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Artisan Profile: Zeny and Reyna - Mexican Folk Art Wood Carvings - UNICEF Market Blog

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Zeny Fuentes and Reyna Piña, are from a small town in Oaxaca, Mexico. These talented artisans come from families dedicated to carving and painting wood...

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The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can now connect to the most up-to-date data and images for more than 470,000 artworks in The Met collection. As part of The Met's Open Access program, the data is available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.

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Twenty-eight prints by Utagawa Kuniyoshi | Album of Prints by Various Artists | Japan | Edo period (1615-1868) | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can now connect to the most up-to-date data and images for more than 470,000 artworks in The Met collection. As part of The Met's Open Access program, the data is available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.

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I see- Mexican art and it is colorful
I see- A cat with patterns on it's body
I see- Bright yellows and reds
I see- Many shapes and lines

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I think- the animals are fun, interesting, and creative
I think- the patterns are beautiful
I think- the colors make the animal look unrealistic
I think- the shapes make the animal more imaginative

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I wonder- why the animals are not real
I wonder- where do the patterns come from
I wonder- why the colors are so bright
I wonder- how long it takes to make one
I wonder- what materials it's made of

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From the Navajo to the Eskimo, these colorized turn-of-the-century photos of Native Americans wearing their sacred masks provide a revealing look at their unique cultures.

From the Navajo to the Kwakiutl and beyond, many Native American tribes have historically placed great significance on masks. Their masks are used in many aspects of tribal life, including spiritual ceremonies, storytelling, traditional dances, and much more.

Take a look at some of the most arresting Native-made masks seen through our colorized gallery of photographs that were shot by ethnologist and photographer Edward Curtis during the first decades of the 20th century.

The Significance Of Native American Masks

To those who are not part of Native American communities, these colorful handmade tribal masks look like works of art. But to Indigenous cultures, these masks are more than just pieces of carved wood.

For Native Americans, masks and headdresses are considered to be the physical embodiment of the spirits of their ancestors.

"Once they are created through the instruction of the almighty and are blessed, they become a living entity," said Vincent Randall, a Yavapai-Apache tribal member who works on repatriation of Native artifacts. "They still have that power. That's why it's very potent. We don't fool around with them."

The value of masks to Native Americans is akin to that of sacred texts for religious worshippers. That is why these masks are handled with the utmost respect. To do otherwise, it is believed, could inflict unwanted bad karma.

For many tribes, shamans are regarded as conduits between the tribe and the spirit world. It's the shamans who carve elaborate masks - or at least supervise their carving.

The use of these masks vary depending on each tribal culture, though there are some similarities between regions. For the Yup'ik and Inupiaq peoples of Alaksa, masks are an essential part of winter ceremonies where tribal members dress up in their headgear to reenact the adventures of hero-ancestors and spirits from their lore.

Different Tribes, Different Designs

Native American masks are commonly used to facilitate the spiritual connection between the wearer of the mask and the spirit world. They're often worn in special ceremonies and dances.

They're traditionally made out of wood, leather, feathers, beads, straw, fur, leaves, and other natural materials. But as contact with European settlers grew, Native Americans also added metal carving tools and synthetic paint to the mix.

The natives of North America are a diverse group of communities with their own individual customs and cultures, and this diversity extends to the use and design of their tribal masks.

For the Kwakiutl, who live in what is now Canada's British Columbia, masks are meant to offer a temporary vessel for supernatural entities. They are also an expression of the internal transformation experienced by the mask-wearer.

Mask patterns and designs among Northwest Coast tribes bear some similarities, but these tribes do not share the same myths nor do they use the masks in the same way during ceremonies. Each mask acquires a different historical meaning based on the generations that pass them down.

Among the Navajo, who live in the southwestern part of the U.S., masks are donned for many occasions, such as healing ceremonies and rain-making rituals.

Meanwhile, the Hopi tribe - also based in the southwest - make their masks out of feathers and animal skin and consider them to represent messengers to the gods, the spirits of ancestors, and nature.

The inspiration behind the remarkable designs of these Native American masks comes from many sources, like dreams and visions of the shamans, their own traditions, and even the surrounding environment.

Breaking Stereotypes

In 1907, Edward Sheriff Curtis published the first installment of The North American Indian, a 20-volume multimedia series featuring images of indigenous people from dozens of different tribes.

Curtis's early 20th-century work offered a glimpse into Native culture, as shown in the gallery above, and even provided an important historical record for present-day tribal members to identify cultural artifacts.

But his work also reinforced antiquated stereotypes about tribal communities, like how they're supposedly stoic people with little Western influence. Some of those stereotypes were enhanced through photographic manipulations.

More critically, his work ignored the violence suffered by Native Americans at the hands of the U.S. government at the time. In the early 20th century, Native American children were taken from their parents and forced into boarding schools, where they had to cut their hair and weren't allowed to speak in their native tongues.

"[Stereotypes evoked by Curtis' work] have been recreated, updated and reinforced by more recent generations, so that most Angelenos and Americans as a whole still don't see American Indians as modern people, only as relics of the past," wrote Navajo filmmaker Pamela J. Peters.

But the Native American communities that Curtis declared a "vanishing race" are still very much alive today.

A shift in the public's understanding of Native American culture has allowed Native artists like the late Beau Dick, whose colorful tribal masks are still among the most lauded among modern Native artifacts, to command attention in the mainstream art scene.

"My style is sometimes referred to as 'Potlatch Style' as it comes from a tradition of ceremony which requires many masks to be made in a short period of time," Dick said. "It takes many years of practice and an understanding of balance in order to create a work that appears finished in a natural and instinctive manner, without seeming overthought."

Native American masks have seen a rise and decline in popularity among the mainstream public and the Native communities. But even after centuries, these spiritual emblems are still a powerful part of tribal culture.
Next, find out the tragic history behind the forgotten Bear River Massacre and read the real story of Squanto, the Native American behind the first Thanksgiving.

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33 Century-Old Photos Of Native American Masks Brought To Life In Vivid Color

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From the Navajo to the Kwakiutl and beyond, many Native American tribes have historically placed great significance on masks. Their masks are used in many aspects of tribal life, including spiritual ceremonies, storytelling, traditional dances, and much more.

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First People's of Australia- Dot Painting

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First People's of Australia- Dot Painting

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In this article you can learn about different forms of Aboriginal art. For many people Aboriginal art is synonymous with dot painting, but in reality Aboriginal art comes in many different forms.

For a brief overview of the history of Aboriginal art, look here: https://www.aboriginal-art-australia.com/aboriginal-art-library/the-story-of-aboriginal-art/
Starting off: Before reading about Aboriginal art, start off by thinking about the art work that is traditional or special for the place in which you live (or a place that you know well):

What makes it unique? Is it the style, the materials used, the stories told through the art, or a combination of all three?

Do the paintings reflect the colours and culture of where you live? How?

(After you have finished working with the tasks below. Answer the two questions above again, but this time about the Aboriginal art you have studied. What similarities are there with your first answers?)
Dot paintings

Many people believe dot paintings are a long standing tradition in Aboriginal culture, but in fact they did not become common until the 1970s. In this article, you can read more about the history of dot painting: https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/arts/are-dot-paintings-traditional-aboriginal-art#axzz4cRGA7YhM

Dot paintings often have a bird's eye perspective, where the viewer is looking down on the picture. The paintings can contain maps of an area of the countryside, or they can tell the story of the people who live there, show Songlines and/or stories from the Dreamtime.

The symbols found in dot paintings can be interpreted using keys, such as the one below (taken from https://www.aboriginal-art-australia.com/aboriginal-art-library/symbolism-in-australian-indigenous-art/):

Other modern forms of Aboriginal art can contain elements that are similar to those found in dot paintings, such as the one on the home page of this website (you can read more about it here), or in the paintings expressing reactions to the stock routes in Western Australia, as found in this article.

1. Use the key to interpret the dot painting above. What does it mean?

2. Look at the dot painting below. It was made by a school. What does it symbolize? Try to work it out yourself before checking at the bottom of this page:

3. a. Now use Google to find a couple of other dot paintings (search for " aboriginal dot paintings"), and use the key to try to interpret these paintings. Share your interpretations with a classmate. b. Finally, see how much you can interpret in this painting, called "Bush Fire", by Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi: 4. Using the symbols in the key, try to design your own dot painting of either:

your school

the area in which you live

a story of a day out in the countryside from your childhood.

Explain what you have drawn to a classmate. How did you find this way of drawing a story compared to what you have learnt at school? What similarities are there with how you have learnt to draw?
Rock and bark painting

Have a look at this article on the Wandjina rainmaker spirit. Two forms of aboriginal art are shown here. One form is rock paintings. These can be found all over Australia and often refer to stories of ancient spirits and from the Dreamtime. You can read more about rock art here: https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/arts/aboriginal-rock-art

(Rock painting of Wandjina spirits in the Kimberleys).

In the article about Wandjina spirits, you can see a painting by Alec Mingelmanganu. Mingelmanganu uses another Aboriginal artistic technique, bark painting. Another bark painting is shown below (can you can see fruit bats hanging off branches of a tree on the right hand side?):

(Bark painting in Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, artist unknown)

This short video (6 minutes) discusses some of the most important bark painters and paintings:

Choose one of the artistic styles mentioned above. Find three paintings online made in this style and present them to your classmates. Your presentation should include:

The name of the artist and background information on them

The history and typical features of the style

The story told in the painting.

Further work:

Albert Namatjira

Albert Namatjira (1902-1959) was a famous Aboriginal landscape artist who made paintings of the outback. He came from the Western Arrernte people of the MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia. He was born and grew up on the Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission outside Alice Springs. When he was 32, he started to paint watercolours and became the inspiration for the Hermannsburg School of painting.

1. Read this article about Namatjira's life: https://manyhandsart.com.au/about/albert-namatjira/ . How did his life reflect the treatment of Aboriginal people in Australia at that time? If you don't know much about the problems faced by Aboriginal people, look at the articles on the Stolen Generations (Two Songs and Rabbit Proof Fence) and on Australia Day.

2. Find four of Namatjira's paintings online, and make a short presentation about his life and his paintings, using each of the paintings actively in your presentation.

Should non-indigenous artists paint Indigenous figures?

An artist in Adelaide recently had his exhibition closed down after complaints about his use of Wandjina figures in his paintings. He claims this is censorship, his critics say that his use is inappropriate. Read the link, watch the video and discuss the issue:
http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-05/adelaide-exhibition-closed-over-use-of-sacred-indigenous-symbol/8875646?pfmredir=sm For more about Indigenous art and cultural appropriation, look here. If you are using this page with younger pupils, you might be interested in these coloring pages from Brisbane Kids? Interpretation of dot painting (task 2): This painting depicts a school with the circles around the outside being the classrooms. The U shapes are people, small Us are children and the large U represents the teacher.

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In this article you can learn about different forms of Aboriginal art. For many people Aboriginal art is synonymous with dot painting, but in reality Aboriginal art comes in many different forms. For a brief overview of the history of Aboriginal art, look here: https://www.aboriginal-art-australia.com/aboriginal-art-library/the-story-of-aboriginal-art/ Starting off: Before reading about Aboriginal art, start off by...

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In this picture, I see a person wearing grass and a mask. He is on a grassland. This picture is somehow crumbled and looks old. The sky has many clouds behind it, and it looks like there's another person behind him or her.

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I see- small dots making a big dot
I see- dots are making a semi circle.

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I see lots dots that group into shapes and figures
I see a figure with lots of white spikes and they aren't made out of dots
I see a figure with lots of green spikes and they aren't made out of dots

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I saw a Turkey/chicken mask

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I think- the big dot looks like pepperoni
I think-the picture is like a pizza

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I see a person wear a bear.
I see the person is strong.
I see the bear is black.
I see the bear has a lot hair.

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I think this person has grass on him for camouflage. I think he's or she's probably hunting, or there's a war and he's trying to know what happened and pieces of information of their enemies.

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Navajo dressed in outfit and mask of Yebichai

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In the picture, l see a blue dog that is looking back. It has two red ears, a long tail and beautiful patterns on its body.

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I see-many big circular by from more small circles.
I see-some wave line.
I see-this picture is only have red, yellow, blue and white.

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I wonder- why is the picture in this color
I wonder-why the picture is so big

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I wonder how long it takes to build the feathers on the Hummingbird.
I wonder why the mouth is so long.
I wonder what can the bird see with its big eyes.

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I wonder what time this picture is taken, and if this is real or just a movie or acting. I also wonder why this man is wearing grass on him, and where he is going. Lastly, I wonder who or what is the shadow behind the one who wears camouflage or special suit.

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Navajo dressed in outfit and mask of Yebichai

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I wonder it is really 沙雕. I like it!😍

Hyman

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I think this mask is made by accent american when Thanksgiving, Because turkeys are often seen in Thanksgiving.

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I think the blue whale is trying to eat me because he or she is looking at me and he or she has his mouth open

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I see a lot of purple feathers
I see a long and pointy beak
I see a big black eye

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I think-The reason why this picture only use red, yellow, blue and white is because red, yellow and blue are three primary colors

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I think the bird is very cute and beautiful.
I think the bird is hollow inside.

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I think the person want to make other people scared.
I think the person is smart.
I think the bear is sad and angry.
I think the bear 's nose is the person 's eyes.

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why the person looks like a madman?
where is he or she?
Does he hot?

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I see a girl with long hair.
I see she is smiling.
I see some stones and mountains.
I see streams.

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l Think it is very beautiful

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l wonder what it is looking at

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I think she is young.
I think she is happy.
I think she is outside.
I think the place she stays is really beautiful.

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I wonder how old she is.
I wonder who she is.
I wonder where she is.
I wonder how long the paint made.

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I wonder-what is the mean this picture want to tell our?

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I wonder why he or she is looking at me

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I see a blue whale is looking at me