beauty around the world | The Art Institute of Chicago

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It’s easy to have a first reaction to a work of art. But what is revealed when we ask ourselves not only what we find beautiful or ugly, but also where those ideas come from?

The Language of Beauty in African Art explores art across the African continent through local indigenous perspectives, inviting viewers to examine our own ideas of beauty and the influences that affect how we evaluate and appreciate the works of art.

Before or after your visit to the exhibition, deepen your exploration of cultural ideas about beauty, ugliness, and their meanings with this tour of the works in the museum’s collection.

You can start at the exit of The Language of Beauty exhibition, on the second floor of the Rice Building.

GASTON LACHAISE, FEMALE (ELEVATION)

Gaston Lachaise

Western modernists such as Gaston Lachaise were fascinated by the stylized, abstract forms of sculpture from non-Western cultures and early civilizations. They believed these objects possessed a vitality absent from later works of art. The voluptuous form of the Woman of Lachaise (Elevation) recalls the forms of the ancient fertility goddesses. Modeled after the artist’s wife, Isabel Dutaud Nagle, the sculpture was Lachaise’s first large-scale expression of the idealized female body that would come to dominate his art.

Statue of Aphrodite of Knidos

ancient roman

This sculpture of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and sexuality, is a Roman version of a famous Greek statue known as Aphrodite of Knidos. The original sculpture, carved in the middle of the 4th century BC. C., was acclaimed for its daring and innovative representation of the goddess: it was the first monumental nude representation of a female deity in the classical Greek world. While the original Greek statue functioned as a religious image used in worship, the form was adapted centuries later in the Roman world for use in a variety of contexts, from public baths and luxurious villas to funeral settings.

SLEEPING MUSE BY CONSTANTINE Brancusi

Constantine Brancusi

Drawing inspiration from Cycladic and African art, Paris-based Romanian sculptor Constantin Brâncuși produced elegant works that found beauty in the simplification of form down to its most fundamental lines and shapes. He created the first “sleeping head” of it in 1907 and devoted the next 20 years to the subject. Here, the tapered, egg-shaped head has relaxed features created through smooth, curved lines. Its lack of base suggests, on the one hand, that the sculpture may have been tipped over; on the other hand, it shows the muse as if they were glued to the pillow, both in physical and metaphorical repose.

Plaque depicting a queen or goddess

ancient egyptian

Although Egypt is located in northeast Africa, the history of art in that part of the continent is often quite different from that depicted in The Language of Beauty in African Art. This plaque showing a queen or goddess in profile comes from the Ptolemaic era, when Egypt was ruled by a Macedonian dynasty and ancient Egyptian standards of beauty were still in vogue. She wears a vulture-shaped headdress to mark her royal and/or divine status, and her beaded necklace is adorned with blooming lotus flowers and papyrus umbels, plants indigenous to the Nile River Valley, underscoring her close affinity with Egypt. .

SHIVA AS THE LORD OF THE DANCE (NATARAJA)

tamil nadu

In this sculpture, the Hindu deity Shiva, represented as the Lord of the Dance (Nataraja), performs a cosmic dance that sets the rhythm of life and death in motion. One of his arms balances the flames of destruction and a hand drum that beats the rhythm of life, while another performs symbolic gestures meant to dispel fear. Shiva is perfectly balanced, his right leg planted on the demon of darkness as he banishes ignorance. This bronze icon is considered one of the most sublime images in Indian art; the energy created by Shiva’s dance destroys everything, thus allowing creation to begin anew.

Ritual Impersonator of the Deity Xipe Totec

Aztec (Mexican)

This Aztec sculpture depicts a young man dressed in the skin of a sacrificed victim as part of an agricultural fertility ritual dedicated to the god Xipe Totec. While it may seem macabre or even ugly to some audiences, this copycat would have had very different meanings to the Aztecs (also known as the Mexica). Xipe Totec, or “El Desollado” in Nahuatl, was worshiped during the end of the dry season and beginning of the rainy season (May-June). As a god, he symbolized the regeneration of life. The rotten skin would have worn away until it fell off, resulting in the user being reborn. Thus, more than representing death, Xipe Totec manifested the beautiful renewal of life.

burgonet closed

This closed burgonet, or close-fitting European helmet from the 17th century, has the face of death engraved on it. Made of steel and leather, it covers the entire head and features rounded skull-shaped eye holes, a sculpted nose, an elaborate mustache, and a grotesque grin filled with pointed teeth. There are even small ears near the base of the neck. The helmet is not only intentionally ugly to inspire fear on the battlefield, but is actually intended to animate its wearer with the spirit of death, much like the profound effects of some African masks.

Source: news.google.com