Cross-Cultural Issues in Art: Frames for Understanding

Cross-Cultural Issues in Art: Frames for Understanding Leuthold, S. M. (2011 ). Cross-Cultural Issues in Art: Frames for Understanding. New York, NY: Routledge. 313 pp. ISBN: 978-0-415-57800-4.How does art help us to understand the lives of people of different times, places, and cultures?" (National Visual Arts Standards First Glimpse, 2013, p. 5).This question, from the newly released National Visual Arts Standards, addresses one Anchor Standard thatfocuses on relating "artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural, and historical context to deepen understanding" (p. 5) as a part of the Artistic Process of Connecting by"relating artistic ideas and work with personal meaning and external context" (p. 5). For an art teacher, facilitating a broad, unbiased model of ideas connecting world art can be challenging. Care must be taken to avoid social bias. But connecting global art to student experience is key to creating relevance and empathy across time and space.Steven M. Leuthold, in Cross-Cultural Issues in Art: Frames for Understanding, presents a clearand engaging examination ofworld art through a frameworkthat provides inspirational connections and develops no less than an understanding ofworld social history through art. This can be valuable reading for preservice or practicing art teachers. It includes contemporary and historic concepts and a clearly articulated, applied introduction to foundational concepts of Postmodern aesthetic theory. The discussion is expanded beyond the usual Western theorists and Western examples. The strong organization and magnetic style of Leuthold's writing make this an effective way to gain a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of aesthetic issues and global themes in world art.Designing art lessons that address social ideas and incorporate authentic practices based in the methods of contemporary artists is a challenge. Linking the "big ideas" found in contemporary art to art of the past and of other cultures in orderto build broader historic understandings and visual literacy is complex. Depth of understanding is built by embracing the role of teacher as researcher in order to gain a complete knowledge of Postmodern aesthetic theory, of interpretive methodology, and of the major themes that run across global art and visual culture. "Distinguishing between an artist's subject matter and big idea is often difficult, but the designer of classroom artmaking needs to clearly understand the distinction between them"(Walker, 2001, p. 3).How do we distinguish and employ art processes that engage in a dialogue versus those that simply illustrate common ideas? One misunderstanding is to design lessons that may take a social issue as a subject but neglect to truly engage in a process that can build understanding or to enter into a dialogue around a theme grounded in the precedents of art-based production.Leuthold outlines themes and supplies numerous examples of artworks that provide a strong knowledge base from which to construct elegant, theme-based content for connecting art to life. While the book does not specifically target art educators, the ideas structuring the author's interpretive processes will befamiliarto teachers versed in current methodology. Some of his themes will be familiar to teachers versed in meaning-based big ideas and curricular approaches described in publications by Marilyn Stewart and Sydney Walker (2005), among others. Leuthold's thematic structures reflect authentic, Postmodern artmaking concepts and processes and can support curricular content to develop a contemporary worldview of global, interdisciplinary, and multicultural awareness. Leuthold unravels complex issues to lend sensitivity and depth to the reader's understanding of ideas for addressing multicultural content in art in the classroom. Each theme is related through the examination and interpretation of specific artworks, artists, and artifacts.Leuthold begins with hybridity, examining the relationship between art and culture, the ways in which culture is investigated and defined, and the biases that can support or erode understanding of the meanings of cultural artifacts. …