Artist Maurizio Cattelan duct taped a banana to a wall, titled it "Comedian", and sold 5 editions of the artwork for as much as $150,000 each. Why did it capture our attention, curiosity, and memes? What does it mean?
African art is no different. For some, it may initially hold few clues that help unpack its meaning. Those viewers may have little knowledge of Africa or could actually be African–from a different part of the continent, a totally different culture, or members of a religion that distances them even from a work their own hometown produced.
No art is completely transparent, letting us understand all of an artist’s constraints, thoughts, choices, or associations. But if we are not privy to all of an artist’s perceptions and interpretations, we can lessen the differences in our understanding–and this is a process that creates human pleasure in both cerebral and sensual ways. By familiarizing ourselves with art, learning its visual vocabulary and grammar, assessing our taste for it, and placing it within the contexts of its makers and users, we expand our world.
Rodney Leon, African Burial Ground National Monument, 2006, New York City, An ARCHES video, speakers Dr. Renée Ater and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Smarthistory.
How a portrait of an African muslim came to hang side-by-side with the founding fathers in one of America's earliest museums. Charles Willson Peale, Portrait of Yarrow Mamout (Muhammad Yaro), 1819, oil on canvas, 61 x 50.8 cm (Philadelphia Museum of Art) Speakers: Dr. Carol Eaton Soltis, Project Associate Curator, Philadelphia Museum of Art and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker. Find learning related resources here: https://smarthistory.org/seeing-america-2/
Conservators, scientists, and curators tell the story behind the unprecedented conservation of Tullio Lombardo's Adam. The life-size marble statue of Adam, carved by Tullio Lombardo (Italian, ca. 1455–1532), is among the most important works of art from Renaissance Venice to be found outside that city today. Made in the early 1490s for the tomb of Doge Andrea Vendramin, it is the only signed sculpture from that monumental complex. The serene, idealized figure, inspired by ancient sculpture, is deceptively complex. Carefully manipulating composition and finish, Tullio created God's perfect human being, but also the anxious victim of the serpent's wiles. In 2002, Adam was gravely damaged in an accident. Committed to returning it to public view, the Museum undertook a conservation treatment that has restored the sculpture to its original appearance to the fullest extent possible. The exhibition allows Adam to be viewed in the round and explains this unprecedented twelve-year research and conservation project. It also inaugurates a new permanent gallery for Venetian and northern Italian sculpture. The installation of this gallery was made possible by Assunta Sommella Peluso, Ignazio Peluso, Ada Peluso, and Romano I. Peluso.
Alberti, Façade of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, 1470. Speakers: Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris.
A description of the Recellai Palace in Central Italy.
The albumen silver print, invented in 1850, was the most popular photographic printing process of the 19th century. To make albumen silver prints, a sheet of paper is coated with albumen (egg white) and salts, then sensitized with a solution of silver nitrate. The paper is exposed in contact with a negative and printed out, which means that the image is created solely by the action of light on the sensitized paper without any chemical development. Because the paper is coated with albumen, the silver image is suspended on the surface of the paper rather than absorbed into the paper fibers. The result is a sharp image with fine detail on a smooth, glossy surface. This project is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-10-13-0194.
Some of the most vivid pigments in medieval manuscripts were manufactured through alchemy, an experimental practice that predates modern chemistry. Today, chemistry deepens our knowledge about paint colors, their identification, and potential continued transformations.
The Alexander Sarcophagus, c. 312 B.C.E., Pentelic marble and polychromy, found in Sidon, 195 x 318 x 167 cm (İstanbul Archaeological Museums). Speakers: Dr. Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Steven Zucker and Beth Harris.
The Bier of Iskandar (Alexander the Great), folio from the Great Mongol Shahnama (Il-Khanid dynasty, Tabriz, Iran), c. 1330, ink, opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 57.6 x 39.7 cm (Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment, F1938.3) This video focuses on one particular painting within one particular 14th century manuscript now commonly called the Great Mongol Shahnama. This is only one of many versions of the Shanama, the great epic of Iran. Speakers: Dr. Massumeh Farhad, Chief Curator and The Ebrahimi Family Curator of Persian, Arab, and Turkish Art, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution and Dr. Steven Zucker.
Infrared cameras now reveal concealed drawings under the surface of many of the Renaissance's most revered paintings. Learn how this radical drawing technique was done.
Found marking the grave of an important individual, this gorget was worn as a neck ornament during life. Gorget, c. 1250-1350, probably Middle Mississippian Tradition, whelk shell, 10 x 2 cm (National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, 18/853) Speakers: Dr. David Penney, Associate Director for Museum Scholarship, Exhibitions, and Public Engagement, National Museum of the American Indian and Dr. Steven Zucker A Seeing America video. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker. Find learning related resources here: https://smarthistory.org/seeing-america-2/
Millard Sheets, Tenement Flats, oil on canvas, 102.1 x 127.6 cm (Smithsonian American Art Museum). A conversation with Dr. Virginia Mecklenburg, Chief Curator, Smithsonian American Art Museum and Dr. Steven Zucker This Seeing America video was made possible thanks to major grants from the Terra Foundation and the Alice L. Walton Foundation. Find learning related resources here: https://smarthistory.org/seeing-america-2/
Amiens Cathedral, Robert de Luzarches, Thomas de Cormont and Renaud de Cormont, Amiens, France, begun 1220. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Anavysos Kouros, c. 530 B.C.E., marble, 6' 4" (National Archaeological Museum, Athens). Speakers: Dr. Steven Zucker & Dr. Beth Harris. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
A conversation with Lisa Ackerman, World Monuments Fund, and Beth Harris, Smarthistory. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
A conversation with Lisa Ackerman, World Monuments Fund, and Beth Harris, Smarthistory. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Conservators at the British Museum preparing an ancient Egyptian coffin for display in the exhibition Journey through the afterlife: ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. © Trustees of the British Museum. Created by British Museum.
Preparing pieces of papyrus ready for display in the exhibition Journey through the afterlife: ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. © Trustees of the British Museum. Created by British Museum.