In this blog post I will be commenting upon Miriam Schapiro piece Anatomy of a Kimono. A kimono is a traditional Japanese garment that would be born in every day life. The kimonos that she uses are very abstract and have many different colors and orientations. I am not entirely sure what all of them have in common but they look very beautiful put together completely. She uses her art and patterns as a Depiction of the place women’s art had in history rather than decorative art. She likes to state some dangers of placing art and patterns in a new context, “In the process of taking over surface patterns, decoration always loses the meaning it had in its historical culture.” The message that the art originally had changes as time passes. People begin to forget what the artwork was truly about in the original context and it is dangerous that it may lose its meaning forever. Interestingly she has had varied reception from critics, “Critics have questioned appropriations that are a historical and trans cultural and universalize as a formal device surface decoration from non-Western peoples without regard to its specific origins and meanings.” I personally thought the piece was very interesting and great to look at but I understand what the critics are saying. I do not have an understanding of that culture or what the piece of art is entirely supposed to represent. But it can cause people to question and look into different eras and problems of that time.
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