Over spring break, I had the amazing opportunity to spend a week in Morocco, and while the entire experience was fantastic, one of the best things I saw was the art there. Throughout the cities I visited, there were beautiful mosaics in various buildings and public fountains and houses. While in Fez, I was able to take a guided tour of a workshop where artisans handcraft and make all of these ceramics using the same techniques people did hundreds of years ago (I also got to see people making cloth and leather in traditional ways as well). It amazed me that the people working there were able to create mosaics some which looked like they could be over a hundred years old, and some with more modern designs on them using the exact same method of assembly. This made me think a lot about the way we make art today, and how we still use a lot of the same materials and techniques that people did hundreds of years ago. I work in charcoal, but so did a lot of people in the Renaissance and middle ages. And I'm confident many people used the same drawing and blending techniques that I use today (minus the whole 'destroying the work' aspect of my art). Considering that a lot of the materials and techniques people use to learn and make art are similar to those used by people a long time ago, it's amazing to see how much art has evolved content-wise.
Overall I had an amazing time in Morocco and it was so interesting to see artwork which isn't figure-based. Due to Morocco being a Muslim country, most of the artwork that existed was based on beautiful geometric patterns rather than figures. The contrast between the types of art I saw when I was in Europe, which was often depictions of religious figures in churches, and the art I saw in Morocco was just really cool to note. This was one of the best examples I can think of a culture influencing the type of artwork people produce and spread.
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AuthorA senior at Maggie Walker taking Art IV Archives
May 2018
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