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On Focus: Carolyn Dean's "The Trouble with (the term) Art"

On Focus: Carolyn Dean's "The Trouble with (the term) Art" c. 2005 Full original article: https://www.bucknell.edu/documents/griotinstitute/deanarticle.pdf Carolyn Dean Professor of Art History at the University Of California, Santa Cruz Author of the article In “The Trouble with (the Term) Art” 2005, Carolyn Dean writes a compelling argument and analysis of the contemporary art history world, in which eurocentrism and western perspectives have created a one-size-fits-all terminology of the word “art” when it comes to foreign indigenous visual cultures. At first, Dean introduces the well-known controversial issue of the diction behind primitive art, but then exposes this popular debate as a cover-up from the real problem; the word “art”. Dean makes it apparent throughout her whole paper that the word “art” is not applicable to prehistoric visual cultures that measure their artistic worth differently than the western world. The author does this repeatedly, cit...
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“Ni de aqui, ni de alla” How Frida Kahlo embodied the 21st-century 2nd-generation immigrant narrative.

“Ni de aqui, ni de alla”  How Frida Kahlo embodied the 21st-century 2nd-generation immigrant narrative. Following the recent and continual wave of mass-immigration fueled by the American Dream, the generation following such have asked themselves: “Who am I?” Growing up for any 2nd-generation immigrant in the United States brings several 21st-century challenges, most notably in the sense of identity. The phrase “Ni de aqui, ni de alla” (Neither from here, nor from there) has grown prominence as a way to verbalize the feeling of not belonging to either the United States or their family’s country of origin. This feeling can stem from many aspects, including but not limited to a language barrier, a lack of cultural understanding, or a conflict between cultural values and modern aspirations. For many Mexican-Americans of this group, there exists one figure who embellishes this sense of place: Frida Kahlo. Born in 1907, Frida Kahlo was not destined to become the face of Mexico and ...
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Who Owns the Elgin Marbles?

Who owns the Elgin Marbles?  A non-partisan perspective on the 200+ year long debate between Greece and the United Kingdom  Luis Flores  In 1801, Lord Elgin, a British nobleman, embarked on the typical coming-of-age journey across the European continent, similar to today’s popular standard of a “college graduation trip to Europe”. Prompted by the Western trend of obsession over the exotic and primitive, or what was thought to be, due to colonialism, Lord Elgin was initially granted permission to make sketches of his findings in the unfamiliar yet intriguing territories. Once arriving in Ottoman-controlled present-day state of Greece, Lord Elgin was immediately star struck by the beauty of one of the most significant wonders of the ancient world: The Parthenon.  The Parthenon The damaged acropolis, struck recently by an explosion during conflict, still conveyed  its  monumentality as it does today. As the main landmark for the ancient Atheni...
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