When: September 10, 2013, 7pm
Where: The Magnolia Room, second floor of the Reynolds Center on the SAU Campus, Magnolia, AR
Dr. Reinaldo “Dito” Morales, art historian and Associate Professor of Art at UCA in Conway, AR.
Our first program of the 2013 fall Kadohadacho Chapter of the Arkansas Archeological Society speaker series will be given by Dr. Reinaldo “Dito” Morales, art historian and Associate Professor of Art at UCA in Conway, AR…The presentation is entitled “Understanding Ancient Art through the Lens of Living Traditions.”
How can the living arts of the Brazilian Amazon inform the iconographic interpretation of some of the oldest art in the Americas? From Petit Jean Mountain to the Brazilian Highlands we find rock art that calls to mind the forms we see in traditional American Indian masking and featherwork. This presentation will explore some of the lessons we can learn about interpreting prehistoric iconography by studying the significance and use of living art traditions. Sensitive attention to indigenous attitudes about art and ritual can significantly inform our approach to the enigmatic prehistoric imagery we find in rockshelters from Arkansas to the Amazon.
Dr. Morales was born and educated in Virginia. In 2002, he received his Ph.D. in pre-Columbian art history from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. His research focuses on the prehistoric rock art and the living indigenous arts of Brazil. Additional research interests include the pre-Columbian art of the Caribbean, the prehistoric American Southwest, and contemporary art criticism and theory.
This is just the first in a series of lectures throughout Fall 2013 and Spring 2014 that will explore the iconography and archeology theme.
