Mant’o, concluding with a synthesis concerning the distribution of motifs, iconographic and stylistic particularities and an approximation of chronology, function and meaning of the paintings.
Representations of flowers in the indigenous codices of Mexico
The indigenous tribes inhabiting the area of the present Mexico in the pre-Hispanic times managed to develop various systems of graphic register. Although the usage of phonographic writing was well documented only for two of those cultures, namely the Mayas and the Zapotecs, most of the groups of the region had some kind of graphic representation to code chosen messages. The communication used by the Nahua and the Mixtec tribes could be classified as basically semasiogarphic, that is able to represent the ideas but not the language. The main aim of the proposed work is to focus on the representations of flowers in the codices of the ancient Nahuas and Mixtecs, and analyze their direct and symbolic meaning encoded not only in the form, but also in the context in which given representations are situated. The graphic information will be then compared and contrasted with the other colonial sources such as chronicles, annals, ethnographic descriptions and transcriptions of the indigenous oral tradition. The language used in the last ones will serve as a basis for the reconstruction of the way in which the ancient Nahuas used to conceptualize some aspects of the surrounding reality
Death of St Joseph: iconographical discrepancies
Apart from disrespectful and malicious descriptions of St Joseph and his numerous iconographical representations, one must notice that curious phenomena have appeared in the cult and effigies of the Saint in New Spain. These can be found in painting in the form of certain iconographical concepts with double meaning: on the one hand, an important aspect of glorification of St Joseph as Jesus’s father, guard and nurturer, and on the other – emphasis on his other features, which provided an unusual person, almost perfect member of society of New Spain. The article presents the influence of St Joseph reassessment in the Creole context on various types of traditional motifs in the canon of art. At the same time, based on the analysis of a small collection of selected representations, one may see how the iconography of St Joseph’s death is shaped in this perspective.
Representation of a boat in Flight to Egypt: the second documented example in Andean painting
By discovering in the storage of the Prelature of the Juli’s Matriz Church, a second case of the presence of the boat on the Flight into Egypt in the Andean painting, it has been made a tour though several paintings of this theme broadly – present in that church –. They were analyzed with the methodology of “correspondences” of engravings as graphic sources and have been linked with Latin inscriptions. These Juli’s paintings have served to outline timelines and issues of style about collavina school. Collao’s Painting and sculpture were relevant in colonial South American art (especially the Jesuit Juli’s artistic center), but were not methodically made visible as an autonomous whole. This work is part of a broader objective that is in process: to give solid basis to the problem of Collavino style from case studies, relying on the ‘correspondences’ methodology to achieve greater scientific rigor. The enumeration and systematization of the constituent elements of this school seeks, first, the precise determination of the influences of European schools that served as support for the creation and, secondly, to establish what was the real contribution of American natives to international art history.
Artistic issues of Rosana Faría’s illustrations in children’s literature
In her article La ilustración en la literatura infantil [The illustration in children’s literature], a researcher, Ainara Erro, suggests that “illustrations can be evaluated from different perspectives, since pictorial trends of different periods, thought lines, theories of knowledge, etc. have been reflected in multiple illustrations in children’s books.” Thus painting and/or artistic experience perceived in the context of children’s literature involves not only the method of preparation connected with it or pictorial forms that it is inclined to. It also transforms into a textual body, through which certain accumulations, condensations (according to Todorov) and aesthetic profiles are manifested and created. In children’s literature, games that may be introduced through plastic art are becoming increasingly popular. In Rosana Faría’s works, they constitute a double “correlated” element. A written text is not only a signifier, but it is transferred to another dimension filled with expression forms, thanks to using the language as “extrapolation” of the visual and for the visual. Pictorial art appears to be associated with not only what we see. For Faría, seeing color is not just a fact reflected in the onlooker’s eye, and an artistic text does not contain one and the only form of transcending a western tendency of thinking, according to which painting exists only when it is seen. Thus, we may wonder how to paint colors as if we were blind, playing with other senses, tastes, smells, sounds or emotions. How to illustrate for those who cannot see, and bring those who can see to the world of the blind through images, or vice versa? How to discover colors without seeing them, using only a black color, how to make it unequivocal? Eventually, how can we feel and perceive the world around us through a tactile image that would be related to the nature? We will try to answer these questions through convex illustrations created by Venezuelan artist, Rosana Faría, in a book by Menena Cottin El libro negro de los colores [The Black Book of Colors]. It is interesting how a well-known illustrator has found an appropriate style, an appropriate visual language for this poetic work, how she has defined colors through other senses, and how she has met the challenge of illustrating colors without their plastic presence.
Popular Art, Primitive Art and Figurative Art in the paintings by Bárbaro Rivas
Bárbaro Rivas (1893–1967) is considered to be the first ‘primitivist’ and ‘figurativist’ in Venezuela. Local and ludic elements create the central axis of popular and figurative Venezuelan art transformation from the late 19th to the mid-20th century. It was when a sign in painting was redefined – resignified and became an element binding main forms of popular art, reality of artist’s world, simplicity of life transformed into an idea of primitivism. Like other artists of his times (Armando Reverón), Bárbaro Rivas derived his art from life of local society and his own experience. His art is marked with autobiographical elements, which constitute a borderline between common sense and madness. Presented world is permeated with religiousness, magic and superstitions. In visualization, it is important to present reality from a double perspective; his artworks contain twoand three-dimensional grounds embraced in a single depiction. Plastic poetics of Bárbaro Rivas contains contradictory elements, inconsistent prima facie, yet containing in their nature rudimentary elements rooted in popular imagination, religious beliefs, etc. The world, being a mixture of elements, becomes a peculiar metisage expressed through the simplicity of primitivism, in the context of searching and describing new worlds and experience. This article aims not only at explaining how Venezuelan artist imagines and plans his art, but also at describing his approach to popular and local elements in Venezuela, which then spread across the whole Latin America as a form of artistic expression.
Graffiti on Cuba
The origins and the process of graffiti development on Cuba were different than in other parts of the continent. Due to the time of its appearance, initiators’ motivation, authors and viewers, dominating topics, graffiti was assigned an important propaganda function, supervised and controlled by the state. Subordinating street art to the revolution resulted in complete change in the character of graffiti. Propaganda murals beca me the element of public space of the country, confirming subsequent generations of viewers over the period of 50 years in necessity of permanent struggle and protection of revolution achievements. Thus, subject matter has not become messages of independent artists or average citizens, their perception of problems, expectations, but the vision and expectations of state authorities’ policy. The article is based mainly on observations and documentation gathered by the author in 2011; it presents the most important trends in the development and presence of propaganda graffiti on Cuba.
Che’s face – sacrum commercium?
The article attempts to specify elements contributing to exceptional popularity of Che Guevara. Che in culture should be analysed through the combination of four orders determined by: a religion, biological factors influencing aesthetic assessment (perception of attractiveness), an economic order of production and consumption, an ideology understood in an utilitarian way. Due to the number of representations and a clearly polarised form, Che’s iconography is good material for research on irrational elements of human communication. Perceiving Che as a rioter role-model, not as a clerk-official of the revolution who implemented – out of necessity – a “new, revolutionary” order, was the reason for representing him in a sacral convention. Che’s face, his appearance combines “romantic” attractiveness with attractiveness increasing the supply and benefit of a stereotype. Drawing attention to decorated goods, he seems to be the equivalent of an erroneously forgotten notion of sacrum commercium.
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