Many art works created throughout the history were highly stylized or abstracted for many reasons. The artists in different cultures have used abstractions and stylizations in their art pieces in order to emphasize or symbolize certain religious ideas or cultural ideas that their cultures had. Since pre-historic era, abstract and stylized art pieces were used to reinforce the cultural norms, for people did not have any other medium of communication to convey the cultural norms except through visual objects.
Thus, the idea of conveying messages and norms through visual objects began as cultures developed. The method of conveying ideas through abstract art hence continued since then. The art pieces, Venus of Willendorf, King from Ife, Dilukai, and Guernica clearly portrays certain cultural ideas through their abstract and stylized designs. The sculpture, King From Ife clearly represents the cultural norms of Ife Kingdom during 11th-12th century. As most artists in other cultures have done, the Ife Kingdom’s artist portrayed his ruler an as idealized human beings in King From Ife.
The sculpture shows flesh-like modeling in the torso and the kind of idealized naturalism in facial feature. However, its proportions are less life-like than they are ideological. The head is clearly disproportionate to the body, which clearly proves that the art work was stylized. According to the Text, Art Through the Ages, “the head is the locus of wisdom, destiny, and the essence of being” (Gardner 415). The author further describes that “such ideas probably developed at least 800 years ago” (415).
Thus, the elongated head symbolized the king’s wisdom and knowledge that he had during his rule in Ife Kingdom. The stylization of the sculpture is also shown in its enlarged stomach and short legs. The enlarged stomach proves the affluent life that the king had during his life time, for enlarged stomach generally had the connation of having abundant food in diets. In addition, King From Ife is life-like, but at the same time idealized, as if most of the people were portrayed as young adults in the prime of their life and without any disfigured warts or wrinkles.The artist may have portrayed the king as a young and vibrant person in order to convey the message that the king is not a weak and old person, but a strong and powerful leader.
Once again, the idealized form of king’s sculpture was created in order to tell the citizens that their king is a powerful and wise leader. The only way to convey these messages were through creating stylized art work which many people would encounter. Furthermore, the sculpture, Venus of Willendorf, clearly shows how abstracted sculptures were used to convey messages and ideas in certain cultures.The sculpture was made around 25000 BCE, and it is made of limestone. During the prehistoric era, written languages to convey messages weren’t invented. As a result, the people during this era used abstract and stylized art pieces in order to convey their cultural ideas just as people in Ife-Kingdom did.
The Sculpture clearly has no facial features such as eyes, nose etc, which proves that the artist was not trying to create naturalistic sculpture. Rather, the artist created an abstract art by creating disproportionate women figure: the enlarged stomach, breast, and vagina.The enlarged breast was created in order to convey the message that women played the key role in continuation of human race; the breast symbolizes feeding of next generation. In addition, the enlarged stomach symbolizes the reproduction of human creatures.
Since many tribal people died due to harsh environmental circumstances, men depended on the reproduction of children in order for their tribes to survive. Thus, the artist created this sculpture with enlarged stomach to celebrate the women’s childbearing capability which ensured the survival of human race.Furthermore, the triangular shaped vagina represents the happiness and enjoyment that the men received from women. The clearly stylized sculpture, therefore, was created to celebrate the idea of fertility and enjoyment that the early men obtained from women.
Similarly, the art work, Dilukai placed in Men’s ceremonial house (bai) is a stylized work that represents women as prominent figure in Belau culture. Although the bai, the ceremonial clubhouse, was the domain of men, women figured prominently in the imagery that covered it.This reality reveals the important symbolic and social positions that women held in this culture. The entrance of the ceremonial house had a women figure known as Dilukai. The sculpture has an enlarged vagina and elongated breasts to emphasize the women’s role of populating the clan.
As explained before, the breast symbolizes women’s role to feed the upcoming generation of the clan, and the vagina symbolizes the joy that men obtain from women. According to the legend, “Dilukai’s brother, Bagei, was embarrassed by his sisters’ promiscuity and carved her image on the bai to shame her” (Stockstad 928).The Dilukai figure demonstrates the ability of an image to celebrate women’s power. Finally, Pablo Picasso’s art work, Guernica clearly represents how abstractness of art is used to convey the message of cultural ideas. Even in modern era, Picasso used abstractness in his art to convey the message of modern era’s nastiness and horror. The use of black and grey colors throughout the mural creates the dark and horrifying mood of the art.
Collection of distorted images in the painting creates the abject outcry of humanity.For instance, the slain warrior lies on the floor with and broken sword. Then a dying horse tramples the warrior as it dies. On the left, the anguished woman cradles her dead child. ON the far right, the woman on fire runs around screaming for help. And there are much more painstaking images in the painting that reinforces the horrifying mood from the painting.
The abstractness of the images plays a role of creating visual horror. Picasso uses the distortion and perversion of human forms in the painting to really show what the modern world could do in real life.This art work is an example of how abstractness is still used today in order to convey certain messages of cultural ideas and norms. As discussed, the art pieces Venus of Willendorf, King from Ife, Dilukai, and Guernica represent how abstractness and stylization played a role throughout the history in order to portray certain ideas that different cultures had. These methods are still used today in modern arts and they have played a great role in reinforcing certain ideas and messages in the art pieces.
