I need some help on my Art Appreciation test

I need some help on my Art Appreciation test

What's the answer, Veeky Forums?

>the question is racist
Can this actually be real

I know nothing about African art, but maybe the one on the right, since it's more stylized? And if I remember right the ones like on the left are pretty sophisticated bronzework

I don't trust you OP.

Why doesn't the question start with a capital letter?

answer I meant lol

Oh believe me, its real

Took this test last week

>The question is racist
Do we even know how either of them were made? That's really the only way to find out which one is more primitive.

I still don't trust it man

How does that make you feel?

One on the left was made using the lost-wax casting method out of bronze

Other is carved out of ivory

well heres page 434 for ya

It's not really technically wrong but there's something smug about the tone I don't like

There is something wrong. Great Zimbabwe was already abandoned by the time Europeans arrived. He'd be more correct by saying the Muslim traders, instead.

Oh yeah, right enough. It's funnier when the initial European reaction to finding Great Zimbabwe was basically "DELETE THIS"

It's clearly a trick question. At first glance, my mind says they meant older by "primitive". But they want to teach it a certain way and put gotcha shit in there.

>until recently, Westerners tended to see Africa as a single country

what

The one on the right. The bust on the left was made with lost wax bronze casting which requires a longer supply chain and more complex technology than the carved ivory mask. That's not a value judgement of the people that made it, it only comments on the complexity of the production process. Likewise a painting on canvas is more primitive than a computer game even if they were made contemporaneously within the same culture.

Fight your professor on that one OP, "the question is racist" isn't a real answer.

1st pic looks from indochina, 2nd is clearly african

left pic is a Benin bronze, right pic an ivory mask also from Benin. I think the professor was trying to make a point about how they were produced by the same culture at the same time and thus one can't be more "primitive" than the other, which IMO is a bit of a silly thing to claim since realistic ivory masks have been carved since time immemorial but the bronze castings only began to appear in the 12th century iirc.

It isn't worth it, a professor won't denounce the text book from which he teaches which is what this retarded question stems from

I literally had to argue with my entire high school class that this is not the case.

it's written in a very basic way but it's an introductory textbook it seems so it's excusable.

>a longer supply chain and more complex technology

so?

> a painting on canvas is more primitive than a computer game

haha

>Fight your professor on that one OP, "the question is racist" isn't a real answer.

I'm with this, the professor's source does not say that calling something primitive therefore makes it racist. Page 434 suggests that designating it as primitive may be tied to racism and colonialism, but that such designation does not mean the word in and of itself is racist. Page 434 even admits that one possible definition of primitive is "early", so basing your answer off of either which one was produced earlier or which one uses a less advanced form of techology are appropriate.

"Primitivity" describes how closely something resembles the works of earlier peoples and civilizations, with more primitive objects bearing a closer resemblance to more ancient works.

An ivory mask bears a closer resemblance to older West African art than a bronze bust does because lost wax casting is a more recently introduced technology in West Africa than ivory carving, which is thousands of years old. Bronze casting is not possible without steady access to copper, tin, a forge, fuel for the forge, wax, and fireproof clay. Ivory carving requires merely an elephant tusk and a blade / chisel to cut it with.

Jesus what fucked up country do you live in? Is this just some online shit or is this a real exam?

This is not real world, yes? This is fiction, yes? /b/ yes ?

So the term "primitivism" is racist because "africans south of Sahara have smelted and forged iron since 500bce"...?

That passage is written by very ignorant and etnocentric people, and does not in any way relate neither to art nor socio-cultural issues.

Its an online course at a community college so take that as you will

Holy fucking shit fuck

Not only that, but a professor is bound to teach a curriculum given them by the school board. They don't have any control.

Every online class I've been in in college, I've been able to triple-click the question, ctrl+C, ctrl+T, ctrl+V, add quotes, and find the question worded exactly the same way on dozens of sites. Esp. computer science questions.

>"Primitivity" describes how closely something resembles the works of earlier peoples and civilizations

no it doesn't. classical antiquity wasn't emulated for its primitivity from the 15th century until increased contact with more 'primitive' cultures in the 18th and 19th replaced it