Marius Barbeau was one of the leading pioneers in the fields of anthropology and folk culture. He was also deeply rooted into collecting music also including his own. In this essay I will give a brief biography of Barbeau and how his career began, his song collections, journals, and books, and how modernist painters influenced his studies as a researcher in anthropology.
To begin, Barbeau was born on March 5th 1883 in Saint-Marie Quebec. He attended Laval College to earn a degree in Law and later attended Oxford University in 1907 and received a Rhodes scholarship. After earning his degree in Law he developed new interests which led him to change his major to anthropology. He accomplished his first music studies as a child with his mother and later studied classical music at the College de Ste-Anne-de-la-Pocatière. In 1910, Barbeau joined Canada’s National Museum as an anthropologist and ethnologist. The first project Barbeau researched was the native peoples of eastern Canada. Throughout time, this research expanded and included all of the native peoples of Canada. In 1910 he won a Rhodes scholarship and Oxford University awarded him the B.Sc degree and diploma in anthropology for his thesis ‘The totemic Systems of the North Western tribes of North American’. When he returned to Canada he was chosen as an anthropologist to the National Museum of Canada then The Museum Branch of the Geological Survey of Canada in 1911 where he continued to work until his retirement in 1949.
Furthermore, in 1911 he began recording on Edison wax cylinders on a Huron Indian reserve near Quebec. Barbeau continued his research with the Huron’s for three years. He grew interest in the mythology of other tribes after visiting the Iroquois a...
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....she set her heart upon expressing her surroundings in paint, after she had come back from the art schools abroad. While the spell was on her, from 1910 to 1912, she filled her studio with hundreds of sketches and canvases illustrative of Indian life and art and wild landscape."
There were a number of exhibitions for art galleries, museums and world expositions in which Barbeau had organized such as the Canada building center at the 1937 World Exhibition in Paris. Here, he would hang up modern paintings, grand geographical and historical summaries as a “background” to legalize his exhibition of indigenous and folk material cultures.
In summary, this essay has shown that Barbeau was truly a pioneer as an ethnologist and collector and that modernist painters and indigenous cultures have had a tremendous influence and brought great success to his life and career.
The Royal Alberta Museum holds a sacred object of the First Nations groups of Alberta and Saskatchewan, the Manitou Stone. This sacred object has a vast history to the Aboriginals but also has much controversy that surrounds it. Hundreds of years ago the object was removed from its original spot and was moved back and forth across the Canada, eventually ending up in Edmonton at the Royal Alberta Museum. This sacred object was said to have many powers for the First Nations people and when it was taken it brought great hardship to the First Nations groups that believed in the power of the Manitou Stone. This is only the beginning of the issues that surround this sacred object. Many different Aboriginal groups claim to own the piece but no decision has been made as to where the object should be placed. With the Manitou Stone now in the Royal Alberta Museum issues arise about the proper housing of the item and whether or not it should be retained in a museum or if it should be on First Nations land. Where the Manitou Stone is placed brings many complications and struggles for the Aboriginal people that claim ownership of the sacred object. When researching this object I was initially unaware of the significance that a museum could have to groups of people and the struggles that this could bring to these groups. This paper will explore the significance of the stone, the various viewpoints on why the object was moved originally from Iron Creek, who claims ownership to the object, and whether or not a museum is the proper place for sacred objects like the Manitou Stone to be kept.
Claude-Joseph Vernet’s oil on canvas painting titled Mountain Landscape with an Approaching Storm was created in 1775, and it is currently located in the European Art Galleries (18th- 19th Century North) 2nd Floor at the Dallas Museum of Art. It is a large-scale painting with overall dimensions of 64 1/2 x 103 1/4 in. (1 m 63.83 cm x 2 m 62.26 cm) and frame dimensions of 76 1/8 x 115 1/4 x 4 3/4 in. (1 m 93.36 cm x 2 m 92.74 cm x 12.07 cm). Vernet creates this piece by painting elements from nature and using organic shapes in order to create atmospheric effects, weather and different moods. This piece primarily depicts a landscape with a rocky mountainous terrain and villagers scrambling to an upcoming storm.
Carden, Robert W. "The Franco-British Exhibition." Architectural Review 1908 July, v. 24, p. [32]-37 ; 1908 Sept., p. [108]-111
McClurken, J. M. (2009). Our people, our journey: the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press.
James M. McClurken writes the first section, which deals with the Ottawa people. McClurken tells about the Ottawa peoples’ relationship with the environment they lived in and how they adapted to change when contacted by Europeans. One thing I found interesting about the Ottawa is their beliefs. The Ottawa believed in respect for the individual. Their leaders represented the people much like our elected officials represent us when a decision is needed for the whole of the country. They are in tune with nature and consider the earth and animals part of their family, addressing them with “father,” “mother,” “brother,” “sister.” The Ottawa’s also amazed me at their ability to believe in the supernatural, the spirits that told what sickness a person has and the healing power of the firewalkers is a leap of faith. I am always amazed that people survived without Advil and Tums, and they didn’t just survived they thrived! The Ottawa were great traders, in fact they traded all over northern Michigan. A surprising fact I read in the section was of the fleecing of the Indian...
“A picture is a poem without words” – Horace, the purpose of art is to reveal the sensations of life but also allows humans to express their emotions and views on certain aspects. Jean-Michel Basquiat was a Neo-Expressionist painter throughout the 1980’s who was known for his style. He was African American artist and musician that was part of the SAMO. The SAMO was a graffiti group that wrote epigrams. While growing up, one of Basquiat inspirations that encouraged him to paint was his diverse cultural heritage. Basquiat was a creative self-taught artist who thought outside of the box when it came to painting. Most of the pieces he made were a collaboration of different ideas and constructed them together into a collage. During the 1980’s Basquiat’s art used the human figure to portray Minimalism and Conceptualism. His target market that were in many of his pieces was on suggestive dichotomies that focused on the lower class versus the higher class. Even though Basquiat work was remarkable, he was criticized and faced some challenges among his journey because of the symbols and words that were used his paintings. Despite the criticism,
...is skills as a navigator or his explorations of North America, his relations with native peoples, or his perseverance in colonial enterprise, Champlain can only be seen as an incredible historical figure to Canada and its development. Today, the culture and history of French Canadians remind us of the reputable travels of a man four centuries earlier, thus proving Champlain has become one of the most legendary figures of North American modern society. Through example of the conquest of New France, expulsion of the Arcadians, and Jacque Cartier’s initial arrival, we witness in comparison Champlain’s renowned leadership skills he is so famously known for. His story is influential, and time cannot minimize its charm. A man of the French Renaissance, Champlain tried to exemplify its principles, and his life’s efforts rest as a continuing legacy to Canadian civilization.
Sioui, Georges E.. For an Amerindian Autohistory: An Essay on the Foundation of A Social
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The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Luminism (painting)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
It appears to me that pictures have been over-valued; held up by a blind admiration as ideal things, and almost as standards by which nature is to be judged rather than the reverse; and this false estimate has been sanctioned by the extravagant epithets that have been applied to painters, and "the divine," "the inspired," and so forth. Yet in reality, what are the most sublime productions of the pencil but selections of some of the forms of nature, and copies of a few of her evanescent effects, and this is the result, not of inspiration, but of long and patient study, under the instruction of much good sense…
Spence, Lewis. Myths and Legends of the North American Indians. London: George G. Harrap & Company, 1914.
Gardner, Helen, and Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner's Art Through the Ages: The Western Perspective. N.p., 2014. Print.
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