Chapter 14: Race, Gender, Clan

and Class
Book Objectives
How
How
How
How

does art help forge racial identity?

is gender tied to ideas of what is beautiful or what is heroic?
does art promote or reinforce gender roles?
does art identify a clan?

When are ancestors important to a clan, and how does art help to make that
relationship possible?
How does aret show us the ways different classes live?
How does art reflect the tastes, ideas, and needs of different classes?
Why does possession of a certain kind of art indicate a persons class status?

Book Outline
Lecture Notes
Lecture Questions

Blackboard Objectives Week 14

Content
Required Textbook Reading

Read Chapter 14.

Try to answer some of the following questions as you read this chapter:
o
o

Name two works of art that criticize stereotypes and racism.

Can you define: hierarchies, classes, clans and aristocrats?

Lecture 14

Art100 Quiz 14

Companion Site Assignment

Click on the link to 'Book Companion Site' for your textbook Edition - 2nd or 3rd. Select
current Chapter from the drop-down list and take Practice Quiz.
Go to this Student Book Companion Site for the 2nd Edition book.
Go to this Student Book Companion Site for the 3rd Edition book.

Practice Quiz
1. Chagall's dreamlike depiction of a man floating Over Vitebsk is a metaphor
for:
displaced Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe.
2. The intent of Saar's mixed media project The Liberation of Aunt Jemima is to:
criticize racism and stereotypes.
3. Hung Liu's Trauma exposes which traditional practice as oppressive to
Chinese women?
footbinding
4.
5. By definition, groups joined through blood or marriage are referred to as
________ relationships.
clan
6. The large, openwork projections carved at the top of Asmat Bisj poles
represent:
penis or phallic forms.
7. Which art form became popular with the Japanese middle class, and were
eclectic in style combining different cultures?
ukiyo-e
8. How can art solidify extended family relationships?
Depiction of events in family history.
Preservation of ancestors through portraits.
Art as an essential part of family rituals.
9. Social and economic status is the basis for ________ identification.
class
10.A group of anonymous women who protest racial and gender discrimination
in the arts are known as:
Guerrilla Girls.
11.Which artist addresses racial stereotyping through his photographs?
Tseng Kwong Chi's Disneyland, California
12.
The Epa headdress called "Orangun" is worn by a widow in a funerary
masquerade. False
13.
In Japan, the samurai class of ruler-warriors commissioned large folding
screens to decorate the drab interiors of their stone castles. True

14.James Luna "installed" himself in a museum case as The Artifact Piece in

order to challenge preconceived notions about Native-American heritage and
identity. True
15.
The entrance to the Temple of Ramses at Abu Simbel features colossal
sculptures of Old Kingdom queens as a reminder of matrilineal descent. False
16.
Among the Sepik people of Papua, New Guinea, ritual cult houses were
built as a location for men to prove their power and ability to dominate
women. True
17.The _________________ Ovoid shape and "U" forms are recurring motifs in
formline design of Kwakiutl art.
18.In Migrant Mother, Nipomo California Lange used _________________
documentary photography to compose an objective black and white image
for journalistic purposes.
19.The ancient Romans stored and displayed portrait busts of deceased family
members in their homes as a form of ancestor veneration, and as a way to
glorify the family _________________ lineage.
20.Curvilinear forms and pastel colors of _________________ rococo
architecture, such as Francois de Cuvillies' Hall of Mirrors, have been
associated with femininity.
21.The reuse of Classical elements in 18th art and architecture is identified as
a(n) _________________ neoclassical style.

Graded Quiz 14
1. Which Japanese art form became popular during the Edo period and
was associated with the "floating world"?
ukiyo-e
2. Curvilinear forms and pastel colors of ________________ architecture,
such as Francois de Cuvillies' Hall of Mirrors, have been associated with
femininity. Rococo
3. How can art
i.
ii.
iii.

solidify extended family relationships?

Preservation of ancestors through portraits.
Depiction of events in family history.
Art as an essential part of family rituals.

4. The reuse of Classical elements in 18th art and architecture is

identified as a(n) ________________ style.
Neoclassical
5. Chagall's dreamlike depiction of a man floating Over Vitebsk is a
metaphor for:
displaced Jewish refugees from Eastern
Europe.
6. The ______________ is a recurring motif in formline design of Kwakiutl
art.
i. Ovoid
ii. "U"
iii. Split "U" with outline
7. Hung Liu's Trauma exposes which traditional practice as oppressive to
Chinese women? footbinding
8. Rubens' Abduction of the Daughters of Leucippus revealed that the
women of that time were expected to be
helpless
9. The photographs of VanDerZee reflect the
Renaissance
10.

Black

David's The Oath of the Horatii revealed that heroic actions were
a mark of masculinity

Online Study Guide Chapter 14

All people are born with a particular combination of race, gender, class, and genealogy
that contributes to their personal experiences. While these characteristics may be
debatable the result of genetics or social construction, our attitudes about them are
definitely not inborn. Many artists have engaged in work addressing the topics of
discrimination or prejudice. Art can reinforce existing attitudes; others can subvert them.

Some art reinforces racial identity and preserves its heritage. Some art promotes the
values of a certain ethnic group or challenges negative attitudes and stereotypes. Still
others try to see themselves as other see them.
Art That Promotes Ethnic History and Values

Figure 14-1, Over Vitebsk, Marc Chagall, (after a painting of 1914), Russia/France, 19151920. Oil on canvas, 26.5" x 36.5".
The solitary figure floating over the Russian village alludes to the Jewish diaspora. The
title plays on the Yiddish expression for"passing through." Chagall was a Fauvist painter,
using color as an expressive device rather than simply a descriptive one.
1. Over Vitebsk, Marc Chagall
2. From The Guardian, a story about the theft and ransom of Chagall's Over Vitebsk
Figure 14-2, Society Ladies, James VanDerZee, U.S.A., 1927. Black and white photograph.
VanDerZee photographed members of the African American middle class living in Harlem
during the Black Renaissance. His work provided an alternative view to the racist
stereotypes of blacks commonly found in popular culture at the time.
1. Family Photograph, James Van Der Zee

2. James Van DerZee on Artcyclopedia

Another artist of the Harlem Renaissance, Jacob Lawrence, painted

the history of African Americans in the Western Hemisphere. For
more, see No. 36, During the Truce Toussaint(Figure 12.12, page
315)
Art That Criticizes Racism
Artists can criticize racism by breaking down or transforming stereotypes. Sometimes
artists create images or situations that make audiences confront their own prejudices.
Figure 14-3, The Liberation of Aunt Jemima, Betye Saar, U.S.A., 1972. Mixed Media, 11.75"
x 8" x 2.75".
Saar combines images of the stereotypical"Mammy" character found in popular culture
with toy guns and the symbol of the Black Power movement. Aunt Jemima, the evercheerful, obedient servant is transformed into a powerful, potentially explosive soldier for
racial justice.
1. The Liberation of Aunt Jemima, Bety Saar
Figure 14-4, The Artifact Piece, James Luna, U.S.A., 1986. Installation/performance at the
Museum of Man, San Diego.
Luna turned himself into a living museum artifact. His installation pointed to the museum
practice of relegating non-white cultures to a dusty past locked behind glass. His inclusion
of a living person and contemporary possessions reminded viewers that Native American
culture is alive and always evolving.
1. Another view of Luna's The Artifact Piece
Who Is Looking at Whom?
Looking at images of different ethnicities represented in popular culture, we must
consider the issue of the"gaze" by asking how an artwork is used, for and by whom, and
for what purpose.

We also encounter the issue of the gaze in Lewis Hine's Leo, 48

Inches High(Figure 12.10; see especially the Food for Thought
section of Chapter 12). In Chapter 8, review the section on"The
Feminine Body and the Gaze".
1. View an exhibit entitled"Before their Time: Child Labor Through
the Lens of Lewis Hine"

Figure 14-5, Disneyland, California, Tseng Kwong Chi, U.S.A./China, 1979. Silver Gelatin
print, 36" x 36".
Tseng photographed himself at various tourist attractions in the United States dressed as
an icon of a Chinese man. Twin mirrors of superficiality face off in a still image as a
Western notion of what a Chinese man should look like is conflated with stereotypical
images of the United States landscape.
1.The Photographs of Tseng Kwong Chi

Art reflects and reinforces the socially accepted gender roles of a specific society.
Art and Ritual Perpetuating Gender Roles

Figure 14-6, Painting from a Cult House at Slei, Middle Sepik Region, Papua New Guinea.
Palm leaves on a bamboo frame, painted with earth pigments, 44" x 61.5".
The cult house is the site for the secret initiation rites called"Tambaran" for the Sepik
men. Artmaking is reserved as an exclusively male activity. The theme of creation is
again recalled in their A-frame cult house.
The art made by tribe members is intended to be passed down to younger men as a way
to transmit maturity, vigor, and masculine strength. (See also figure 20.19.)
1. Painting from a Cult House at Slei, Middle Sepik Region, Papua New Guinea

2. Examine a painting detail

3. View an Abelam Spirit House
Gender Reflected in Art and Architecture
Figure 14-7, Abduction of the Daughters of Leucippus, Peter Paul Rubens, Flanders, 1617.
Oil on canvas, 7'3" x 6'10".
Rubens depicts the mythical episode of the sons of Zeus abducting two sisters, indicating
the sexual priorities and accepted modes of behavior for each gender. Voluptuousness
represents wealth and female beauty. The women are helpless and emotional as the men
are rugged and aggressive.
1. Abduction of the Daughters of Leucippus, Peter Paul Rubens

Figure 14-8, Oath of the Horatii, Jacques-Louis David, France, 1864. Oil on canvas, 10'10"
x 14".
Three sons prepare to battle with heroism as their sisters weep in the corner. The
dynamic angularity of the male figures contrast with the rounded, limp bodies of the
females. Neo-Classical architecture, which revived Classical Greek and Roman aesthetics
and became popular with the bourgeois, was considered "masculine" in relationship to
the "feminine" Rococo style of art favored by the French aristocracy. (See also figure 4.7.)
1. Oath of the Horatii, Jacques-Louis David

Figure 14-9, Hall of Mirrors, Franois de Cuvillis, Amalienburg, Nymphenburg Park,

Munich, Germany, 1734-1739.
Compare the delicate flourishes of Rococo art the aristocracy patronized with the NeoClassical aesthetic the middle class, on the verge of revolt, preferred. Differing aesthetic
preferences are important distinguishing characteristics in establishing group identity.
1. Nymphenburg Park

The Doric and Ionic Orders are illustrated in Figure 2.36. The Swing
(Figure 14.24, page 386) is a Rococo painting by Jean-Honore
Fragonard and reflects the same sensibilities as the Hall of Mirrors.
1. The Swing

Critiquing Gender Roles

Figure 14-10, Trauma, Hung Liu, U.S.A./China, 1989. Ink on plywood cutouts, acrylic on
wall, felt cutout and wooden bowl, 108" x 52" x 26".
The cruelties of footbinding are compared to the 1989 killings of student demonstrators
in Liu's Trauma. The Chinese fashion of binding women's feet symbolized wealth, as
women with disfigured feet could not walk or work for herself.
1. Biography about and images of art by Hung Liu;
Figure 14-11, Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into The Met. Museum?, Guerrilla Girls,
U.S.A., 1986. Street poster.
The anonymous artist collective uses advertising industry techniques to raise awareness
and try to change the gender and racial biases of art institutions.
1. Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into The Met. Museum? Guerrilla Girls
2. Visit the Guerrilla Girls website

A clan is a group of people joined by blood and marriage ties. It can be a single household
or a group of families sharing a common ancestor. A class is a group of people who are
economically or socially similar. Members of the same class often share values, interests,
cultural knowledge, and economic opportunities. Members of a clan share familial
histories. This chapter will look at how art functions in maintaining clan ties and analyze
the relationship between class and art.
The Extended Family
Art solidifies extended families by: making ancestors available to the living clan

members; depicting important events in the clan's history; and by playing a part in clan
rituals.
Ancestors
Ancestors are important to clans. They impart prestige onto the living members and
serve as the symbolic foundation of the clan.

Figure 14-12, Statue of Togato Barberini, Early 1 st Century CE, Marble. 65 high. Palazzo
Barberini, Rome, Italy.
1. Another View of the Statue of Togato Barberini
Figure 14-13, Portrait heads from Tomb 6, Lambityeco, Oaxaca, Mexico, 640-755. Stucco,
each head 10.5 inches x 11.5 inches.
Portraits allow ancestors to be present among the living. The couple carved into the tomb
entryway probably represent the first family members to be buried in the tomb.
1. Lambityeco masks from Tomb 2

Among the present-day Zapotec, belief in the power of the

dead continues. They celebrate Dia de Los Muertos, as in
Diego Rivera's painting (Fig. 10.23, page 264).
1. Dia de los Muertos

Clan History
Figure 14-14, Interior House Post, Arthur Shaughnessy, Kwakiutl, Gilford Island, British
Columbia, Canada, 1907. Carved and painted red cedar, 190" x 134" x 34".
Interior House Post originally served a structural as well as spiritual function inside a
home. The carvings served as visual aids for performances about the clan's history. The
thunderbird represents the clan chief.

1. View webpage on Kwakiutl woodcarving and history

For more information on the potlatch, see Halibut Feast Dish by

Stan Wamiss (Figure 7.17, page 153).

Figure 14-15 Examples of formline design in Northwest Coast Art. A: ovoid form; B:
typical U complex with semiangular curves; C: Split U with outline. (After diagrams by Bill
Holm)
The formline design is typical of much Northwest Coast art. Native American artists were
more interested in energizing traditional forms rather than inventing new ones.
1.Raven Publishing offers a lesson in formline design. Try it!
Art Used in Clan Rituals
Figure 14-16, Bisj Poles, Asmat, Buepis Village, Fajit River, southwest New Guinea. Wood
and paint, approximately 16 feet high.
Bisj Poles were constructed for ritual feasts that originally included headhunting and
fertility rituals. Each carved figure represented a dead clansman. The figures' elaborately
carved penises reflect the value the Asmat placed on aggression and virility. The poles
were left to rot in the jungle at the conclusion of these rituals.
1. Asmat Art Museum
Figure 14-17, Epa Headdress called Orangun, Bamgboye of Odo Owa, Yoruba, Erinmope,
Nigeria, 1971. Wood and paint.
The Yoruba Epa Festival is held biannually to promote fertility and the well-being of the
clan. The huge headdresses worn for festival performances celebrate the clan's history.
1. View Yoruba Epa Headdress
2. View another Yoruba Epa Headdress
The Nuclear Family
The mobility of industrialized societies has weakened the links of traditional extended

families. The division of labor has also led to fewer common interests and life experiences
between family members. The nuclear family, consisting of a couple and offspring has
become the basic household unit in many societies.
Figure 14-18, The Family, Marisol, U.S.A., 1962. Mixed Media Construction.
Marisol combines drawing and sculptural elements to create a quiet, dignified portrait of
a family of humble means.
1. View a similar sculpture by Marisol Escobar entitled Women and Dog
Figure 14-19, Sail Baby, Elizabeth Murray, U.S.A., 1983. Oil on three canvasses, 126" x
135".
Aspects of family are referred to but not directly represented in Sail Baby. The bouncy,
rounded canvases conjure babies' bodies, and the yellow cup evokes domestic feelings of
warmth, enclosure, and sustenance.
1. Sail Baby, Elizabeth Murray
2. View a similar work by Elizabeth Murray
Figure 14-20, Baby Makes 3, General Idea, Canada, 1984-1989. Lacquer on vinyl, 78.75" x
63".
Work like Baby Makes 3, by the artist collective General Idea, challenges and lampoons
conventional ideas about heterosexual nuclear families by inverting common popular
culture commodities with gay themes.
1. General Idea's Baby Makes 3

Art demarcates class boundaries in a variety of ways: members of different classes may
be depicted with different body poses; artwork can show the environment, accouterments
and activities of a certain class; and different types of art indicate the class of the owner.
Class Status and Body Styles

Figure 14-21, Temple of Ramses II, Abu Simbel (now relocated), Egypt, XIX Dynasty, c.
1275-1225 BC. Each colossal statue is 65' high.

High-ranking persons in ancient Egypt were depicted in very stiff, formal styles, and were
depicted larger than persons of lower rank. The sheer scale of the Temple of Ramses II
testifies to the considerable wealth and power of the pharaoh.
1. The Temple of Ramses II, Abu Simbel, Egypt
2. Detail from the Temple of Ramses II, from a study by the McClung Museum

The Egyptians were not the only people to create idealized

images of their leaders. See images of rulers in Chapter 11,
such as The Emperor Justinian and His Attendants, is another
example of a depiction of a ruler that indicates class standing.

Figure 14-22, Seated Scribe, from a mastaba tomb at Saqqara, Egypt, V Dynasty, c. 25002400 BC. Painted limestone, approximately 21" high.
Much less monumental than the sculpture of king Ramses II, persons of lower rank like
this Seated Scribe are rendered in a more individualized and realistic style. The use of
limestone also connotes class status.
1. Seated Scribe
Class Activities and Life-styles
Even through only the wealthy or middle class generally patronize art, the activities and
lives of all social classes can be found recorded in art.

The Ruling Class

Figure 14-23, Las Meninas, Diego Velasquez, Spain, 1656. Oil on canvas, approximately
10'5" x 9'.
The focus of Las Meninas is the Infanta Maguerita. At the center of the composition,
bathed in light, she stands in the middle of a large room surrounded by servants. The
large size of the painting also adds to the owner's status.
1. View Las Meninas, Diego Velazquez, and read about the painting
2. Las Meninas at the Prado in Madrid
Figure 14-24, The Swing, Jean-Honor Fragonard, France, 1766. Oil on canvas, 35" x 32".
The aimless diversions of the privileged French aristocracy are the subject of Fragonard's
frothy and delicate painting. The rich costumes, beautiful garden, and the carefree
activity of the painting's characters all speak of a playground for the upper class.
1. Detail from The Swing
Figure 14-25, Great Beaded Crown of the Orangun-Ila, Beadworkers of the Adesina family
of Efon-Alaiye, Yoruba, Ila, Nigeria, 20th century.
The crown, robe and staff of this Yoruba chief indicate his rank. The cone shape and use
of bird imagery on his crown are royal symbols.
1. Examine a Yoruba beaded crown

For an example of the conical shape used in Yoruban art, see the
Palace Sculpture by Olowe of Ise (Figure 11.13, page 287)

The Working Class

Figure 14-26, Spring Festival Along the River (detail), Zhang Zeduan, China, late 11th early 12th century. Handscroll, ink on silk.
The first capital of China, Kaifeng, is painted as a crowded, bustling city filled with happy

middle class merchants and workers.

1. View the entire Handscroll of Spring Festival Along the River, Zhang Zeduan

Figure 14-27, The Kitchen Maid, Jan Vermeer van Delft, Netherlands, 1660. Oil on canvas.
Vermeer depicts a maid pouring milk with a reverence usually reserved for holy figures.
Without a monarch or aristocracy, seventeenth century Dutch society elevated middle
class domestic life.
1. The Kitchen Maid, Jan Vermeer van Delft, Netherlands

The Self-portrait (Fig. 13.8, page 343) by Rembrandt van Rijn

reflects the same sense of individual worth and the sacredness of a
modest life as does Vermeer's Kitchen Maid.

Figure 14-28, La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat, France, 1884-1886. Oil on canvas, 6'9" x
10'.
Seurat's Pointillist painting shows middle class leisure activities at a park. The
construction of urban parks was the result of middle class demands seeking relief from
the polluted congestion of the cities.
1. La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat
The Poor
Art showing the poor is often a reflection of how the upper or middle class sees them.

For an example of how the poor might view the rich, see The Rent
Collection Courtyard (Figure 12.13, page 317) which shows an
instance of exploitation and oppression.

Figure 14-29, Migrant Mother, Nipomo Valley, Dorothea Lange, U.S.A., 1936. Gelatin Silver
Print.
Lange photographed the Depression-era mother and her children in a way that
communicated the instability and fearfulness of their situation. Her work was influential in
soliciting aid for the migrant farmers. (See also figure 4.1)
1. Migrant Mother, Nipomo Valley, Dorothea Lange

Many other U.S. artists took up the cause of the poor or laboring
classes throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Turn to
Ester Hernandez's memorable print, Sun Mad (Figure 12.16, page
319)

For more on Migrant Mother, Nipoma Valley and the apparently

objective nature of photography, see Chapter 4, Deriving Meaning,
especially pages 84, 85 and 95.

Art Objects That Indicate Class Status

Different kinds of art cater to the tastes and needs of specific classes.
Figure 14-30, Uji Bridge, Japan, 16th - 17th century. Six-fold screen, color on paper, 62
inches high.

Large decorative screens became popular with the warrior class during the Shogunate
era. The reflective gold backgrounds lightened up their dark castle interiors.
1. The Momoyama Period
Figure 14-31, Komurasaki of the Tamaya Teahouse, from the series, A Collection of
Reigning Beauties, Kitagawa Utamaro, Japan, 1794. Multicolor woodblock, 10" x 15".
Affordable ukiyo-e woodblock prints became a popular art form among the middle class in
Japan. These prints generally depicted one of three subjects: Kabuki actors, beautiful
women, and landscapes.
1. Utamaro's Okita the Naniwaya Tea-Shop Waitress
2. Utamaro was the master of the Japanese beauty

You can read more about Japanese prints with A Pair of Lovers
(Fig. 8.14, page 183). The production of such prints is
discussed in Chapter 3, Media, on page 62 and with Figure 3.8.
1. Japan Ukiyo-e Museum Guide
2. Ukiyo-e Gallery - Utamaro

Figure 14-32, Watts Towers, Simon Rodia, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., 1921-1954.
Reinforced concrete with mixed media and found materials, height: 100 feet.
Watts Towers is a monument to a working-class neighborhood in Los Angeles. It is often
referred to as folk art or outsider art because of Rodia's lack of formal art training.
1. Watts Towers, Simon Rodia
2. Detail view of the walls of Watts Towers

Another example of folk art is Figure 9-14, Retablo of Maria de la

Luz Casillas (page 212). See Chapter 1 for more information on folk
art, its relationship to fine art, and why it is categorized as such.
1. Spanish Colonial ex-voto

Glossary
Chapter 14
artifact

An object made by one or more human beings and usually categorized by time
and culture.

Fauvism

An early-twentieth-century art movement in Europe led by Henri Matisse that

focused on bright colors and patterns. The term comes from the French word
fauve, meaning wild beast.

genre
painting

Paintings that contain subject matter of everyday life.

Greek
Revival

A style of architecture that visually echoes Greek Classical architecture. This

style was popular in nineteenth-century Europe and United States.

Pointillism

An art movement in Europe in the early twentieth century in which artists

applied daubs of pure pigment to a ground to create an image. The paint daubs
appear to blend when viewed from a distance.

Rococo

The style of art, architecture, music, and decorative arts from early-eighteenthcentury Europe, made primarily for the upper class.

shogun

Any of the various hereditary leaders of Japan until 1867, who were the real
rulers instead of the emperors.