ST SEBASTIAN’S

FINE ARTS
DEPARTMENT
Globalism & Contemporary Art
History
Two students share their essays.
In the Globalism & Contemporary Art History Class we explore
ancient civilizations outside of the western tradition while examining
issues concerning art and architecture in an emerging
globalized world. Students consider how we define art and culture
today.
Aer viewing Chinese art during a visit to Boston’s Museum of
Fine Arts in december we continued our study on China and
discussed issues prevalent today. As a class we discussed elements in
art which distinguish China as a deep-rooted spiritual and reflective
country.
Students were then instructed to write essays. Two of those
essays, one from Ben Piersiak ’13 and one from James Astrue ’12, are
printed here. In his essay, Piersiak considered the similarities
between ancient Mayan glyphs and contemporary advertising logos,
while Astrue contemplated the use of sacred space in Mayan
Architecture. Inspired by their prior study, these two students
pondered the value of sacred traditions today and the emerging
aesthetic values evident in Chinese structures and printed media.
Together, these essays help us to gather an understanding of the
spiritual depth of Chinese calligraphy and tradition of Chinese
Architecture.
Today the stakes are high in preserving ancient cultural
traditions. It has been a pleasure to embark on this study together as
we forged questions about how we define culture and art in the 21st
century.
-Ms.DeirdreRynne,FineArtsFacultyMember
Chinese Calligraphy: What is the Future for Written
Language?
By Ben Piersiak ’13
Language exists in all cultures. From the beginning of time we
have all shared the impulse to put words to a page and express
ourselves through writing. Today, we call this written language. In
many of these cultures language exists as a hybrid of art and
communication. In some cultures a logo or symbol holds the
meaning of a word and, in others, written characters represent a
phonetic form or word.
Written language dates back to 2600 BC with the Sumerian
archaic cuneiform script and Egyptian hieroglyphs. In China,
calligraphy has long been valued both as a form of art and a means of
communication. With emerging technology aimed to improve
communication, we are losing the art form evident in written
communication. As time has progressed through the ages, methods
of communication have become more advanced through the
inventions of computers and wireless devices. People have begun to
adapt to this modernization of communication and in general
reserve written communication for personalized letters or, in some
cases, art. A calligrapher is both a communicator and an artist. How
a calligrapher chooses to make a mark expresses his or her emotion.
In China, calligraphy has long been valued as an expression of
feeling, using careful brush strokes that form a character of meaning.
Calligraphy is a celebration of an ancient tradition, as well as a
presentation of the artist penning the character.
40 | ST. SEBASTIAN’S MAGAZINE Volume VI, Issue II