AMERICAN VISIONS EPISODE 2

1. First of all, in a documentary on American art, why do you think Hughes dedicates an entire episode to early American religion?

Religion has always influenced the art. Religion was been an important aspect of America’s past. Along with religion came religious art, which meant new styles and techniques.  

2. Who were the Pilgrims and what is their significance to Hughes in the documentary?

The Pilgrims were the most radical wing of 17^th Century English Puritans. All they wanted was a fresh, clean start, & the New World was their best chance. They were simple, & had different concepts. The New World was a blank page; somewhere they could right their designs. All those visions have left indelible traces in the identity of modern Americans.

3. What was their view toward pictures or portraits or religious iconography? Why do you think they felt and acted this way?

It’s a great ill, they have a simple life. It’s a huge superstition to mankind, a thing of the devil. They blind man with man’s art & keep man from having the proper reference of God. They were extreme puritans; they didn’t required religious iconography to feel close to God, on the contraire. I think that the fact that men were the ones that made those images made them uncomfortable. Men are not good enough to pretend they know what God looks like, I suppose.

4. What are some characteristics of adobe building? Why was it used? And how does it relate to our contemporary interest in organic food?

Indian labor, Spanish techniques. The Adobe is dried mud so it’s easy to repair. The whole style is organic; it is “harmless” & “pro-environment”

5. How does a blend of the European and Indigenous fusion of art and images ‘work’, according to Hughes?

Blending the art & images of the European & the Indigenous helped to unite the two “worlds”. Indians were able to keep their culture but also to acquire new culture.

6. How did isolation influence and define the early settler experience in New Mexico?  How do you think it is a metaphor for the entire American experience?

Houses would have their own chapels, plain but reflected the hard life they had. The isolation is the result of a very unique cultural expression. I am not sure how it could be a metaphor. I guess I would say that sometimes we close up and isolate ourselves.

7. How does the documentary paint the Puritans and their sense of destiny?

They thought they were destined to greatness. It was a mythic event. They would build a city on the hills. They have been chosen by God to begin a new face of human history. They were biblical fundamentalists; they were the first to call themselves Americans.

8. How do you think the Puritan vision still reside in Americans today?

These ideals are still the fundaments of Americans way of thinking, because they still believe they are the freer country & it’s their job to free everyone else.    

9. Why do you think, as opposed to Catholic churches and cathedrals, the Puritans chose to keep their places of worship so bare and without decoration?

They never considered the splendorous decorations as something necessary to praise the Lord, just an “eye of God” to remind them he is always watching. They wanted to see things clearly, they never needed anything else.

10. What was the significance of the Puritan gravestones?

Death was important to the Puritans; the gravestones would remind you that this world is only an anteroom to a real and eternal one, that everything was substantial.

11. What was Puritan portraiture primarily for?

A record & commemoration of a person after they were dead, they were also an index to wealth. Money was a sign of Gods approval so they had to show it off.

12. Why do you think the Quakers generally distrusted the arts altogether?

Art was not natural. They didn’t needed anything to represent God’s will.

13. What is the significance of quilting and how has it been preserved over the centuries?

They were made by the wives & daughters of the Amish. They remind modern Americans of their roots. It’s a tradition that has passed over generations and generations.

THE SUN ALSO RISES - ERNEST HEMINGWAY CHAPTERS 4 TO 6

On this chapters, I found out the following: 
Brett and Jake have some history together, Jake has been hurt in war and Brett was a nurse at the hospital where Jake was taken. For some reason, Brett feels bad, or responsible about something of the wound Jake had, & she does not want's Jake to be close to her. They love each other but refuse to embrace it. Brett is about to divorce Lord Ashley, and Cohn has developed a special interest on her. Cohn & Frances are having couple issues. Cohn does not wishes to marry Frances any more. She is quite hurt about this decision, and if I may say so, everything she says to Cohn is simply magnificent. It's so well structured, you can feel her sarcasm & notice the hurt on her voice. Unfortunately Jake is there when Frances gets all heated up, so things get a little awkward and uncomfortable.

So I still have no idea if Jake is going to South America with Cohn or not. But now I have new questions. Who is this count with bizarre name? What happened between Brett and Jake? So many questions... Better keep on reading...

AMERICAN VISIONS EPISODE 1

1. Why do you think the new American nation wanted to associate itself so much

with classical Greece and Rome?

They were fascinated by the ancient civilizations. Their ideals became American ideals too, like democracy. 

2. How, according to Robert Hughes, is the plastic classicism of Las Vegas ironic in comparison to the early ideals of the United States?

For what it represents, Las Vegas is a different Rome than what Washington wanted, it is not the virtuous republic he desired but a Hollywood version of Rome, filled with excess of authority. 

3. Why did Washington become the U.S. capitol, as opposed to New York or Philadelphia?

The Founding Fathers wanted a clean space; somewhere new where the ideals were able to bloom without being blurred by early royal & colonial meanings, and since New York & Philadelphia were older cities, they chose Washington D.C. 

4. What city or type of city planning is Washington, D.C., based on, and why?

It was supposed to grow into the most powerful city on Earth. It was an ambitious project based on the Versailles Palace. It showed in a way, the rejection the Americans had towards the Englishness around them. 

5. Why was Monte Cello so important to Robert Hughes? What does it say about early American life and culture?

It marks the beginning of American architecture, with a “do it yourself” style. 

6. How is the University of Virginia a metaphor for early America and their desire for or sense of identity?

Education was the key to the life in the new republic, with the “natural aristocracy” where education would mark your development instead of birth and last name, giving a new opportunity. 

7. What was the first real American sculpture? What did it represent?

A figure of John Washington, it expresses an idea of democracy. It shows the statesmen as equals

.

8. Why did American´s originally reject the building of the Washington Monument?

They couldn’t agree in what kind of monument they would build. They thought that a simple monument would not be respectful enough and that a really elaborated one would make Washington a King not a democrat. In the end they decided to build the obelisk, some didn’t like it; they thought it was too simple; Mark Twain called it a “factory chimney”. In the end it represents a new minimalistic style.   

9. What happened in the 1960´s to reinvigorate the meaning of the Lincoln Memorial?

Martin Luther King and hundreds of African Americans transformed and refreshed the meaning with the civil rights rally. 

10. How did television, according to Robert Hughes, destroy the necessity of monumental political sculpture?

Politicians began to buy television time instead of having their sculpture’s being made. Once the politician is on TV, they will hardly go back to bronze. 

11. Why do you think the black granite wall of the Vietnam Memorial became so important as a sculpture, even though it is just a black granite wall?

It was the last completely successful American memorial; it helped the American society to heal the wound the war left. It keeps the memories alive &, in a way, it keeps the living close to the dead. 

12. Who was Benjamin West and what was his role in early America?

He was the first American painter to influence English art. He changed the way heroic action was painted. He would teach young Americans new techniques.

THE SUN ALSO RISES - ERNEST HEMINGWAY CHAPTERS 1 TO 3

Robert Cohn was a middleweight box champion, but this was not a tittle that made him proud. He hated box, but only practiced it to balance the sense of not belonging that he had for being treated like a Jew at Princeton. He was an American living in Paris, and he was starting to get bored of it. He was, in a way, having his mid-life crisis. Questioning every single thing, and worrying about death. Cohn is married for the second time to a controlling woman, for a long time he had eyes for no one else, but after a trip to NY where he realizes there is more to the eye, he returns to Paris as a different man.
The story is told by Robert's friend, Jack. In this first three chapters, Jack introduces Robert's life style, ideas, and plans for the future as well as he introduces Brett. We still don't know much about her. She is an incredibly attractive woman with manlike attitudes and Cohn seems to be attracted to her.
So far, there is not much going on. Robert is sick of Paris and wants to talk Jake into going with him to South America but Jake has no interest on going along. But still, Jake is getting bored or the life in Paris.
Will he accept Cohn's invitation and go to South America?

PLACEMENT TEST

QUESTIONAIRE

1. As you know, we will be looking at Art and Culture throughout the semester.  What sort of background experience do you have with the art of the United States?
A little, when I was in elementary school I had to take a course on American Art but honestly, I don´t remember much.
2. Name any historical novels or authors from the United States that you have read in the past?
 I haven't read much historical novels, recently I read Mark Twain's The Misterious Stranger, but that's about it.
3. What is the difference between Ragtime music and Jazz?
 I have no idea.
4. List 5 influential American Poets:
 I don't know if influential but I like Robert Frost, E.E. Cummings, Laurence Dumbar, Edward Hirsch and Mark Irwin

5. List 5 influential American Painters:
 I don't know.
6.  How do you think the United States has influenced, or been influenced by, Mexican painting and music?
 I think that the fact that they are too close to each other makes a difference. Its nearly impossible not to be influenced with Mexicans living in the States and Hollywood movies been screened here, but I really don't know how.
7.  What is modern dance?
 No idea.
8.  What kind of ‘performing arts’ have you been exposed to here in Mexico?
 I used to practice regonal dance when I was younger, also I enjoy going to the theater. Mexican theater is different, there is something about it that I love. Walking downtown, you can come across multiple prehispanic dancers. 
9. List 5 influential and important American Historical figures:
 Abraham Lincoln, Sakajawea, John F. Kennedy, Marthin Luther King Jr., Coronel Custer.
10. How do you think the Indigenous Cultures of the United States differ from those in Mexico? 
 Mexicans have tried to keep their indigenous culture alive, Americans denied their indigenous people, so Mexican indigenous culture flourished easier than American, hence there is more Mexican indigenous culture at sight that American.
11. Why do you think skyscrapers became prominent in the United States?
 I don't know.
12. What is digital Art?  Give an example:
 I'm not sure, but I think that digital art could be the animations done nowadays. For example the Disney's animated movies.
13. How has photography thought of as an art form in the 19^th century?
I don't know.

14. Which presidents of the United States do you remember for being important figures in American History?
 Lincoln, Kennedy, Roosevelt, Jackson, Washington, Nixon, Johnson, Carter, Jefferson.
15. Why do you think monumental sculpture is important to a nation’s identity?
 I'm not sure, I guess it creates a sense of national belonging. I don't know.
16. What would be an example of an important piece of American theatre?
 Wicked, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying...
17. Why do you think the visual Art of the American West is so different from any Eastern United States Art or Painting?
I have no idea.