MULTICULTURALIST AESTHETICS AND

CRITICISMWriting Art Education AE 2367.2

WESTERN EUROPEAN HOMOGENIZATION IN

THE US

Two Realities in the Art World

What we are given■ Male Western European artist

as apex■ Art from other cultures or

countries as “diverse” or “folk”

■ Appreciate, don’t question

What is real■ Male Western European artists, while

skilled and talented, are not the apex of creativity

■ Art from other cultures and countries has been systematically processed so as to reserve the highest positions in art museums to the dominant

■ The placing of art in a museum should be questioned on more than its aesthetic value.

Four Questions of Multiculturalist Aesthetics

For whom was the art created?For whom does it exist?

Who is represented?Who is doing the telling? The hearing?

MULTICULTURIST THEORY RIGHTLY CLAIMS THAT AN UNDERCURRENT OF THOUGHT AND BIAS PROPAGATED BY THE CAPITAL CONTROLLING ELITE HAVE

DEVELOPED STEREOTYPES AND IMPLICIT BIASES WHICH SUBCONSCIOUSLY POSITION WHITE MALE WESTERN EUROPEAN DOMINATED ART AS THE EPITOME

OF CREATIVITY AND SKILL AND THE STANDARD BY WHICH ALL “OTHER” ART SHOULD BE JUDGED AND APPRECIATED.

MULTICULTURIST ART PUSHES THIS SUBCONSCIOUS INTO VIEW, FORCING THE VIEWER TO QUESTION AND ACKNOWLEDGE A WORK OF ART SO THAT THE

VALUE ATTRIBUTED TO IT WILL NO LONGER BE TAINTED BY BIASES OR STEREOTYPES.

Fred WilsonCultural representation of ethnic minorities in museums

Born to African American and Native American parents

“Mining the Museum” – Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD

Indianapolis Public Art Project - Video

David Bailey – Three elements of a StereotypeThe stereotyping of African Americans

Fragmentation – defines the whole group by one small aspectObjectification – places the group outside what is considered normalName Substitution – demeans the group entirely

POSTCOLONIALISM

POSTCOLONIAL CRITICS INVESTIGATE THE CULTURAL SITUATIONS OF PEOPLES OR

NATIONS THAT HAVE BEEN OR ARE UNDER THE IMPERIALIST

TERRITORIAL CONTROL OF A COLONIZING POWER

Considers the effect of colonization and decolonization on the colonized and the colonizer.

Edward Said(1935-2003)Palestinian born in Jerusalem

Orientalism 1978

• How are colonized cultures represented?

• What is the power of such representations in controlling cultures?

• What is the discourse by which colonizers and the colonized construct their subject positions?

Disney and Orientalism - Video