As a student of social sciences and theology I struggled with art, not in my course work but in my head. I like to have things well defined. Art was not well defined for me, and my teachers were not much help. I think most of them did not understand art very well. Both they and I liked it, but we disagreed a lot over what was really qualified as art. Why did I find myself (and I still do) indifferent to, or even disgusted with, works that were designated as art by the experts? As a product of American culture I still struggle with art, but not nearly as much as before. The turning point came when I began to study cultural anthropology. Only when I began to study art cross-culturally did I begin to understand what art is in America or, perhaps even better, what it is not.

We Americans create and sell a lot of art. We also collect a lot of art from the world’s cultures. I think it is fair to say, however, that many of us do not understand art. We collect art as "art for art’s sake." That is, we collect it for the sake of its beauty. We sometimes see it as an investment (the "how much will it be worth?" syndrome).  Because our approach to art is so individualistic and egoistic, we miss out on the most important dimension of art, the cultural function.

In this essay I will discuss some very American perspectives about art that tend to block our understanding of the cultural function of art, thereby robbing us of a richer, deeper understanding of art and the cultures that produce it. A few examples included here illustrate art functioning in the cultural context. To understand art from the viewpoint of cultural context we need to approach it with a different attitude. We will probably have to do some study, but the rewards are worth it.

SOME VERY AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES

Some things we buy and sell in America as "art" are not art at all. Hanging on the wall in my study are a half dozen old padlocks and twice as many large antique brass keys. Though referred to as "found art," they are relics. The great variety in which they were made makes them collectibles. "Found art," whether found in Grandma’s attic or at a flea market, is taken home and displayed. In addition to age, current rarity contributes to the status of the found art. An item that was one of the 300,000 pieces 50 years ago is now one out of the fifty remaining.   It may be treasured and displayed as if it were art. I enjoy my padlocks and brass keys. They look nice (to me, anyway); they may be decorative and create atmosphere.   Yet they are not art.

Sometimes we put art together with crafts, thereby producing the phrase "arts and crafts" as if they belong together. Craft production is attainable by a lot of people, many of whom are quite skilled and who may achieve a certain style. Such things as bird houses, Christmas tree ornaments and seasonal front door wreaths tend to be produced in volume and are intended for sale as decorative items or souvenirs. There may be a lot of skill involved, but when there is too little imagination or too much repetition, you have souvenirs and tourist items. Art in this connection, I believe, is a vastly diminished concept. It becomes decorative and one dimensional.

The "arts and crafts" designation also includes "folk art" which is recognized as produced by a distinct cultural group and is usually made for sale or trade to collectors. But because it is made within a cultural tradition I think it’s closer to being worthy of an art designation. Folk art is found in all of the world’s market places. Much is imported and sold in America. Ceramic "storyteller" figures, revived at Cochiti Pueblo by Helen Cordero, are an example of folk art and have proved to be very popular with the collecting public interested in American Indian art. Competition in the form of juried art shows in recent years has done much to improve the quality of these crafts.  It should be pointed out that many of these craftspeople approach, and even attain, the level of true artistry. Figure 1 shows an example of contemporary artistry from Acoma, a pueblo with a very long history of ceramics.

Figure 1. A modern jar or olla from Acoma Pueblo, NM, by award-winning potter, Wanda Aragon. Aragon’s sense of Acoma tradition, coupled with her creativity and precision handling of cultural forms and motifs, has earned her the reputation of being one of Acoma’s most highly regarded artists. The bowl contains the dates "1885-1991" on the bottom, indicating the date she made the vessel (1991) and the date of the pottery shards (1885) she crushed to make the temper for her own clay.

Visual art is displayed in action as part of a ritual process that confirms its mythic and spiritual context.... Each piece records and alludes to a historical and spiritual event; each piece of visual art is associated with songs that can be heard, dances that can be seen, and spirits that are neither seen nor heard except as they are manifested in the performance.... All visual art... constitutes very important ingredients in our lives and helps us to survive spiritually...is the spiritual and social element that holds our people and land together.

Figure 2. A prehistoric pottery jar, known as Tularosa Black-on-White, from the Mogollon Culture, circa AD, 1000, in New Mexico. To the informed observer such pottery is immediately identified with the American Southwest cultural area.

Figure 3. A wedding vase made at Acoma Pueblo in the I 920s. The black-on-white designs are reminiscent of prehistoric ceramics.

In our efforts to understand, appreciate and work with other cultures cultural anthropologists use a holistic approach to culture. Cultures operate as a system.   All of their parts are integrated, and there are many approaches to the system through its parts: linguistics, kinship, economics, religion, technology, etc. As an anthropologist art gives me my most enjoyable access to other cultural systems.

Chris C. Hummer, Ph. D., teaches cultural anthropology and American Indian heritage
courses at Eastern College in St. Davids, PA. His major research interests include cross-cultural communication, prehistory of Eastern North America, ethnography of American Indian cultures, and tribal art.

Recommended Citation in the APA style:

Hummer, C. (1999). Putting Art In Its Place. Electronic Magazine of Multicultural Education [online], 1(4), 15 paragraphs. <Available: http://www.eastern.edu/publications/emme/1999fall/hummer.html> [your access year, month date]