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A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Influence of Tradition on the Contemporary Artistic Expression of Artists from Colonial and Post-Colonial Cultures
In the art of “non-Western” societies, Western art historians have constructed a certain notion of traditionalism. This traditionalism represents some manner or mode of artistic expression which existed, in places for thousands of years, before Western history first took notice of those societies. Colonialism often attempted to stamp out traditional artistic practices which later made a reactionary reemergence in response to the continuing presence or final departure of the colonial government. In a new ‘contemporary’ artistic framework, artists from many non-Western cultures have integrated traditional forms and practices into newly learned, Western modes of expression. The level of this integration varies dramatically across cultures, and even within cultures, and makes the basis for this paper.
The first culture to examine is that of the North American Southwest. While not a cohesive society now or throughout history, the ‘Pueblo’ peoples descendent from such groups as the Anasazi and the Mogollon have a common and very pervasive form of artistic expression. The Pueblo peoples have long held a tradition of extremely fine ceramic bowls and jars. The ceramics have been made from the local clays which are believed to be sacred as they come from the sacred earth. The Pueblo peoples use these pots for practical uses, such as pots carrying water, as well as for ceremonial uses, like the pots buried in Anasazi and Mogollon graves with a characteristic hole drilled through their center. The pots themselves have been decorated with both intricate geometric designs and with images of fauna. These images speak of a very developed aesthetic sense since the decorations do nothing to directly influence the function of the pots; the decorations embellish the functional and ceremonial vessels to make them more pleasing to the eye.
With the arrival of the colonial Europeans, as with many colonial situations, came a forced suppression of local art forms. It appears to be the colonial mentality that if it can be erroneously proven that the existing populations were not ‘advanced’ nor had a history in the locality, then the actions of the colonials can be justified. But even through these trying times the art forms survived, and when pressure began to lessen the traditional pottery forms made a reemergence into the contemporary art world as the inspiration for many artists. This ‘revivalist’ art was an attempt by contemporary artists to hearken back to traditional types of artistic expression. Two of these revivalist artists are Maria Martinez and Michael Maglich.
Maria Martinez began her pottery making by constructing what could be called traditional, polychrome pots. What really made her famous were the blackware pots that she made with her husband Julian.[1] An example of these pots is shown in figure 1, at the end of this paper. The shape of the pot is very characteristic of traditional Pueblo water jars. The smooth curves, all formed by hand, could have just as easily been found in an archeological site. The designs, too, suggest Mimbres Mogollon ancestry. The forms are geometric, with many sharp angles and sudden curves, and they hint and some kind of hidden natural object as their model, such as a feather or a serpent. Where Maria Martinez shows contemporary originality not previously seen in traditional pots is the coloration and the glossy/matte contrast.[2] This is a combination invented by Maria and Julian Martinez. Martinez also went further against traditionalism by signing her works. This was a concept that had not been in existence in Pueblo art because the creation of pottery was a community effort. By signing her work, Martinez was catering to the Western art market that wanted signed works by artists in order to raise the art’s value.
Whether or not this new design was a result of some Western influence that worked itself into Martinez’s mind, or whether it was just the result of her own experimentation with the medium, the end result is the same; this is a piece of pottery that is made by a contemporary artist staying true to her ancestral tradition while still injecting a kind of new spin of her own. Politically, it could be said that Martinez’s pottery rebels against the colonial government under which it was made by simply existing. This is the continuation of an art tradition that was at one time not welcome. By simply continuing the artistic tradition, Martinez is demonstrating that Native American art continues to live and breathe despite the attempts of the colonials to force it to perish.
Michael Maglich is also a potter taking his inspiration from Mimbres Mogollon pottery designs. His VW Mimbres Hubcap looks, at first glance, like an exact modern copy of a few-hundred year-old Mimbres design. The perpendicular bands of light coloration and the jagged, feathered forms, as well as the highly contrasted light and dark make it look completely authentic. There is even the characteristic hole in the center that identifies this as a modern rendition of a Mimbres burial pot. Only upon closer inspection does the viewer suddenly see where the piece gets its unusual name. The pot is designed to look like a Volkswagen hubcap. The center of the pot, around the hole, is the Volkswagen logo and the perpendicular bands of light coloration, which could have been traditional design elements, resolve into the details of a recent-model Volkswagen hubcap (see figure 2). When the viewer realizes this unexpected result there is a tendency to feel almost as if the artist is chuckling behind it.
The Western eye would come to this piece with a preconception about what Native American art should look like, and that preconception would be met, initially. One feels sheepish at later having this preconception exposed. The humor that is evident in this piece is similar to the pervasive ironic humor that exists in many Native American works. Jimmy Durham described it when saying, in his article The Central Margin, that “we [Native Americans] are, of necessity and natural bent, funny people”.[3] It is a self-effacing humor, but at the same time it is striking out at the colonial powers that destroyed, and continue to destroy many aspects of Native American culture.
Once this piece is viewed in its completeness it becomes a juxtaposition of the old and the new. The traditional design and materials are combined with a very twentieth-century symbol of the popular culture’s obsession with material things, especially automobiles. Maglich’s piece thus makes a number of very poignant political statements about his colonial oppressors. Unlike Martinez’s pottery, whose political statement comes passively in its mere construction, Maglich inserts very active commentary about the contemporary society in which he lives. Thus, even within the general cultural classification of ‘Pueblo,’ two different artists can reach very different stylistic and political conclusions, while still drawing heavily from their ancestral artistic traditions.
The next culture group to examine is that of the indigenous peoples of Africa. In very general sense, African arts can be grouped together and characterized as a single tradition, as they have been throughout the short period of time when Western art historians have noticed the arts of Africa at all. This kind of grouping, while convenient, is of course a gross misrepresentation of the variety of forms of artistic expression in Africa. With the caveat that this generalization is not completely perfect, it can still yield some important points.
Contemporary African arts take many forms. In locations where colonialism had existed the longest, such as Southern Africa and other places where the white colonialists found hospitable environments, there is a strong movement of anti-colonialism art. It tends to depict violent images of white oppression and startling juxtapositions of traditional African styles and themes with those of contemporary Western culture. In other places that were later to be colonized, such as Western Africa, there are contemporary movements that focus more on the integration of traditional African artistic traditions into a contemporary framework. One of this second breed of contemporary African artists is Sokari Douglas Camp. Camp owes her ancestry to the Kalabari people of Nigeria, but lives and works in London and was schooled in art in London, England and Oakland, California[4]. Her sculpture deals with many themes that she takes from traditions in Nigeria, yet expands into the contemporary space with Western materials and methods of production.
An example of Camp’s work is her sculpture, Two Drummers, which she completed in 1987 (see figure 3). The style of this piece is indicative of her work. It is constructed of strips of metal bent and formed into a shell which encloses a space shaped like her subject.[5] Inside the sculptures, Camp often adds gears and motors which provide locomotion to her creations. Two Drummers, specifically, depicts two human forms seated in front of drums on which they beat when they are brought to life by Camp’s mechanization. The human forms represent masqueraders, costumed and wearing hats. As performance arts, masquerades cannot be correctly represented by stationary displays in museums or by two-dimensional images.[6] Thus, Camp is giving her sculpture an extra aspect of true masqueraders by making it move. And, by ‘attaching’ the strips of metal to her sculptures, Camp is adorning them almost as if they, themselves, were real masqueraders.[7] She is continuing a long-held tradition in a contemporary setting and employing contemporary modes of expression.
Like Maria Martinez, Sokari Douglas Camp is also catering directly to a Western market. This makes the themes of her work problematic in a traditional sense because the masquerades are a very sacred and very personal part of African culture. Displaying them in a Western museum is almost sacrilegious, and this has caused problems for Camp with persons back in Nigeria. Western eyes see a piece like Two Drummers as an interesting expression of African sensibilities while African eyes see it as a corruption of some of their deepest-held traditions. The fact that her sculptures are worked in metal also represents a departure from her cultural roots. Generally, in African art, metal working was not a woman’s art. Camp is asserting that times have changed by working in metal. Also, by representing masqueraders, Camp is entering into a theme that, while important to her culture, would not normally be dealt with directly by women. So, like Martinez and Maglich, even though she is holding on to traditional themes for her work, she is stepping outside of tradition to yield her final product.
A third and final cultural group to examine is that of the Australian Aboriginals. Contemporary Aboriginal art deals largely with the loss of identity that the Aboriginal peoples felt when the white colonials came and removed them from their land. In Aboriginal culture, land plays a vital role in asserting and maintaining identity. Ancestral groups have held certain portions of land for hundreds of years, and the land-grabbing of the colonialists robbed many persons of their cultural and ancestral identity. Also tied to the land and the people is a complex series of foundation myths about beings and their actions called the Dreamings. Each ancestral group ties a certain artistic representation of the Dreamings with their land, and improper uses of these representations has become another major issue that Aboriginal peoples have had to combat in the contemporary world.
One contemporary artist whose work deals with these issues is Gordon Bennett. In his painting, Outsider, completed in 1988, Bennett bemoans the identity that the European settlers imposed upon the Aboriginal people. The painting depicts an Aboriginal figure without a head standing over a bed. The style of the piece is a combination of traditional papunya dot paintings and the short, visible brush strokes of Vincent Van Gogh. In fact, the painting is half painted to look like Van Gogh’s Starry Night and half The Bedroom or Vincent’s Bedroom at Arles. Bennett is commenting on many things in this painting, but they mainly have to do with the forced destruction of Aboriginal identity. By setting Van Gogh’s paintings as the backdrop, Bennett draws the viewer’s attention to the similarity of Van Gogh’s work to that of traditional Aboriginal painters. The blood of the Aboriginal figure is spilling out and forming the Starry Night, plainly saying that works like Van Gogh’s were produced from the blood of Aboriginals. He is making the assertion that the famous Vincent Van Gogh acquired, perhaps even stole his inspiration from the Aboriginal people. Also, the two Greco-Roman statue heads on the bed, obvious icons of Western art, seem as though they were just removed from the bleeding figure’s neck, which implies that the figure has torn off the white mindset that the Europeans forced on him. Finally, the walls of the room are covered with bloody handprints. These allude to traditional Aboriginal rock paintings which were characterized by handprints on rock walls. With his handprints, Bennett’s figure is reclaiming the painting and the painting’s style for the Aboriginal people. Thus, like the artists already discussed, Gordon Bennett’s painting also draws upon cultural art traditions, while incorporating an obvious knowledge of contemporary manners of expression.
What sets Bennett’s work apart from the works thus discussed is the raw vehemence with which he is making his statement. Tradition is not only the procedural or vague inspirational basis for his work; it is the message, the entire underlying fabric of what could otherwise pass as a “Western” painting. The piece practically screams a dare at the Western viewer to take the time to understand it, and, in doing so, to begin to grasp the ideological fight of the Aboriginals.
This paper has discussed four artists from three cultures from three much separated parts of the world. They all have different modes of expression and they use different materials to express their message. Maria Martinez and Michael Maglich work to revive the near-lost art of their culture, while Sokari Douglas Camp takes elements of her culture and builds them for a Western audience to admire. Douglas Bennett uses his art as a forum for decrying the injustices done to his people. So how are these artists at all similar? They are all members of “non-Western,” colonial or post-colonial societies. Their ancestors and they have had to deal with the injustices and losses of identity attached to colonialism, and now they all produce works of art to help link them and their people with their pasts and, perhaps even more importantly, to educate the Western audience in order to build awareness and a global change of perception.
Figures
Figure 1 – Maria and Julian Martinez, Ceramic Jar, c1939
Figure 2 - Michael Maglich, VW Mimbres Hubcap, contemporary, cast acrylic enamel (along side a real VW hubcap, for reference)
Figure 3 - Sokari Douglas Camp, Two Drummers, 1987, Nigeria
Figure 4 - Gordon Bennett, Outsider, 1988
[1] Janet Berlo and Ruth Phillips, “The Southwest.” Native North American Art. New York: Oxford University Press: 1998: 59
[2] Berlo, 59
[3] Jimmie Durham, “A Central Margin.” The Decade Show: Frameworks of Identity in the 1980s. New York: Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art, 1990: 174
[4]“About Sokari Douglas Camp.” National Museum of African Art. Online. http://www.nmafa.si.edu/exhibits/sokari/sokari.htm.
[5] Susan Vogel, “International Art: The Official Story.” African Explores: 20thCentury African Art. New York: Museum for African Art, 1991: 188
[6] Michael Kampen O’Riley, “Africa” in Art Beyond the West. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2002: 26
[7] Vogel, 188