Online Study Guide Chapter 16
And Visual Culture
This chapter will look at the overlapping categories of art and entertainment. Art entertains by
diverting or amusing us. Art entertains by capturing our attention and causing us to hold an idea in our
minds.
Theaters, Museums and Opera Houses
The design of houses for the arts must function well. The audience must be able to see the art clearly
with comfort. The venue must conform to the aesthetic sensibilities of the audience. The exterior
should reflect the kind of entertainment that takes place inside.
Figure 16-1, Theater at Epidauros, Polykleitos, Greece, c 350 BC.
Dionysian dramas were performed at this acoustically perfect amphitheater. These performances lasted
for hours and featured a chorus, masked actors, musician, and elaborate scenery.
1. Theater at Epidauros, Polykleitos on Great Buildings Online
Chapter 4 provided more in-depth discussion for deriving meaning, or multiple
Figure 16-2, Opera House, Joern Utzon, Sidney, Australia, 1959-1972.
meanings, from artworks.
The building of the Sydney Opera House stretched the limits of the available construction technology
at the time, resulting in ballooning costs, delays, and public controversy. The"organic" architecture of
its arching shell was made possible through the invention of reinforced concrete.
1. Great Buildings Online: Sydney Opera House
Figure 16-3, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Frank Lloyd Wright, New York City, USA, 19431959.
The flowing lines of organic architecture is demonstrated again in Wright's controversial Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum. Visitors begin at the top level and walk down a ramp spiraling around the
perimeter of a circular interior.
1. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
2. A view of the Guggenheim in winter
3. Guggenheim Museum
4. Guggenheim Museum – Interior
The British Museum (Fig 6.8, page 127) is an example of a nineteenth-century house
for the arts built to resemble a Greek temple.
For a view of the inside of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, see Jenny Holzer's
Other Visual and Performing Art Environments
installation Untitled (Selected Writings) in Figure 12.27 (page 326)
Art can be paired with religious and recreational spaces.
Figure 16-4, Frank Gehry. Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, California. USA, 2003.
1. More on the Walt Disney Concert Hall
Figure 16-5, Reconstruction model of the Baths of Caracalla, Rome, 211-217 AD, model.
All Romans enjoyed relaxing at bathhouses. This luxurious bath consisted of heated pools, heated air,
massages, art galleries, a library, restaurants, gymnasiums, and special events.
1. Images of Baths of Caracalla
2. More Images of Baths of Caracalla
In the sixteenth century, the Greek sculpture Laocoon and His Sons (Fig. 13.16, page
348) was discovered buried in the ruins of an imperial Roman bath.
Figure 16-6, Central Park, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, New York City, USA. 18571. Laocoön and His Sons
1887.
One the finest urban parks designed to work with the existing landscape is New York's Central Park.
An oasis in the middle of one of the most densely populated cities in the world, the park houses
museums, zoos, a skating rink, a theater, public art, and sports facilities.
1. Central Park Online
The formal gardens of European palaces like Versailles were one inspiration for large
Figure 16-7, Hakone Open-Air Museum, Hakone National Park, Japan, opened in 1969.
urban parks in the United States. See Art and History in Context on page 361.
This open-air museum incorporates art into the surrounding mountain scenery to create a spectacular
viewing experience.
1. Hakone Open-Air Museum
2. More Images of Hakone Open-Air Museum
Figure 16-8, Las Vegas, 2004. Sunset, elevated view. Photo by Adam Jones.
1. Las Vegas Skyline
Sport Sites
Sports in many cultures have had religious or political significance. Sport sites provide a framework to
house sporting events.
Figure 16-9, Colosseum, Rome, 70-82 CE.
The Colosseum was built over emperor Nero's private lake. All events were free to the public, which
included chariot races and various blood sports.
The circular arena seated 50,000 spectators. It was adorned with statues, marble, tile, and bronze
adornments. A huge cloth canopy shielded spectators.
1. Great Buildings Online: Colosseum, Rome
2. Images of Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheater)
3. Model of Colosseum Interior
4. Roman Colosseum - Digital 3D Model
Figure 16-10, The Great Ball Court, Chichén Itzá, Mexico, Mayan-Toltec cultures, 11-13th centuries,
stone, 567' x 228'.
Mayan ball games, forerunners of contemporary soccer, recreated the mythical battle between light and
darkness. A player or an entire team was sacrificed at the game's conclusion. Reliefs illustrating human
sacrifices decorated the walls of the court.
1. Mexico: Great Ball court
2. The Ball Court at Chichén Itzá
The same qualities of grandeur and spectacle seen in the Colosseum and The Great
Sport Imagery
Ball Court are present in many sports arenas today, including the Olympic Stadium at
Munich (Fig. 2.43, page 56)
Figure 16-11, Ball Players, vase painting, Mayan Culture, Mexico, 11-13th centuries.
Ball Players show Mayan athletes wearing protective padding and elaborate costumes.
1. Mayan Vases of the Classic Period
Figure 16-12, Acrobat, Tlatilco culture, Mexico, 1500-500 BC, clay.
Acrobat was discovered among other sculptures buried in Tlatilco graves. The lines of his limbs direct
our eyes to the contortionist's large and detailed face.
1. Another Tlatilco acrobat
Figure 16-13, Bull Jumping, palace complex at Knossos, Crete, c 1550-1450 BC, wall painting, 24 1/2"
high.
Bull Jumping may refer to Minoan legends about the minotaur, a half-bull, half-man beast.
1. The Palace of Knossos
Music and Dance Imagery
Images of dance and music in art reveal information about a culture's religious and political
environment.
Figure 16-14, Harp Player, Cycladic culture, c 2500-1100 BC, marble, approximately 14" x 3".
Sculptures of musicians found in Cycladic graves indicate a positive outlook on the afterlife.
1. Harp Player, Cycladic culture
2. Male Harp Player of the Early Spedos Type
Figure 16-15, Musicians and Dancers, from the tomb of Nebamun, Thebes, Egypt, c 1400 BC, wall
fresco, 12" x 27".
A tomb painting shows a celebration of the dead. Unlike the stiff formality of royal portraits, images of
common people are more relaxed and animated.
1. View a variety of female musicians from Egyptian wall paintings
Figure 16-16, Boy Playing a Flute, Judith Leyster, Dutch, 1630-35, oil, 28 1/2" x 24 1/4".
Holland's predominately middle-class population enjoyed music as an amateur, domestic
entertainment.
1. Judith Leyster. Boy Playing a Flute
2. Artist Profile: Judith Leyster
Figure 16-17, Bunraku performance on stage, Japan, c 20th century.
Bunraku performances involve: puppets controlled by three puppeteers in full view of the audience, a
musician, and a singer-narrator who provides the voices and commentary. The master puppeteer's face
is visible while assistants are hooded. Like kabuki theater, the stories are take from Noh dramas.
1. Chief puppeteer from the National Bunraku Theater of Osaka
Figure 16-18, A costume in The Lion King, Julie Taymor, designer and director, New York City, USA,
opened mid 1990s.
The Broadway play is influenced by Bunraku puppetry. The costumed puppeteers remain visible
onstage, creating seamless human/animal characters.
1. Information about Julie Taymor and her costumes
Figure 16-19, Jane Avril, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paris, France, 1899, lithographic poster, 22"x
14".
Toulouse-Lautrec's posters advertising cabarets blurred the boundaries between fine art and graphic
design. He favored flat colors, simple shapes, and a dynamic use of negative space and fluid contour
lines. He was influenced by Japanese woodblock prints. (See also figure 1.2)
1. Jane Avril
Figure 16-20, Summerspace, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, and Robert Rauschenberg, Black
Mountain, North Carolina, USA, 1958.
This collaborative improvisation dance performance was inspired by abstract painting and the theory of
relativity. Rauschenberg based his set and costume design on Pointillist painting.
1. American Masters: Merce Cunningham
Jackson Pollock's Lucifer (Figure 13.33) is an example of an abstract painting without
a single, fixed focal point. For a Pointillist painting, see Georges Seurat's La Grande
Figure 16-21, Household, Allan Kaprow, performance "Happening", May 1964.
Jatte (Figure 14.29)
Kaprow advocated art as part of daily experience. He organized loosely scripted performances
1. View another image of Jackson Pollock's Lucifer
called"Happenings." In Household, participants—who were also audience members—enacted an
ambiguous allegory about gender relations. Figure 16-14 shows women licking jam off of a car.
1. Allan Kaprow | Happenings <1964>
2. Allan Kaprow,"Should Art Be Fun?"
Art, Musical Instruments, And Dance
Instruments entertain us with music, and are often beautifully crafted art objects.
Figure 16-22, Lyre, soundbox from tomb of Queen Puabi, Ur, Iraq, c 2685 BC, wood, gold and shell
inlay, lapis lazuli, 5'5" high.
This lyre was found in an imperial tomb. Bearded bulls symbolize royalty.
2. Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur
Figure 16-23, Asmat Hand Drum, Papua, New Guinea, c 19-20 centuries, wood, lizard skin, fiber,
beads, 37 1/2" high.
Only male musicians could play this small hand drum. The drum head is covered with lizard skin. The
wooden body is decorated with symbols related to Asmat ancestors and headhunting rituals.
1. Explore Asmat shields and other objects
2. Asmat Drums
Figure 16-24, Open Circle Dance, performed by Keven Locke, 20th century, Sioux culture, USA.
As part of an annual spring festival, the Hoop Dance is performed by a dancer manipulating 28 hoops
to express the cycles of change and harmony of the cosmos.
1. View Keven Locke performing the Hoop Dance in a quicktime movie
Figure 16-25, Kanaga Masked Dancers, Dogon culture, Mali, Africa, 20th century.
Religious ritual, costumes, and dance combine during performances by the male dance society called
the"awa." These performers usually work at funerals, controlling the dangerous forces unleashed by a
death in a community.
1. A beautiful image of the Dogon dancers
Film, Television, and Cartoons
The motion picture melded photography with electricity, projecting a series of still images onto a
screen to create the illusion of movement. In contrast to theater, films could be shot practically
anywhere, and frames can be edited to show multiple perspectives.
Television broadcasts moving images and sound into our very homes. Its programs evolved from and
eventually replaced many types of radio programming.
Mass media technology, in its short history, has profoundly affected art and entertainment.
The earliest form of animation grew out of flip books. Animated features began to gain widespread
popularity during the 1930's. The development of computer animation has opened up new possibilities
and challenges in the field.
Nam June Paik's multi-imaged Electronic Super-highway (Fig. 3.38, page 77) is a
good example of art that refers to entertainment technologies.
An example of Eadweard Muybridge's sequential images, which are early
Figure 16-26, Frank King. Gasoline Alley, USA, 1931. Newspaper Sunday page, detail, published May
experiments to capture motion with photography, is Handspring, a Flying Pigeon
10, 1931. 23” x 17”.
Interfering (Fig. 13.19, page 351)
1. Gasoline Alley Online
1. Eadweard Muybridge's Collotypes
Figure 16-27, Gone With the Wind, MGM film, 1939, starring Clarke Gable and Vivian Leigh.
This Civil War melodrama included extensive sets, a huge cast of performers, and an expressive use of
color.
1. Gone With the Wind: Online Exhibit
See the Restoration section in Chapter 6 for more information on the restoration of
Figure 16-28, I Love Lucy, television video, c 1950-60s. CBS Entertainment, A Division of CBS, Inc.
Gone With the Wind.
The situation comedy, or"sitcom" has become an enduring form of television programming. The broad
physical comedy of I Love Lucy has made the antics of an eccentric housewife one of the best-known
television series seen around the world.
1. I Love Lucy, television video
2. Lucy and Desi, from I Love Lucy
Figure 16-29, Matthew Barney. Cremaster 1: The Goodyear Chorus. Color print in self-lubricating
plastic frame. USA, 1995.
1. Matthew Barney on PBS.ORG
Figure 16-30, Hayao Miyazaki, Still from Spirited Away, Japan, 2002. Feature-length animated movie.
1. Spirited Away at IMDB.com