Becoming Art: Exploring cross-cultural categories.
Keller, Christiane
Becoming Art: Exploring cross-cultural categories
Howard Morphy 2008
University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, xv+234pp, ISBN 978
192141 0123
Howard Morphy's 30-year expertise in the field of Yolngu art
and his extensive writings on this topic are, once again, married
beautifully in his latest book. In Becoming Art he interrogates the
changing socio-cultural context for the production and interpretation of
Yolngu art. Morphy's interdisciplinary approach using art history,
art theory and anthropology to develop a cross-cultural art theory is
outstanding. This is especially impressive since Morphy succeeds in
writing about this complex and multilayered topic in such a clear and
approachable manner, making it interesting and accessible to all
audiences. His deep insights into Yolngu culture and art, and the
manifold examples he provides of the ways Yolngu see and comment on the
engagement of their art with global audiences, are exceptional. Morphy
successfully raises the reader's awareness of Yolngu voices within
art discourse.
Morphy sets out to investigate why the art world has taken so long
to recognise Yolngu art as worthy to be exhibited in art museums and
galleries. To do so, he divides the book into three sections. First,
Morphy provides us with 'A short history of Yolngu art' in
which he demonstrates the dynamism of the Yolngu artistic system in its
engagement with outsiders. Morphy's diachronic perspective reveals
that, over time, Yolngu art has been used in different contexts and for
different purposes, both by Yolngu themselves and by the art market
(Chapters 2 to 4). In Section 2, 'Engaging with art history',
Morphy uses an art-history methodology to investigate aesthetic effect
within Yolngu painting (Chapter 5). Although not new, a highlight is the
summary of his writing on the Yolngu use of brilliance to present
ancestral power, because he complements this with a periodic and
stylistic analysis of Yolngu art to show how these visual effects have
produced new bodies of work. In Chapter 6 he provides a comparison
between different artistic systems--those of Yolngu (from Arnhem Land in
northern Australia) and Abelam (from the Sepik River region in Papua New
Guinea). He uses the comparison to propose a more cross-cultural
approach within art history that could help to develop greater
sensitivity to different ontological concepts of art (also
'Conclusion'). Morphy not only draws on Anthony Forge's
analysis of Abelam art, but lets us take part in his experience of
having two Yolngu artists involved in an investigation and discussion of
Abelam art. This documentation of a cross-cultural exploration of art by
Yolngu is unique, revealing not only the differences and similarities
between two artistic systems, but also demonstrating that 'the
puzzles of anthropology of art are not solely a Western concern'
(p.137).
In Chapter 7 he exemplifies aspects of an art theory of
north-eastern Arnhem Land Yolngu and north-western Arnhem Land Kuninjku.
Comparing the two, the latter appears to have more features in common
with European art theory, while Yolngu do not share the Western emphasis
on progressive sequences of formal development and individual
creativity. Morphy, therefore, suggests that a cross-cultural art
history needs to attempt to take Indigenous art discourses into account.
It would need to be set on a very general level, providing a framework
for relating paintings to each other and to the producing artists within
a spatio-temporal context.
In the third section of the book, 'Yolngu and the chimera of
fine art', Morphy argues that the art gallery should be the place
for an informed and reflexive contemplation of artwork from all cultures
and, therefore, needs to be freed from purely Western definitions of art
or narrow categories such as 'fine art'. Anthropology and art
history, ethnography and art, museum and art gallery should not be
opposed but complementary to each other in order to appreciate,
investigate and experience Indigenous art in a number of ways. Not only
do the concepts of art need to be broadened, but the concepts of
aesthetic in which art is viewed and exhibited need to become more
cross-cultural. According to Morphy, art should be seen as another great
source of evidence in our quest to understand a changing world and other
cultures. An analysis of the historical processes of commodification of
Aboriginal art, as well as the socio-political context of production and
exchanges, will help to better understand and interpret Aboriginal art.
Another reviewer has said that 'Becoming Art certainly comes
close [to the perfect book]' (Megaw 2008:43). Since I agree with
this statement, my criticism is solely concerned with the
publisher's production of the book. For old-fashioned booklovers
who prefer the feel, smell and touch of the 'real' thing to an
'online' edition, the floppy, far-too-thin book cover of the
paperback version is a real let down. As the book is not cheap and will
be frequently used by many as a source of reference, one would wish for
a more durable execution. Furthermore, the images print ed in black and
white do not convey the shimmering brilliance so eloquently discussed by
Morphy. A colour page inlay would have greatly enhanced the book.
Becoming Art makes a unique contribution to understanding art
discourse in different cultural contexts through its attempt to
translate these discourses. It also excels in demonstrating the agency
of Yolngu people in making their art 'becoming art' in a
Western context, and it is recommendable on all accounts.
REFERENCE
Megaw, Vincent 2008 'Engaging with Yolngu art', Art
Monthly Australia 213:43.
Reviewed by Dr Christiane Keller, Honorary Research Fellow, The
University of Western Australia <christiane.keller@anu.edu.au>
