BELIEFS and PRACTICES
The destroyer deity SHIVA is associated with THIS religion, one of the oldest in the world, founded in India.
HINDUISM!
THIS contemporary artist, famous for using his artwork to engage with social issues in his communities, made an artwork in 1994 that functioned like a real-life barber shop.
PEPON OSORIO!
Inspired by the way Jackson "Jack the Dripper" Pollock worked on canvases that were placed directly on the floor, this artist took a more soak-stained approach to her painting application.
HELEN FRANKENTHALER!
These ephemeral structures elevated many Mesopotamian sacred spaces into the sky.
ZIGGURATS!
It was in July of 1969 in a cave in Namibia (Africa) that these were discovered.
THE APOLLO 11 STONES!
These objects were originally made by Lenape artists with porcupine quills, but later after trade with Europeans they switched to using seed beads.
BANDOLIER BAGS!
This winged goddess was the best friend of the ancient Greek goddess Athena.
NIKE!
This famous Babylonian object documents nearly 300 very specific laws (and their very harsh consequences) using the ancient script of cuneiform.
THE CODE OF HAMMURABI!
It is believed that this sacred object fell into the lap of Osei Tutu around the year 1800 C.E..
THE GOLDEN STOOL!
This temple, located in southern Egypt, would immerse the worshipper in a sacred experience that brought them back to the nothingness of the beginning of time.
TEMPLE OF AMUN-RE AT KARNAK!
This female artist created her storyquilt series The French Collection in a somewhat autobiographical fashion.
FAITH RINGGOLD!
At this sacred Andean site, many small jewelry items have been discovered, which are believed to have been worn by shamans to make them look as if they were transforming into animals.
CHAVIN DE HUANTAR!
The first and largest chamber of the painted prehistoric cave system in Lascaux, France, famously features (in part) these powerful, horned animals.
BULLS!
Magdalena Abakanowicz didn't have much to make art with in her native Poland when it was under Communist control, so she used this material that was readily available and easy to store, which she continued to use for the majority of her career.
BURLAP!
This interesting and mysterious object was discovered in a royal ancient cemetery in Mesopotamia, and was created using lots of lapis lazuli!
STANDARD OF UR!
This architect and founder of The Chicago School managed to work his initials into the decorative cast-iron bottom floor of his Carson, Pirie, Scott & Company building on State Street.
HENRY LOUIS SULLIVAN!
It is on these architectural features above the doorways of structures at the sacred and powerful Maya site of Yaxchilan, the royal history of kings and queens is documented along with some pretty bloody spiritual practices.
LINTELS!
This artist uses black paper and light to create fantastical stories of rebellion that involve the viewer and require them to examine the lasting impact of stereotypes.
KARA WALKER!
She originally sought out Mexican Muralist Diego Rivera for his artistic advice and political camaraderie, but ended up marrying him, and not having a pleasant experience in the long-run.
FRIDA KAHLO!
This mandala-shaped Buddhist sacred space can be found in jungles a Java, Indonesia.
BOROBUDUR!
This famous British site was built using basic post and lintel construction that used mortise and tenon joint connections.
STONEHENGE!
The artificial and imported blue used by Hokusai in his Thirty Six Views of Mt. Fuji series was called this former European name.
PRUSSIAN BLUE!
Staff gods wrapped in tapa to protect their mana were a sacred artistic tradition of THIS POLYNESIAN ISLAND CULTURE.
Raratongan! (Raratonga)
The written inscription on the neck of one of these objects lets us know they were created as an offering for a Daoist temple.
THE DAVID VASES!
Weary travelers along the silk road would stop at this this colossally magnificent valley sacred sculpture, where they could actually circumambulate his feet.
THE BAMIYAN BUDDHA!
This wizard-like contemporary artist liked to engage his audience with electronics, including televisions that featured rapidly moving images, audio, and surrounding lights.
NAM JUNE-PAIK!
MARILYN MONROE!
It was atop the right right side of the Templo Mayor in Tenochtitlan that the Mexica (Aztec) people would make sacrifices in honor of this god of sun and war.
Huitzilopochtli
Most prehistoric Chinese JADE CONGS were found in these.
GRAVES!
Originally the orange-red lipstick part of Oldenburg's 1969 Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks was not made of steel as we see it today, but instead was created using this technique / material.
INFLATABLE (PLASTIC / VINYL)!
South Korean contemporary artist Song Su-nam used this traditional east Asian drawing material to create his work Summer Trees.
Ink!
The famous series is more than just tempera paintings, with each of the 60 panels featuring a short story written by artist Jacob Lawrence to help tell a great American narrative.
THE MIGRATION SERIES or THE MIGRATION OF THE NEGRO SERIES!
This East Asian Kingdom once had a world tree (their axis mundi) that grew in the middle of their capital city; the crowns they made for their kings and queens resemble it!
THE SILLA KINGDOM!
Regardless of your reading proficiency, the average viewer struggles comprehending this inundating and incomprensible work of paper and ink made by Xu Bing.
A BOOK FROM THE SKY!
Catholic saints and fairy tales collide to inspire this contemporary artist to create works in a multitude of materials that showcase the female body, feminine strength and unity with the natural world.
KIKI SMITH!
This contemporary nation has a simplified image of Angkor Wat, the largest sacred space in the world, in the center of their nation's flag.
CAMBODIA!
During the prehistoric era in what we now call Mexico, the v-shaped bone of a camelid was used to sculpt an image of ONE OF THESE by a resourceful artist.
A CANINE (DOG)!
The Ancient Greeks typically used this type of paint to bring life-like (and often garish) color to their marble sculptures.
ENCAUSTIC!
To protect the mana within them, the former chiefs of the Kingdoms of Hawaii would be cloaked in capes made of this natural material.
FEATHERS!
This artist famously wrote his defense, or rather a defense for Mr. Mutt's defense, after the rejection of his readymade causes quite the scandal.
MARCEL DUCHAMP!
The cult of this sun deity arose in the New Kingdom, but conflicted Ancient Egyptians decided to combine him with Ra to make the "King of the Gods".
AMUN!
Engaging with young children and teens is the main goal of this Polynesian artist, who aims to make art that educates youth on issues that will impact their everyday life.
Michel TUFFERY!
Käthe Kollwitz, like many German Expressionists of the interwar period, came to prefer this artistic medium that allowed for distorted and anguished marks and could also be reproduced.
WOODCUTS ! ! ! !
You will encounter many of these at Todai-ji in Nara, Japan - intended to reference one of the original South Asian sites of The Buddha's teachings.
DEER!
The AMBUM STONE is thought to have functioned a pestle, so the prehistoric artists who carved it chose to used this durable stone.
GREYWACKE!
This 20th Century artist made the ... uh ... surreal choice to cover a cup, a saucer and a spoon in the fur of a Chinese gazelle.
MERET OPPENHEIM!
German artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was part of this German Expressionist movement of the early 20th Century.
Die Brücke (The Bridge)!
The writing on this work is at the beginning and the end, but the flaming and violent illustration in the middle is what makes it famous.
NIGHT ATTACK ON SANJO PALACE!
Jowo Rinpoche is the most sacred statue of the Buddha for the people of this politically contested region.
TIBET!
Navigating the hazards of this work is not nearly as dangerous for the audience as the immigrant experiences and perspectives that Doris Salcedo aimed to call attention to with its creation.
SHIBBOLETH!
Influenced by the abstracted canvases of Kandinsky, she creates large-scale works that often layer and combined maps, structures, photographs and city grids into compositions that convey globalization and chaos.
JULIE MEHRETU!
This Indian temple has a juncture wall that features these, relief sculptures of couples engaged in sexual union within a ritual context.
MAITUNAS! (MITHUNAS)
Running Horned Woman, a prehistoric painting found in southern Aleria, dons stringy garments that were likely made out this common material for African performance ensembles.
RAFFIA (DRIED GRASS)!
Permanence was not the goal of this artform born in the 1970s, which aimed to challenge the notion of artworks lasting forever within a controlled museum space.
EARTHWORKS / EARTH ART!
Picasso and Braque attended an exhibition featuring the works of this Post-Impressionist mountain-loving painter, which proved to be very formative in starting the Cubist movement.
The text on this work was engraved into the black granite to allow for rubbings to be taken of the names, giving visitors and loved ones a keepsake to take with them.
VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL!