Mod. 10 - Blog Video Reviews 4/14/19:

1. Explain why you selected each of the TWO videos you choose from the selection listed above.

Chinese Art- I chose the Chinese Art Video because I have always been interested in Chinese culture. The Chinese have such a long and unique history, and I felt like learning more about the art that reflects that historic culture. 

African Art: Legacy of Oppression- I chose this video because it felt like an interesting topic to me to explore. I enjoyed reading the section on African Art in the textbook, and wanted to watch a video on African art to go along with it. I chose the video on Legacy of Oppression because I felt like I could learn the most from this video. 

2. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.

Chinese Art- I learned about the ancient Chinese jars/vessels that were created during the late Shang-early Zhou period. I found interesting, not only the physical look of these vessels (such as the bronze fangzun), but also the Chinese History that is embedded into them. The artists that created these clearly had a reverence for their history and ancestors, and spent a lot of time making their art reflect that. I also enjoyed learning about how a lot of the images on the pottery had to do with nature found in China, such as the lotus flower. The amount of detail is amazing with some of the art pieces, especially when they have to do with religion such as Buddhism. 

African Art: Legacy of Oppression- In this video, I learned a lot about African Art in Belgium's Tervuren Museum. Learning about the African masks was really cool, because they look super interesting. I learned about the wide variety and diversity of African Art, specifically art from Central Africa. It was cool to learn about how influential this art was to western artists as well. A lot of it was very simple, but displayed very strong emotions and messages inside the simplicity of it. The form of this African art was extremely unique and something that I really haven't seen much of before. A lot of the masks were frightening, which is an emotion that I am not used to seeing in art, especially art in the west. 

3. How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?

Chinese Art- The video emphasizes the rich historical Chinese culture, as talked about in the book. The book also talked about the rise of Landscape painting, which we saw in the video as well. It was interesting to see how the art pieces shown in the video correlated with the differences in Chinsese art throughout the different dynasties as talked about in the book, and how they also correlated with Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism. 

African Art: Legacy of Oppression- This video served as an excellent complement to the readings on African Art in the book. The textbook talked a little more about the ancient history of Africa, and explained why a lot of the art is very primative and simple. The textbook also did a good job of explaining the history of oppression in Africa (in the section: "Africa looks back") which correlated well with this video. 

4. What is your opinion of the films? How do they add depth to understanding of the readings and art concepts?

Chinese Art-  I enjoyed this film a lot. I learned a lot of cool things about Chinese art, history, and culture. It was definitely a nice complement to the readings in the text. 

African Art: Legacy of Oppression- This video was truly amazing. The art that emerged from the extremely difficult history that Africa has gone through shows us a side of humanity in general that is absolutely fascinating. I think that the art shown in this video was some of the coolest that I've seen in this course, and it definitely left me wanting to continue to learn about African Art.