Standing female figure (1974.Sc.1)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The durable hardwood used to carve this figure indicates the tall, slender female was someone of importance or status. Sculpted with naturalistic proportions and raised dot scarification on her temples, she is elaborately clothed in an apron rather than nude, adorned with beaded necklaces, and posed standing rather than kneeling as a supplicant.
An Mbala Maternity Figure
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Power and authority in Mbala society rests in the female line. Their fertility sculptures depict a seated or standing female carrying a child on her left hip, nursing an infant with her left breast, or holding a child with her left hand to reinforce the idea that “left” and “left hand” are synonymous with femininity.
Pfemba: A maternity figure
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
This pfemba, as such maternity figures are called, is the epitome of feminine beauty, composure, and intense concentration. Her upswept miterlike hairstyle or hat, which was worn by both men and women, frames her face with its carefully composed expression. Her imported glass eyes “see” beyond this world. Beautifying features include filed teeth and scarification patterns on her neck, back, and shoulders.
Hitoshi Nomura, _Dryice_
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Japanese conceptual artist Hitoshi Nomura has explored many ways of thinking about time throughout his career as an artist. In the late 1960s, he created three-dimensional sculptural works in nature, and then photographed them in intervals, documenting their decomposition over time. Nomura selected materials with specific properties that would allow the camera to record their change in a relatively short period of time.
Four-faced half figure (_Sakimatwematwe_)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The Lega do not have a centralized political system. Instead, leadership and governance are vested in Bwami, a graded association open to both men and women that teaches values of moderation, nonviolence, kinship, respect, constraint and moral as well as physical beauty. It was also the major channel for prestige and the sole motivation for the visual arts.
Etruscan Gold
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Etruscan goldsmiths' work is some of the most brilliant metal craftsmanship anywhere in the world. Drawing on the far older traditions of Egyptian and Near Eastern metal work, as well as Central European metallurgy, Etruscan jewelers of the 7th and 6th centuries B.C.E. created granulated and filigreed ornaments of lavish richness and complexity.
Dialogues: Duchamp, Cornell, Johns, Rauschenberg
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The following text is adapted from the Dallas Museum of Art catalog originally published in 2005, in conjunction with the exhibition Dialogues: Duchamp, Cornell, Johns, Rauschenberg.
Gabriel Orozco: _Inner Circles of the Wall_
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Gabriel Orozco's Inner Circles of the Wall is a record of intense physical action performed in the service of creating a work of art. The artist used nontraditional materials to create what appears to be a traditional art object.
Architectural sculpture depicting a monkey (ba'e)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
In the past, the great clan houses of the Ono Niha were adorned both inside and outside with richly figural ornamentation. These figures on wall panels, beams, and posts made reference to the lives of the residents both as part of this world and in the afterlife. The Ono Niha created residential dwellings that reflected their religious and cultural ideas about the cosmos and their place in it.
John Singer Sargent and Flamenco
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
John Singer Sargent painted Study for "The Spanish Dancer" during the Golden Age of Flamenco (1860-1915), when the improvisational style of dancing became a popular theatrical spectacle. Flamenco is generally performed by a solo dancer to the accompaniment of a guitarist, singer, and palmero, who provides percussion with handclaps.