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On Focus

On Focus: Museums, Exhibits, Art Shows, Everything and Anything


Walter Isaacson's "Leonardo da Vinci"


Yinka Shonibare's "Girl Ballerina"


Carolyn Dean's "The Problem with (the term) Art"


Harn Museum of Art's Exhibit "Elusive Spirits: African Masquerades"


Rhode Island School of Art and Design Museum of Art's exhibit "Un/Settled"

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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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On Focus: Harn Museum of Art's Exhibit "Elusive Spirits: African Masquerades"

On Focus: Harn Museum of Art's Exhibit "Elusive Spirits: African Masquerades" Located in Gainesville, Florida, The Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida makes strident efforts in providing its local community with a view into the unfamiliar to some yet familiar to others. The currently ongoing exhibit Elusive Spirits: African Masquerades continues this practice, highlighting the nontraditional world of masks and their role in African societies and traditions. Offering 30 different masks with a variety of mediums and from varying cultures and societies, the exhibition strives to make a direct link between the formality of the mask to its cultural and religious significance in African culture; a link that is sometimes hard for westerners to grasp (“Elusive Spirits: African Masquerades”, n.d.). Featuring 20th to 21st century masks from West Africa and Central Africa, The Harn Museum creates an interesting narrative of African masks in recent history and the cont...
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