In October, I wrote a post about a really cool Zapotec sculpture. When I was researching it, I learned that the mouth of the Zapotec sculpture comes from an “Olmec baby rain god.” Since then, I’ve wanted to know more, so I looked around and discovered these Olmec baby figurative sculptures. I love them so much! Take a look.

The Olmec civilization in Mesoamerica dates back to around 1500 BCE to 400 BCE. To give you a sense of time, this falls about the same time as the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom. They were the first complex civilization in Mesoamerica coming before and laying the foundations for the Mayans, Aztecs, Zapotec, and all of those guys.

They created lots of these baby figures, and we don’t really know much about them due to how long ago they were created. We can assume they had a special significance because so many were made, but we really don’t know what the significance is.

Here are some of the basic characteristics of these adorable baby-faced sculptures.

• Hollow and made of terracotta
• Nude or minimal clothing
• Chubby baby body with no genitalia
• Baby face with down-turned mouth and puffy slit-like eyes
• pear-shaped head (probably due to artificial cranial deformation)
• Tight-fitting helmet
• Usually in white or cream-colored slip or done completely in white clay
• Uses expressive facial features and gestures to show mood and emotion

Olmec Art Discussion Questions

1. Describe these sculptures.
2. What meaning or significance do you think these objects had?
3. Study the body positions and the facial expressions. What emotions do you notice in these sculptures? What choices did the artist make to emphasize the emotion?

Olmec Art Project

Make a baby figure out of air-dry clay. You’ve just got to with this one. This Olmec art lesson on the Denver Art Museum website is pretty much exactly the lesson I was imagining for this artwork. I love the internet. The lesson talks about the mood and the emotion in the artworks. Please note, this post includes Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

More Olmec Art Lesson Plans and Resources

• More information about the Olmec Civilization
• Olmec: Colossal Masterworks of Ancient Mexico Curriculum from the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco

That’s it! Thanks for reading. I’d love to hear your thoughts about the artwork in the comments. Click here to find more art from around the world, and come back tomorrow for a trip to Russia!

It’s time to visit Nepal on our trip of world art for a Hindu sculpture lesson from Nepal.

This special lady is Durga, a fierce Hindu goddess, created by a group of male Hindu deities who had all been defeated by the demon Mahisha. They created her in order to beat Mahisha who had turned himself into a fearsome, powerful buffalo. Each of the deities gave her a weapon, and you can see she holds several weapons in many of her 18 hands. In the story, she defeats Mahisha and “liberated the universe from darkness” (Source: Met Museum).

This sculpture is missing a component. It was originally on a pedestal where she trampled Mahisha under one foot in an ultimate display of good versus evil. (That might be a good conversation to have with the older students. How does an artwork change when you take it out of context and put it in a museum.)

Here are some views of Durga in other artworks. How is this artwork from Nepal different than the others? Artists in Nepal had the tendency to heavily embellish their art. Notice all of the added gold and jewels in this artwork. (Source: Met Museum Bulletin )

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Durga is an important deity in the Hindu religion, and she has an annual festival celebrating her called either Durga Puja or Durgotsava. During these festivals, sculptures depicting Durga’s story are displayed and worshipers place flowers on and around the scene. You can see a couple of these sculptures in the above slideshow and a lot more pictures on Wikipedia.

Hindu Sculpture Discussion Questions

1. What’s going on in this sculpture? What do you see that makes you say that?
2. Make a list of words that describe Durga based on what you see in the story.
3. Compare and contrast this artwork to the dance in the video above.
4. Why does Durga have many arms? What is she doing with her hands?

Storytelling through Dance Art Learning Activity

Have students work together to create a dance about a story or person who is important to them. How can they tell the story without using words? How does the music contribute to the story? How do the expressions and gestures help tell the story?

Hindu Sculpture Lesson Resources and Citations

I’ve done Hindu sculpture lessons in a couple other posts as well. Check out these:

• 5 Artworks your Children will Love–Shiva Nataraja dances atop Apasmaru, a demon of ignorance and temptation
• Art Around the World – India–The Meenakshi Amman temple in India holds 33,000 sculptures in/on it! Amazing!

Here are some more great Hindu art lesson plans from around the web:

• Be a Vishnu Avatar, another great Hindu sculpture lesson incoporating dance from the Art Institute of Chicago
• Rubin Museum of Art, Animal Symbolism (link to pdf is under “Lesson Theme Examples”)
• A Lesson Plan from the Met Museum comparing Buddhist and Hindu art

Works Cited:

“The Arts of South and Southeast Asia”: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 51, no. 4 (Spring, 1994) (1994)

That’s it! Thanks for reading. I’d love to hear your thoughts about the artwork in the comments.

Click here to find more art from around the world, and come back tomorrow for a trip to Mexico to enjoy an Olmec sculpture! Remember you can get the whole month of Art Around the World posts as a PDF eBook in the Curated Connections Library!

Now we head to Australia on our trip around the world to take a look at some Australian aboriginal art or Indigenous Australian art. We’ll look at some examples, discuss the art with art looking questions, and share some more resources about Aboriginal art projects for kids.

I chose the work of aboriginal artist, David Malangi, of Central Arnheim land. Because he a contemporary artist, you’ll have to click over to the National Museum of Australia website to see better quality images of his work.

This work is from 1965, but aboriginal art is one of the longest running art traditions in the world. Art from the indigenous people of Australia dates back by around 28,000 years. Most Australian aboriginal art has a very strong spiritual undertone connecting to their beliefs called “Dreaming” and “Dreamtime.” I have a really hard time explaining Dreamtime, because it is a concept that I just don’t really understand, but it is this overarching place or structure or system that is related to the past, the present, or future.

Very clear, huh? I think I can’t understand, because I am not in it. W.E.H. Stanner, and Australian anthropologist once said, “We [non-Indigenous Australians] shall not understand The Dreaming fully except as a complex of meanings” (Stanner, The Dreaming, 1956). If an Australian anthropologist tells me that I can’t really understand it, it makes me feel better about my total ignorance in this area.

Here’s a video that explains it better than I can.

Here are some of the primary characteristics or conventions of Australian aboriginal artwork:

• Connection with the spiritual Dreamtime
• Pictures of animals and people
• Lots of symbolism and stories
• A lot of patterns and geometry
• Warm color palette
• Often shown from an aerial perspective, looking down on the subjects from above
• Use of natural materials from the land

This painting by Malangi is a bark painting. It’s painted on the interior of a strip of tree bark. He includes many animals and paints them with their skeletons and organs exposed like an x-ray. Take another look at some other works by Malangi on the National Museum of Australia website. They all have a really cool use of pattern and movement. Love them.

Aboriginal Art Discussion Questions

1. What is going on in this picture?
2. Describe the lines, patterns, colors, shapes, movement, and other elements and principles of art.
3. What can you tell about the aboriginal people based on what you see?
4. What stories can you find?

More Resources

Pinterest Board with Aboriginal Art Lessons

Aboriginal Dreamtime Stories on YouTube

• The Rainbow Serpent
• How the Kangaroo Got Its Pouch
• Mirram the Kangaroo and Warreen the Wombat
• How the Moon was Made
• Why the Koala Has a Stumpy Tail
• Tiddalick the Frog

That’s it! Thanks for reading. I’d love to hear your thoughts about the artwork in the comments. Click here to find more art from around the world, and come back tomorrow for a trip to Nepal!

We are now officially halfway through our trip around the world through art. Our artwork today is one I had the pleasure of seeing firsthand on my New York trip over the summer. Our feet were super sore, so we spent a lot of time on a bench next to this one. 🙂

Take a close look at this and see if you can figure out what it was used for. The answer my surprise you!

Did you cheat and look at the title? I would’ve. If you did, you learned that this is a musical instrument–a slit gong. These slit gongs from Vanuatu, an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean, are “among the largest freestanding musical instruments on earth” (Source: Met Museum).

They are made from hollowed out breadfruit trees. To play the music, you hit the edges of the slit with a club (click for picture) to produce deep, resonating tones.

Check out the resources section for some links and videos to hear the sounds and see some dancing and such. The music was played for ceremonies, initiations, funerals, etc.

The gongs are carved to represent an important ancestor. You can see the stylized eyes, nose, and hands, but where is the mouth? The long slit in the front of the instrument is the ancestor’s mouth from which the music, or the ancestor’s voice, emanates.

Interestingly, the gongs were also used to communicate across villages. The sound can carry for miles, and they developed a very specific gong language for these messages.

Art Discussion Questions

1. What do you notice? Take a close look and describe what you see.
2. How does the size of this object impact the artwork? “How might the impact of this work change if you could fit it in your pocket? Why do you think the artist made it so large?”*
3. What can you tell about the people of Vanuatu based on this artwork?
4. “The gong represents an ancestor. When the instrument is struck, his or her voice comes out of the long, narrow mouth. What might this object tell us about the community’s feelings or ideas about their ancestors?”*

* These questions were adapted from the Lesson Plan, Voices of the Past, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Vanuatu Slit Gong Art Project

This artwork was created to represent an important ancestor. Have student think about their own ancestors and how ancestors play a role in their family life and community. Have students create an artwork honoring their own ancestor(s).

Vanuatu Slit Gong Resources and Citations

• Read the Met Museum’s Object Information.
• Here is a great video with more information about this artwork. Unfortunately, it won’t let me embed the video, so you can find it on Vimeo at this link. You can even see the bench we sat on for a long time in this video. Thrilling. I know.
• There is also an audio tour entry from the Bowers Museum with more information about slit gongs. It includes audio of the slit drums being played.
• Here’s another video of a dance from Vanuatu with a slit gong being played. It has some nude-ish men in traditional dress, so you may want to pre-screen this before you show your kids and make that decision for yourself.
• A great lesson plan from the Met Museum about these slit gongs. Voices of the Past.

That’s it! Thanks for reading. I’d love to hear your thoughts about the artwork in the comments. Click here to find more art from around the world, and come back tomorrow for a trip to the United States of America!

Remember you can get the whole month of Art Around the World posts as a PDF eBook at the end of the month by subscribing to my e-mail newsletter. Enter your e-mail to get that when it comes out! Also, check out my Facebook page. I’m sharing more art from around the world on there. 🙂

You may be wondering, “where can I find an artwork with mermaids, half elephant/half fish creatures, a shipwreck, deities a flambé, and a people-eating fish?” Right here on Art Class Curator! And in Thailand. Well, no. It’s in a museum in Baltimore. Look at this.

I’m doing it again–rambling at the beginning of a post. I need to stop doing that.

When I was flipping through looking for art for this series, this one caught me eye because the more you look at, the more crazy-cool you notice. When I started to write, I was sad to see there was no information about this artwork on the museum’s site. It’s just this magical piece with amazing colors, images, patterns, and stories. I kind of like having no information about it, honestly, because it’s fun to make your own meaning about works of art sometimes all the time.

This picture is also a little fuzzy, which is unfortunate. Head over to the Walters Art Museum’s website and click “Explore Object.” You can zoom in a bit more to get a closer look. It is not a lot better.

This is a painting on cloth, and it is full of bold colors, detailed textures, striking patterns, overlapping, and narrative details. To me, this painting looks like and Indian narrative painting, so I wasn’t surprised when I did a little searching to find out that Jataka refers (in the title) refers to a body of literature from India about the previous lives of the Buddha.

The story of Mahajanaka can be found online as well (see links in resources). Long story short, Prince Mahajanaka was on a trade ship. The ship began to sink after seven days but Mahajanaka kept his wits about him, ate a nice hearty meal, and then tied himself to the mast of the boat. When the ship started to sink, sea life feasted on the men and animals from the boat, but Mahajanaka remained protected up on the mast. He then threw himself away from the ship with his super powerful strength and escaped the hungry sea life. He floated in the ocean for seven days showing perseverance and strong will. After seven days, he was rescued by a goddess of the sea who noticed that he was an important prince.

There is more to the story, but I think that’s enough for you to figure out what’s happening in the artwork. Super, super cool. I love it.

Art Discussion Questions

1. What’s going on here? What is the story being told?
2. How does this artist use color, line, space, and texture?
3. What elements of this painting are strange?
4. How can you tell who the important people are?

Art Narrative Learning Activities

Check out my past post on Exploring Narrative through Art. The activities discussed in that post would work well with this artwork.

More Resources and Citations

Here are some sites that tell the story of

• http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/j6/j6005.htm
• http://www.buddha-images.com/mahajanaka-jataka.asp

In my Art Appreciation Printable Worksheet Bundle, use the following worksheets with this artwork. The ones with the asterisk are available in the free bundle for e-mail subscribers.

• Twitter Perspectives*
• Write a Letter*
• 4 Steps of Art Criticism*
• Exploring Place*
• Send a postcard
• 5Ws and H
• Storyboard
• “I am” Character Poem
• Formal Analysis-Elements of Art.

That’s it! Thanks for reading. I’d love to hear your thoughts about the artwork in the comments. Click here to find more art from around the world, and come back tomorrow for a trip to Ireland!

Remember you can get the whole month of Art Around the World posts as a PDF eBook at the end of the month by subscribing to my e-mail newsletter. Enter your e-mail to get that when it comes out! Also, check out my Facebook page. I’m sharing more art from around the world on there. 🙂

We’re back in Africa today, and this time we’re in northeastern Angola for a super cool sculpture from the Chokwe people.

This carved wood sculpture is of Chibinda Ilunga, who was a royal ancestor of the Chokwe. He was famed for uniting two tribes. His marriage to a Lunda chieftainess brought together his tribe, the Luba, with hers into an empire which they ruled. As a great hunter, he taught all of people to hunt well.* For more infomation about this story, check out the Met Museum link in the resources section.

This pristine sculpture shows a him with large hands and feet–a symbol of power. The rolled-up sides of the headdress indicate he is royalty. He holds a staff in one hand and an antelope horn in the other which carries magic to help with the hunt. His face is calm, wise, and sensitive. The braided beard is made out of real hair and represents his age and wisdom. The slightly-bent knees show that he may be poised for the hunt.*

I learned all of this information here: https://www.kimbellart.org/collection-object/chibinda-ilunga. On the Kimbell Art Museum’s page for this artwork, you can find two audio recordings both for adults and kids about this art. The one for kids is super cute: the narrator has a conversation with an actor as Chibinda.

Here are some more sculpture of Chibinga Ilunga to compare with this one: British Museum, Met Museum, Artkhade, and a Pinterest Board of Chibindas.

Art Discussion Questions

1. What can you tell about Chibinda Ilunga based on the features of this sculpture (the headdress, facial features and expressions, stuff he holds, body, etc)?
2. How can you tell this is an important person?
3. Why do you think the artist chose to make the hands and feet larger?

African Art Learning Activity

For this one, I think writing stories or poems from the perspective of Chibinda Ilunga or from the people that revere him would be a great learning activity for this sculpture.

Art Resources

• Adult and Kids Audio Recordings about this sculpture
• More Information about the Luba and Lunda Empires from the Met Museum

This artwork is at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, TX. I worked there for a year in a fellowship after college, and it is such a beautiful, beautiful place. They have a small collection that focuses on quality rather than quantity, which I love. Instead of 10 mediocre examples of a certain type of art, they’ll have one stellar example. It makes it easy to focus and not get overwhelmed. You can view their collection online at https://www.kimbellart.org/collection.

Click here to find more art from around the world, and come back tomorrow for a trip to Thailand!

Remember you can get the whole month of Art Around the World posts as a PDF eBook at the end of the month by subscribing to my e-mail newsletter. Enter your e-mail to get that when it comes out!

Also, stop by my Facebook page or Pinterest for some more great art shares.

We’re back in North America for Art Around the World today. We’ll look at a totem pole from the Tlingit, an American Indian tribe from the Northwest Coast of North America (Canada and Alaska).

Totem poles are super tall sculptures made from the trunk of a tree, usually cedar. The designs are usually stylized animals done in an abstract and bold way. The poles often include animals common in the Pacific Northwest like bears, eagles, whales, salmon, owls, wolves, etc. These animals have lots of symbolism that is usually specific to certain clans. The totems told the clan’s stories and was a physical representation or symbol of the clan.

Totem Poles at Totem Bight State Park — Here is a great website with more information about totem poles, the symbolism, and more.

More Pictures of Tlingit Totems

For more information, also check out this video about Totem Poles:

I love these. I really want one in my house. Okay, that’s it. 🙂

Art Discussion Questions

1. What animals do you see? Describe the design of the animals. What shapes do you see?
2. Why do you think they chose to show animals?
3. What could each of the animals symbolize?
4. How would it feel to stand in front of this totem pole? What would you think about?
5. Why do you think the Tlingit made this totem pole?

Totem Pole Project

Take a look at this totem pole art project at this awesome blog I just found. This lesson has the students make totem animals from construction paper, and they are so bold and fun! The blog also has a PowerPoint and lesson for you to download! Love it.

Click here to find more art from around the world, and come back tomorrow for a trip to Angola!

Remember you can get the whole month of Art Around the World posts as a PDF eBook at the end of the month by subscribing to my e-mail newsletter. Enter your e-mail to get that when it comes out!

Also, stop by my Facebook page or Pinterest for some more great art shares.

Follow Cindy @ The Art Class Curator’s board Art History for Kids on Pinterest.