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The Trouble With Art Summary

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Modern observations of art history tend to present an issue once we attempt to conceptualize the art of the past. We come across this issue when we attempt to use western definitions of art as the standard for all of human history, including the history of non-western cultures. In her essay, “The Trouble with (The Term) Art,” 2006, Carolyn Dean presents her case on how our Eurocentric definitions of art can have a negative impact on our observations of non-Western art. Dean’s use of examples from AOA fields (Africa, Oceania, Americas) allow the reader to correlate her stance on defining art with the negative implications that arise from this issue. Her recognition that “there is no globally acceptable definition of art…” (page 26) allows for …show more content…
Dean argues that the use of Western culture’s definition of art inherently sets art of all other cultures below that standard, in particular because they do not achieve the level of art that is better demonstrated in European culture. This can be demonstrated through the process of “normalization” (Page 29), which intends to incorporate subcategories of art found in other cultures into the definitions set by Western culture. Through this process, we “impose schemata” on forms of art from other cultures that may not have the same intentions as we may attempt to define. We attempt to compare art of appropriation to art of intention, and find that the art of intention may be of higher artistic quality. However, it is our modern definitions of their categories that determine the quality of said art. Dean refers to how we do this through the appropriation of Inca rocks (page 30). During the time of their creation, the Inca would have categorized their rocks much differently than how modern Western observers may currently view them. Yet, we would still compare them amongst western art, which would inevitably appear to be of lower quality by comparison as the creators of the Inca rocks did not keep in mind such standards of western art. Instead however, they viewed the rocks through their own categories and felt a deeper appreciation for …show more content…
We may incorporate objects of other cultures under one overarching umbrella of “art”, and specify their distinctions through adjectives rather than a change in the noun (Page 25). Although the intention for their creation may not necessarily correlate with how we perceive them as art, we may still go as far as to categorize them as a particular art. The purpose of the object may have been entirely pragmatic at the time of creation, yet may continue to call them “art” in our own sense of the word. Dean uses an example of an archaeologist characterizing an “eccentric flint” as art (Page 26). Through this manner, the archaeologist recognizes an object of pre-Hispanic Maya culture worthy of the term art, while at the same time undermining the value of the other object found at the same site. In this way, modern observers of objects from the past may observe the inherent value of the objects differently than how the people from the past may have appreciated them. In this way, we may inadvertently define what holds a higher value for the people of the past, when we truly have no

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