European Impressionists and American Artists
Mary Cassatt established close ties to European Impressionist artists like Degas. Mary’s pastel “Simone in a Plumed Hat” recalls Degas’ 1894 seated dancer painting seen above.
European nations administer public arts funding on a local basis, similar to what the National Endowment for the Arts does here in America. Such cultural institutions educate their communities while serving as an antidote for mainstream music.
Cultural Bias
Cultural bias occurs when individuals from different cultures interpret words and actions differently. It can lead to miscommunications and misrepresentations – for instance when European artists depict Native American life in their paintings – as well as discrimination or prejudice.
Some forms of cultural bias are difficult to detect. For instance, people may misinterpret a smile from another culture as an indication of friendliness when in reality it indicates disapproval or disagreement. Cultural bias also presents itself in business transactions resulting in lower trust between partners as well as lower trade volumes and investment returns.
Cultural bias can have an outsized effect on how we perceive art and artists of color, leading us to overlook their artistic contributions and setting an unfortunate precedent. It is time for us to move past this outdated model of valuating art and artists; many galleries have started to address this issue and prioritize works by artists of color.
Ethnocentrism
Ethnocentricity is a form of cultural bias in which individuals hold the belief that their culture is superior to other cultures, leading them to judge other cultures based on their standards, potentially leading to racism or other negative responses towards dissimilar groups of people.
Ethnocentrism can create miscommunication between cultures, leading to prejudice and discrimination as well as an inability to recognize other cultures for who they are – something which becomes problematic in today’s globalized society.
Some travelers with good intentions visit foreign countries with the intent of trying to change its culture by imposing their ideas and values onto its population – this practice is known as cultural imperialism and can create tension. Ethnocentrism also causes friction as it reduces understanding for other cultures – for instance when same-sex friends in India hold hands when in England holding hands is considered rude.
Eurocentrism
Eurocentrism is a worldview that emphasizes Western civilization. It holds that Europe has played an integral part in shaping human culture and civilization across various aspects.
Eurocentric thinking rests on the notion that Europeans possess an indelibly special connection to history and will lead the world in the future. Furthermore, they hold that there exists between religion and art that is unique only to Europeans.
Max Weber first coined the term eurocentrism in his book, “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism”. Since then, sociologists and other social scientists have used it as a diagnostic tool. Eurocentrism often overlaps with terms like ethnocentrism, chauvinism, racism and white supremacy – it is essential that their distinct definitions be recognized; although these terms have similar definitions they do vary significantly in scope and power.
Representation
As America experienced an intensified sense of patriotism, artists like Robert Weir sought refuge in Europe’s supposed freedom in order to perfect their craft. Engaging European artistic traditions creatively was key.
As the exhibition vision evolved, it became evident that European and American art would be central components. To explore this intersection more fully, a dedicated curatorial investigation of arte del Oeste Americano–a genre focused on subject matter related to specific geographical regions within the US–began. Western Americana–commonly known as Western or Western Art–focuses on imagery representing Western life including Indigenous peoples, cowboys, historic scenes and landscapes as its theme.
Artists working in this vein utilized techniques, images and tropes from canonical European sources in their paintings in order to probe Euro American tensions around identity and belonging. By shifting perspective and reframing narratives in ways that unsettle traditional racial binaries, their explorations revealed how complex representation often lies within subtlety between rigid binaries that appear around perceived racial lines.