Posts Tagged ‘Development’
Origin And Development Of Guidance And Counseling Practice In Tanzanian Schools
1.0. Overview
1.1. Background and History of Guidance and Counseling in General in School Practice and other setting
The history of school counseling formally started at the turn of the twentieth century, although a case can be made for tracing the foundations of counseling and guidance principles to ancient Greece and Rome with the philosophical teachings of Plato and Aristotle. There is also evidence to argue that some of the techniques and skills of modern-day guidance counselors were practiced by Catholic priests in the middle ages, as can be seen by the dedication to the concept of confidentiality within the confessional. Near the end of the sixteenth century, one of the first texts about career options appeared: The Universal Plaza of All the Professions of the World, (1626) written by Tomaso Garzoni quoted in Guez, W. & Allen, J. (2000). Nevertheless, formal guidance programs using specialized textbooks did not start until the turn of the twentieth century.
Counseling is a concept that has existed for a long time in Tanzania. We have sought through the ages to understand ourselves, offer counsel and develop our potential, become aware of opportunities and, in general, help ourselves in ways associated with formal guidance practice. In most communities, there has been, and there still is, a deeply embedded conviction that, under proper conditions, people can help others with their problems. Some people help others find ways of dealing with, solving, or transcending problems as Nwoye, (2009) prescribed in his writings. In schools, presently if the collaboration between teachers and students is good, students learn in a practical way. Young people develop degrees of freedom in their lives as they become aware of options and take advantage of them. At its best, helping should enable people to throw off chains and manage life situations effectively. Unprecedented economic and social changes have, over the years, changed the ways in which we manage our lives. Consequently, not all the lessons of the past can effectively deal with the challenges of modern times. Effective counseling, especially in institutions of learning has now become important. Boys and girls, and young men and women, need to be guided in the relationships between health and the environment, earning skills, knowledge, and attitudes that lead to success and failure in life. The need for counseling has become paramount in order to promote the well-being of the child. Effective guidance and counseling should help to improve the self-image of young people and facilitate achievement in life tasks. Counseling should empower girls and boys to participate fully in, and benefit from, the economic and social development of the nation.
2.0. Definitions of Concepts
2.1. Guidance
Guidance is an act of showing the way for some people, like adolescents, who cannot find the right path. It is directing, pointing, leading and accompanying. Guidance is saying “Yes” to someone who is asking for help. It is saying “Yes” to an invitation of someone who wants a temporary companion along life’s way.
Guidance is giving directions to the lonely, confused, unloved, the suffering, the sick and the lost. It is pointing to some possibilities of thinking, feeling and acting. It is leading the person psychologically, emotionally and even spiritually to some newer ways of meaningful living. It is accompanying those who are fearful and uncertain, those who need someone along the rugged path of life’s journey.
From an objective point of view, guidance is part and parcel of the counseling profession. It is called directive counseling. High school and even college students need guidance when they are unsure of what choices to make or what directions to take. The guidance counselor “opens up” a world of choices for these persons for them to choose from. It is like presenting the universe when all that a person sees is the lonely planet earth. The guidance counselor enlarges and widens the horizon of people who sees only a narrow path or a concealed view of that path. Thus, the focus is on possibilities and choices.
Usually, guidance occurs in schools. High school and college students avail of guidance and counseling services in their school. More often, young people are unsure of what to do, how to react or respond, and how to act in certain choices. When this occurs, they need someone older, wiser and more experienced to show them the way, to guide them. This is the role of the guidance counselor to extend assistance when necessary to those who are confused, uncertain, and needing advice. However, some adults may need guidance too.
2.2. Counseling:
Counseling is guiding and more. It is a way of healing hurts. It is both a science and an art. It is a science because to offer counsel, advice or assistance, the counselor must have the knowledge of the basic principles and techniques of counseling. The counselor must be able to use any of these basic principles and techniques as paradigms in order for him to counsel well. However, it is not enough to use know these basic principles and techniques. The other important aspect is for the counselor to know how to counsel-the art of counseling. This aspect considers counseling as a relationship, as a sharing of life, in the hope that the person who is hurting will be healed. As a relationship, counseling involves the physical, emotional, and psychical or spiritual dimensions. The counselor must have the ability to relate to the counselee in an appropriate physical manner without being too intimate or too close for comfort or being too distant or aloof. The emotional dimension in counseling includes empathy, sensitivity and the ability to interpret non-verbal clues of the counselee in order to understand unresolved complexes or pent-up feelings. The psychical or spiritual dimension embraces the counselee’s “soul-content”—what lies inside. This is what is called the interiority of the person. The counselor must have the gift or grace of catching a glimpse of the interior world of the person, particularly his spiritual condition, for this is very important in healing the person’s hurts.
2.3. Other Definitions of the Concepts
Biswalo (1996) defines guidance as a term used to denote the process of helping an individual to gain self understanding and self direction (self decision-making) so that he can adjust maximally to his home, school or community environment. This process, however, depends on counseling. He also defines counseling as a process of helping an individual to accept and use information and advice so that he can either solve his present problem or cope with it successfully. He goes further remarking that sometimes the process helps the individual to accept unchangeable situation for example, loss of dearly loved ones and to some extent change it in its favour rather than letting himself be overcome by the situation. Guez and Allen (2000) remarked that it is difficult to think of a single definition of counseling. This is because definitions of counseling depend on theoretical orientation. Counseling is a learning-oriented process, which occurs usually in an interactive relationship, with the aim of helping a person learn more about the self, and to use such understanding to enable the person to become an effective member of society. Counseling is a process by means of which the helper expresses care and concern towards the person with a problem, and facilitates that person’s personal growth and brings about change through self-knowledge. Counseling is a relationship between a concerned person and a person with a need. This relationship is usually person-to-person, although sometimes it may involve more than two people. It is designed to help people to understand and clarify their views, and learn how to reach their self-determined goals through meaningful, well-informed choices, and through the resolution of emotional or interpersonal problems. It can be seen from these definitions that counseling can have different meanings.
3.0. Origin of Guidance and Counseling Practice in Pre-Colonial Era
Counseling in Tanzania in different forms and with different interpretations, has existed in societies for a long time before colonial era. The differences and contradictions in present-day, have their origin in the social and historical forces that have shaped modern culture. In Tanzania people in all societies, and at all times, have experienced emotional or psychological distress and behavioural problems. In each culture, there have been well established ways and methods of helping individuals with their problems. However, there are no sufficient written sources about the origin of guidance and counseling practice in Tanzanian schools. But like other places before colonial era there were outstanding unique elements which held the societies together in their livelihood. The elements include the extended family system, including the clan and the tribe, chieftaincy, taboos, various forms of initiation and close links with ancestors and elders.
The village is the focal point of society. While each one of these elements is important, only a few are used to illustrate the role of guidance and counseling in present-day Tanzanian societies. Basically, traditional chiefs had multiple roles which included serving as a symbol of authority and as a regulator. Since these roles were accepted and respected by all, there was a clear direction in the day-to-day affairs of society. The elders, the chief included, were a valuable source of guidance and counseling for boys and girls. In most cases, the chiefs were regarded as a vital link between ancestors and the present generation. This link was strengthened by the rituals, ceremonies and taboos attached to them. It was easy to guide and counsel the young, since the rituals or ceremonies were also aimed at preparation for adult roles in society. The extended family, the clan, and the village, made society supportive. No individual regarded him/herself as alien. Counseling was readily sought and provided. The forms of guidance and counseling involved were given advice and sharing wisdom.
4.0. The Developments of Guidance and Counseling Practices in Tanzanian Schools
4.1. Guidance and Counseling Practices in Tanzanian Schools Trends
In realizing this perhaps, since we are thinking of the concepts in school setting, we should think the meaning of counseling in education discipline. One could think that the definitions given above on the term guidance and counseling, their meaning can be directed to education grounds and now give the meaning correctly. Guez and Allen (2000) pointed out that a term educational counseling was first coined by Truman Kelley in 1914 in Makinde, (1988), educational counseling is a process of rendering services to pupils who need assistance in making decisions about important aspects of their education, such as the choice of courses and studies, decisions regarding interests and ability, and choices of college and high school. Educational counseling increases a pupil’s knowledge of educational opportunities.
The ever growing complexity of society in Tanzania, coupled with social problems like HIV/AIDS and the rapid development of science and technology, place heavy demands on education. The school, as an important social institution, was required to adapt quickly to changing patterns, and help prepare citizens for tomorrow’s challenges. That is where guidance and counseling in the educational system should help boys and girls alike, to develop their capacities to the full. These include intellectual, social, physical and moral capacities. This help is of the most important in Tanzania as long as the history and age of education provision and in its systems found today.
Guidance and counseling practices development in Tanzanian schools can be traced back from the time when vocational education was emerging right at the colonial period. In the process of establishing counseling services in Tanzania, there was a need to first understand the underlying factors that influence people’s beliefs and perceptions about such practices. However, this is thought that was not taken in to consideration at the time and it may be up to recent time. It is especially important to understand the economic, socio-political, religious beliefs, customs and traditions, and cultural changes that are present in different regions of the country. Young people should be understood within this context, but also within the paradoxical situation of having to face the traditional and the modern world, but this is a big challenge to Tanzania and many developing African countries. During colonial period there were some form of vocational guidance under the career guidance and it was administered by career masters. But the career masters who were selected by the head of schools had no professional training in vocational guidance. In fact the duty was limited to helping students fill out employment forms and writing letters of application. In the missionary schools vocational guidance was confined to religious services. The teachers who were usually ‘fathers’, pastors, or reverends guided and trained spiritually inclined youths to become sisters, brothers, fathers and pastors upon their completion of formal education.
Apart of what could be done in schools in Tanzania, guidance and counseling was more or less a private family affair. Parents and relatives counseled their children on all matters of life management and problem solving. It is true that in many families the duty of general guidance was the traditional duty of senior members of the family, father, mother, uncle, aunt, and grandparents. In case of serious personal or family problems, counseling was done by a specially organized by the community as a competent in handling that specific problem. This is done without any knowledge obtained from formal or informal school system but rather through experience and age wise through collected wisdom. This kind of early form of counseling from school setting and community helped the young to be brought into the bright image of living in the future to the society.
4.2. Guidance and Counseling Practices in Tanzanian Schools in Post-colonial era
In several literatures and sources, guidance and counseling in education sector in Tanzania and some other African countries is regarded as the youngest discipline. This is evidenced by First International Conference on Guidance, Counseling and Youth Development in Africa held in Nairobi, Kenya from 22nd to 26th April, 2002 which pointed out that the Guidance, Counseling and Youth Development Programme was initiated in Africa in April 1994, following the First Pan African Conference on the Education of Girls that was held in Ouagadougou in 1993. It is designed to introduce or strengthen guidance and counseling in African countries. It focuses on capacity building in the countries involved and provides training at both regional and national levels on issues of guidance and counseling of schools and colleges.
What we can call professional guidance and counseling in Tanzania schools begin in the year 1984 following the National October 1984 Arusha Conference, where guidance and counseling services were endorsed by the government as and integral part of the country’s education system (Biswalo, 1996). The aim of the conference is to establish systematic criteria for secondary schools students’ guidance and counseling. Students were then advised, guided and counseled on matters concerning their job selection and student placement for further education. This job was assigned to career masters and mistresses as explained below, however, there were no sufficient guidance and counseling personnel not only in the responsible ministry but also in the schools.
Guidance and Counseling is now becoming slowly institutionalized and spread in educational institutions. Schools, for example, have to a large extent taken over the task of providing psychological support to boys and girls. However Biswalo (1996) comments that in Tanzania policies pertinent to guidance and counseling is still lacking. The Ministry of Education, however, has somehow tried to institutionalize the services within the education system by appointing career masters and mistresses. He continued saying that the personnel are charged with the responsibility of advising heads of secondary schools concerning students job selection and student placement for further education; to try and help students understands and develop interest in appropriate jobs or further education or training; to asses the students talents and capabilities and to encourage them to pursue careers or further education best suited to them and to help students solve their personal problems which may affect their general progress in school.
This is an impossible and realistic burden on these untrained personnel. It reflects the apathy of policy and decision makers regarding the new field of guidance and counseling in schools; the strength of the myth of planned manpower in which career guidance is erroneously regarded as redundant and the gross lack of trained personnel who would provide effective guidance and counseling services in schools. It is unfortunate that even after the National October 1984 Arusha Conference on the strengthening of education in Tanzania, where guidance and counseling services were endorsed by the government as and integral part of the country’s education system, the services are to-date still patchy and ineffective in Tanzania’s educational institutions. Guidance and counseling in this manner is discussed by different scholars in primary, secondary and tertiary education levels together.
5.0. Guidance and Counseling Practices in Primary and Secondary Schools
In primary school levels in Tanzania in actual fact there were and are no specified pupils’ teacher-counselors. However, the activity is left to teachers themselves to decide what is to be done since there is no programmed or time-tabled activity concerning guidance and counseling. Teachers are left to use part of the teaching to practice guidance and counseling in and outside the classroom although not all teachers have gone teacher-counselor training. As children enter school they need orientation on school itself, its environment, school community and the curriculum to motivate and develop positive attitude toward learning and school community as well (Biswalo, 1996). As the pupils grow older and pass through different grades they need to be directed in studying skills, overcome learning difficulties and other school related problems. But this activity is not performed systematically in primary schools in Tanzania.
In the case of secondary schools till to-date there is also insufficient programmed or time-tabled system of guiding and counseling students. In some cases this duty is left to discipline masters and sometimes to class masters and head of schools. At secondary school level, students would seek educational opportunities, information of all kinds and any other help pertinent to educational pursuits. These needs are catered to by educational guidance and counseling (ibid). At this level students are helped with subject choice, study techniques and tests and examination. Biswalo (1996) pointed out that sometimes during subject choice, pride of placing as many students as possible in prestigious streams, such as science, takes precedence over actual abilities, interests and aptitudes of students. He said this unfortunate situation has been born out of the lack of genuine educational guidance and counseling services in secondary schools.
The school has an important role to play in preparing pupils for continued secondary education, paid employment, self-employment and life in the community, as clearly set out by the Ministry of Education in the objectives for its secondary curriculum. Perhaps uniquely, there would be total agreement among pupils, teachers and parents over the relative emphasis a certain schools placed on the preparation for further education, with its focus on academic knowledge and the pursuit of success in the national examinations. That is, the secondary schools where counseling is not well performed placed little emphasis on citizenship and the development of a responsible attitude to life in the community at the local, regional or national level and employment opportunities. However, what is de-emphasized is the informal sector including self-employment but the emphasized is employment in the formal sector with its implied emphasis on white collar jobs.
5.1. Vocational, Career Guidance and Counseling
In Tanzania teachers have the capacity to directly influence their pupils’ choice of careers. The achievements and attitudes of pupils have been shown to be related to the characteristics and achievements of their teachers (World Bank, 1995; quoted in Nyutu, P.N. & Norman C.G. 2008). However, the influence of the school depends on the formal interactions and communication which take place between teachers and pupils in the classroom whereas television and radio, act through the informal interactions pupils have with these media. The influence of parents and siblings is through both formal and informal means.
That is in most cases in Tanzania and may be other states where guidance and counseling is rarely done in schools; parents play the big role to influence on their children’s choice of careers. Others who have lower level careers i.e. teachers, clerks, drivers, personal secretaries, soldiers etc. do not anticipate their children ‘following in their footsteps’ because for the children who are able to study to higher level sometimes saw these jobs as narrow and lacking in interest. However it is suggested that parents’ occupation might have influenced their children’s choice of careers, but this happened to children who have generic skills useful in such jobs, and a few may have job skills relevant to those jobs. Access to information through the media and other forms of technology is giving young people aspirations that, for the most part, cannot be satisfied in their own environment. Choices have to be made and young people must acquire the skills to assess situations and make informed decisions. There is no longer a natural, understandable order from birth to adulthood for the Tanzanian young.
Vocational guidance at secondary school levels is provided but in very few among others because of shortages of school or vocational trained counselors. For those lucky schools with these kinds of counselors, students are helped but vocational counseling is not emphasized because most pupils, teachers and of course parents push students to make long range plans of study so that to prepare well for the envisaged careers. These counselors plan with school administrators and teachers to provide appropriate class placement for students with special abilities or disabilities for course selection by students.
5.2. Tertiary Level
The tertiary level students are provided with orientation and other educational guidance and counseling. In Tanzania tertiary level have at least fulfilled the need of having qualified students’ counselors for both psychological and academics, though they are few in number. Here counselors play a big role in compiling comprehensive information on all aspects of the careers related to the training offered in the institution. Counselors sometimes integrate with administration or practicum department to organize field practices for students and even more rarely might contacts with relevant employing agencies (Biswalo, 1996).
6.0. Notion on Guidance and Counseling in Tanzania
According to the research by Sima (2004), professional counseling is yet to be recognized as a stand-alone profession in Tanzania and in many African countries. Nevertheless, the coming and setting of HIV/Aids in the country has strengthened the base for counseling. This is particularly because of the multifaceted nature of the HIV/Aids pandemic whose attention, unlike other human diseases, goes beyond the prerogatives of the medical profession. Thus, counseling is perceived as a crucial avenue for prevention of HIV infection through provision of adequate and relevant information, and for social and psychological support of people infected and affected by the pandemic. Ibid continued saying that since the emergence of the pandemic in the country, a number of non-governmental organizations have been offering counseling services however, there is lack of clarity on the type and nature of counseling services offered by these organization. The nature and characteristics of counseling clients also remain fuzzy.
In Tanzania the professional counseling as aforesaid is relatively a new phenomenon. Outwater (1995) quoted in Sima (2004) comments that before HIV/Aids epidemic, there was no formal counseling service in Tanzanian hospitals, no professional counselors and no formal system for training counselors. There was a need to fill this gap by training as many counselors as possible to provide optimal care for AIDS patients and their relatives (NACP, 1989; quoted in ibid). Since then many para-professional counselors have been trained in basic knowledge and skills of counseling. Currently there are many counseling centers working not only on HIV/Aids related problems but also different problems affecting Tanzanians. However, as counseling became popular with the advent of HIV/Aids, many people assume that it is only meant for people infected and affected by HIV/Aids and shy away from it for fear of being labeled (Sima, 2002; quoted in Sima 2004).
7.0. Problems and Challenges
The Tanzanian government have not yet formulated in the education policy issues pertaining guidance and counseling in spite of the crucially and necessity in schools. Biswalo (1996) pointed out that in Tanzania policies pertinent to guidance and counseling is still lacking. He continued saying that efforts directed towards fulfilling guidance and counseling needs are apparently thwarted by several difficulties including financial resources to support the even established tiny counseling activities in several schools.
In Tanzania till today counseling is relatively new phenomenon. There are no enough qualified counselors in schools and other education institutions. However, there are limited number of qualified counselors, they are either not utilized well in schools or they are engaged in other activities rather than what they are trained for. Some of school counselors are also teachers and they are fully occupied with teaching responsibilities. More surprisingly counseling is perceived as a crucial avenue for only prevention of HIV infection through provision of adequate and relevant information, and for social and psychological support of people infected and affected by the HIV/Aids (Sima, 2004).
There is slow growth of guidance and counseling in educational systems attributed to lack of funds, training facilities, and high turnover of guidance counselors to green pastures and in adequately trained counselors. For instance in many schools they lack counseling offices, trained teacher-counselors and counseling equipments. In terms of funds there are various options that can be explored to alleviate financial constraints. Special schools on behalf of parents in need can approach non-governmental organizations.
The absence of solid professional counseling association in Tanzania to set standards for the appropriate practice is another challenge (Nwoye, 2008). Also insufficient availability of professional counselor training programs in Tanzanian colleges and universities is another contributing challenge.
There are no efforts to establish counseling curriculum in secondary schools and colleges and guidance and counseling courses in the universities. Guidance curriculum and responsive services can then be structured to address the five content areas, namely human relationships, career development, social values, self development, and learning skills. A guidance curriculum could be taught to students at different levels or in small groups to address issues that are similar to them. For guidance and counseling programs to be effective in Tanzania, trained professionals should be employed to manage and offer services in schools. Such professionals should also be provided with relevant facilities and structural support. At the same time, universities and teacher training institutions will have to establish and develop programs that train professional school counselors and other guidance personnel.
There is still insufficient assistance in higher education institutions to enable students achieves their career aspirations. However, students today indicate a higher need for career guidance than students in the past decade. Students may therefore be encountering an increased need to acquire relevant career information that will enable them seek better paid jobs. Many schools have in the past appointed some teachers as career masters without providing them with the necessary training and facilities for career guidance. Such career masters usually assume that all students will end up in universities and only focus on helping students complete university application forms and no more. It is the high time for the government to set and implement the policy that will enhance guidance and counseling from primary schools to the tertiary level and in turn will develop programs that train professional school counselors and other guidance personnel.
8.0. Conclusion
Guidance and counseling sought to prepare pupils in their schooling program to enter into the world of appropriate work by linking the school curriculum to employment. For the school to be successful in this endeavor, subjects should be taught at a pleasant and convenient environment and should be made relevant and interesting to the pupils. Another factor that needs to be considered is the recruitment of competent teachers capable of guiding and counseling learners in relating what they teach to the job market. What is taught and how it is taught can have great influence on the interest and perception of learners. In Tanzania the spirit to plan and use guidance and counseling services in the effective development and utilization of their respective young human resources is evidently strong. However, as Biswalo (1996) said the efforts directed towards fulfilling this need are apparently thwarted by several difficulties. It appears total and enlightened commitment on the part of policy and decision makers is necessary and should be definitely surmount the problems.
The emergence of career development in western countries as a construct suggests that it may be an essential area in developing country like Tanzania where students need assistance; students particularly need assistance in selecting colleges and courses. To this end, the schools should offer a career guidance and counseling programme under the able leadership of qualified school counselors.
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Wildlife Art – Its History and Development
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Summary
Some of the earliest of all known art (pre-historic cave and rock art) features wildlife. However, it might be more properly regarded as art about food, rather than art about wildlife as such.
Then for a lot of the rest of the history of art in the western world, art depicting wildlife was mostly absent, due to the fact that art during this period was mostly dominated by narrow perspectives on reality, such as religions. It is only more recently, as society, and the art it produces, frees itself from such narrow world-views, that wildlife art flourishes.
Wildlife is also a difficult subject for the artist, as it is difficult to find and even more difficult to find keeping still in a pose, long enough to even sketch, let alone paint. Recent advances such as photography have made this far easier, as well as being artforms in their own right. Wildlife art is thus now far easier to accomplish both accurately and aesthetically.
In art from outside the western world, wild animals and birds have been portrayed much more frequently throughout history.
Art about wild animals began as a depiction of vital food-sources, in pre-history. At the beginnings of history the western world seems to have shut itself off from the natural world for long periods, and this is reflected in the lack of wildlife art throughout most of art history. More recently, societies, and the art it produces, have become much more broad-minded. Wildlife has become something to marvel at as new areas of the world were explored for the first time, something to hunt for pleasure, to admire aesthetically, and to conserve. These interests are reflected in the wildlife art produced.
The History and development of Wildlife Art . . .
Wildlife art in Pre-history.
Animal and bird art appears in some of the earliest known examples of artistic creation, such as cave paintings and rock art
The earliest known cave paintings were made around 40,000 years ago, the Upper Paleolithic period. These art works might be more than decoration of living areas as they are often in caves which are difficult to access and don’t show any signs of human habitation. Wildlife was a significant part of the daily life of humans at this time, particularly in terms of hunting for food, and this is reflected in their art. Religious interpretation of the natural world is also assumed to be a significant factor in the depiction of animals and birds at this time.
Probably the most famous of all cave painting, in Lascaux (France), includes the image of a wild horse, which is one of the earliest known examples of wildlife art. Another example of wildlife cave painting is that of reindeer in the Spanish cave of Cueva de las Monedas, probably painted at around the time of the last ice-age. The oldest known cave paintings (maybe around 32,000 years old) are also found in France, at the Grotte Chauvet, and depict horses, rhinoceros, lions, buffalo, mammoth and humans, often hunting.
Wildlife painting is one of the commonest forms of cave art. Subjects are often of large wild animals, including bison, horses, aurochs, lions, bears and deer. The people of this time were probably relating to the natural world mostly in terms of their own survival, rather than separating themselves from it.
Cave paintings found in Africa often include animals. Cave paintings from America include animal species such as rabbit, puma, lynx, deer, wild goat and sheep, whale, turtle, tuna, sardine, octopus, eagle, and pelican, and is noted for its high quality and remarkable color. Rock paintings made by Australian Aborigines include so-called “X-ray” paintings which show the bones and organs of the animals they depict. Paintings on caves/rocks in Australia include local species of animals, fish and turtles.
Animal carvings were also made during the Upper Paleolithic period . . . which constitute the earliest examples of wildlife sculpture.
In Africa, bushman rock paintings, at around 8000 BC, clearly depict antelope and other animals.
The advent of the Bronze age in Europe, from the 3rd Millennium BC, led to a dedicated artisan class, due to the beginnings of specialization resulting from the surpluses available in these advancing societies. During the Iron age, mythical and natural animals were a common subject of artworks, often involving decoration of objects such as plates, knives and cups. Celtic influences affected the art and architecture of local Roman colonies, and outlasted them, surviving into the historic period.
Wildlife Art in the Ancient world (Classical art).
History is considered to begin at the time writing is invented. The earliest examples of ancient art originate from Egypt and Mesopotamia.
The great art traditions have their origins in the art of one of the six great ancient “classical” civilizations: Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, India, or China. Each of these great civilizations developed their own unique style of art.
Animals were commonly depicted in Chinese art, including some examples from the 4th Century which depict stylized mythological creatures and thus are rather a departure from pure wildlife art. Ming dynasty Chinese art features pure wildlife art, including ducks, swans, sparrows, tigers, and other animals and birds, with increasing realism and detail.
In the 7th Century, Elephants, monkeys and other animals were depicted in stone carvings in Ellora, India. These carvings were religious in nature, yet depicted real animals rather than more mythological creatures.
Ancient Egyptian art includes many animals, used within the symbolic and highly religious nature of Egyptian art at the time, yet showing considerable anatomical knowledge and attention to detail. Animal symbols are used within the famous Egyptian hieroglyphic symbolic language.
Early South American art often depicts representations of a divine jaguar.
The Minoans, the greatest civilization of the Bronze Age, created naturalistic designs including fish, squid and birds in their middle period. By the late Minoan period, wildlife was still the most characteristic subject of their art, with increasing variety of species.
The art of the nomadic people of the Mongolian steppes is primarily animal art, such as gold stags, and is typically small in size as befits their traveling lifestyle.
Aristotle (384-322 BC) suggested the concept of photography, but this wasn’t put into practice until 1826.
The Medieval period, AD 200 to 1430
This period includes early Christian and Byzantine art, as well as Romanesque and Gothic art (1200 to 1430). Most of the art which survives from this period is religious, rather than realistic, in nature. Animals in art at this time were used as symbols rather than representations of anything in the real world. So very little wildlife art as such could be said to exist at all during this period.
Renaissance wildlife art, 1300 to 1602.
This arts movement began from ideas which initially emerged in Florence. After centuries of religious domination of the arts, Renaissance artists began to move more towards ancient mystical themes and depicting the world around them, away from purely Christian subject matter. New techniques, such as oil painting and portable paintings, as well as new ways of looking such as use of perspective and realistic depiction of textures and lighting, led to great changes in artistic expression.
The two major schools of Renaissance art were the Italian school who were heavily influenced by the art of ancient Greece and Rome, and the northern Europeans . . . Flemish, Dutch and Germans, who were generally more realistic and less idealized in their work. The art of the Renaissance reflects the revolutions in ideas and science which occurred in this Reformation period.
The early Renaissance features artists such as Botticelli, and Donatello. Animals are still being used symbolically and in mythological context at this time, for example “Pegasus” by Jacopo de’Barbari.
The best-known artist of the high Renaissance is Leonardo-Da-Vinci. Although most of his artworks depict people and technology, he occasionally incorporates wildlife into his images, such as the swan in “Leda and the swan”, and the animals portrayed in his “lady with an ermine”, and “studies of cat movements and positions”.
Durer is regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern European Renaissance. Albrecht Durer was particularly well-known for his wildlife art, including pictures of hare, rhinoceros, bullfinch, little owl, squirrels, the wing of a blue roller, monkey, and blue crow.
Baroque wildlife art, 1600 to 1730.
This important artistic age, encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church and the aristocracy of the time, features such well-known great artists as Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Rubens, Velazquez, Poussin, and Vermeer. Paintings of this period often use lighting effects to increase the dramatic effect.
Wildlife art of this period includes a lion, and “goldfinch” by Carel Fabrituis.
Melchior de Hondecoeter was a specialist animal and bird artist in the baroque period with paintings including “revolt in the poultry coup”, “cocks fighting” and “palace of Amsterdam with exotic birds”.
The Rococo art period was a later (1720 to 1780) decadent sub-genre of the Baroque period, and includes such famous painters as Canaletto, Gainsborough and Goya. Wildlife art of the time includes “Dromedary study” by Jean Antoine Watteau, and “folly of beasts” by Goya.
Jean-Baptiste Oudry was a Rococo wildlife specialist, who often painted commissions for royalty.
Some of the earliest scientific wildlife illustration was also created at around this time, for example from artist William Lewin who published a book illustrating British birds, painted entirely by hand.
Wildlife art in the 18th to 19th C.
In 1743, Mark Catesby published his documentation of the flora and fauna of the explored areas of the New World, which helped encourage both business investment and interest in the natural history of the continent.
In response to the decadence of the Rococo period, neo-classicism arose in the late 18th Century (1750-1830 ). This genre is more ascetic, and contains much sensuality, but none of the spontaneity which characterizes the later Romantic period. This movement focused on the supremacy of natural order over man’s will, a concept which culminated in the romantic art depiction of disasters and madness.
Francois Le Vaillant (1769-1832) was a bird illustrator (and ornithologist) around this time.
Georges Cuvier, (1769-1832), painted accurate images of more than 5000 fish, relating to his studies of comparative organismal biology.
Edward Hicks is an example of an American wildlife painter of this period, who’s art was dominated by his religious context.
Sir Edwin Henry Landseer was also painting wildlife at this time, in a style strongly influenced by dramatic emotional judgments of the animals involved.
This focus towards nature led the painters of the Romantic era (1790 – 1880) to transform landscape painting, which had previously been a minor art form, into an art-form of major importance. The romantics rejected the ascetic ideals of Neo-Classicalism.
The practical use of photography began in around 1826, although it was a while before wildlife became a common subject for its use. The first color photograph was taken in 1861, but easy-to-use color plates only became available in 1907.
In 1853 Bisson and Mante created some of the first known wildlife photography.
In France, Gaspar-Felix Tournacho, “Nadar” (1820-1910) applied the same aesthetic principles used in painting, to photography, thus beginning the artistic discipline of fine art photography. Fine Art photography Prints were also reproduced in Limited Editions, making them more valuable.
Jaques-Laurent Agasse was one of the foremost painters of animals in Europe around the end of the 18th C and the beginning of the 19th. His animal art was unusually realistic for the time, and he painted some wild animals including giraffe and leopards.
Romantic wildlife art includes “zebra”, “cheetah, stag and two Indians”, at least two monkey paintings, a leopard and “portrait of a royal tiger” by George Stubbs who also did many paintings of horses.
One of the great wildlife sculptors of the Romantic period was Antoine-Louis Barye. Barye was also a wildlife painter, who demonstrated the typical dramatic concepts and lighting of the romantic movement.
Delacroix painted a tiger attacking a horse, which as is common with Romantic paintings, paints subject matter on the border between human (a domesticated horse) and the natural world (a wild tiger).
In America, the landscape painting movement of the Romantic era was known as the Hudson River School (1850s – c. 1880). These landscapes occasionally include wildlife, such as the deer in “Dogwood” and “valley of the Yosemite” by Albert Bierstadt, and more obviously in his “buffalo trail”, but the focus is on the landscape rather than the wildlife in it.
Wildlife artist Ivan Ivanovitch Shishkin demonstrates beautiful use of light in his landscape-oriented wildlife art.
Although Romantic painting focused on nature, it rarely portrayed wild animals, tending much more towards the borders between man and nature, such as domesticated animals and people in landscapes rather than the landscapes themselves. Romantic art seems in a way to be about nature, but usually only shows nature from a human perspective.
Audubon was perhaps the most famous painter of wild birds at around this time, with a distinctive American style, yet painting the birds realistically and in context, although in somewhat over-dramatic poses. As well as birds, he also painted the mammals of America, although these works of his are somewhat less well known. At around the same time In Europe, Rosa Bonheur was finding fame as a wildlife artist.
Amongst Realist art, “the raven” by Manet and “stags at rest” by Rosa Bonheur are genuine wildlife art. However in this artistic movement animals are much more usually depicted obviously as part of a human context.
The wildlife art of the impressionist movement includes “angler’s prize” by Theodore Clement Steele, and the artist Joseph Crawhall was a specialist wildlife artist strongly influenced by impressionism.
At this time, accurate scientific wildlife illustration was also being created. One name known for this kind of work in Europe is John Gould although his wife Elizabeth was the one who actually did most of the illustrations for his books on birds.
Post-impressionism (1886 – 1905, France) includes a water-bird in Rousseau’s “snake charmer”, and Rousseau’s paintings, which include wildlife, are sometimes considered Post-impressionist (as well as Fauvist, see below).
Fauvism (1904 – 1909, France) often considered the first “modern” art movement, re-thought use of color in art. The most famous fauvist is Matisse, who depicts birds and fish in is “polynesie la Mer” and birds in his “Renaissance”. Other wildlife art in this movement includes a tiger in “Surprised! Storm in the Forest” by Rousseau, a lion in his “sleeping Gypsy” and a jungle animal in his “exotic landscape”. Georges Braque depicts a bird in many of his artworks, including “L’Oiseaux Bleu et Gris”, and his “Astre et l’Oiseau”.
Ukiyo-e-printmaking (Japanese wood-block prints, originating from 17th C) was becoming known in the West, during the 19th C, and had a great influence on Western painters, particularly in France.
Wildlife art in this genre includes several untitled prints (owl, bird, eagle) by Ando Hiroshige, and “crane”, “cat and butterfly”, “wagtail and wisteria” by Hokusai Katsushika.
Wildlife art in the 20th Century, Contemporary art, postmodern art, etc.
Changing from the relatively stable views of a mechanical universe held in the 19th-century, the 20th-century shatters these views with such advances as Einstein’s Relativity and Freuds sub-conscious psychological influence.
The greater degree of contact with the rest of the world had a significant influence on Western arts, such as the influence of African and Japanese art on Pablo Picasso, for example.
American Wildlife artist Carl Runguis spans the end of the 19th and the beginnings of the 20th Century. His style evolved from tightly rendered scientific-influenced style, through impressionist influence, to a more painterly approach.
The golden age of illustration includes mythical wildlife “The firebird” by Edmund Dulac, and “tile design of Heron and Fish” by Walter Crane.
George Braque’s birds can be defined as Analytical Cubist (this genre was jointly developed by Braque and Picasso from 1908 to 1912), (as well as Fauvist). Fernand Leger also depicts birds in his “Les Oiseaux”.
There was also accurate scientific wildlife illustration being done at around this time, such as those done by America illustrator Louis Agassiz Fuertes who painted birds in America as well as other countries.
Expressionism (1905 – 1930, Germany). “Fox”, “monkey Frieze, “red deer”, and “tiger”, etc by Franz Marc qualify as wildlife art, although to contemporary viewers seem more about the style than the wildlife.
Postmodernism as an art genre, which has developed since the 1960′s, looks to the whole range of art history for its inspiration, as contrasted with Modernism which focuses on its own limited context. A different yet related view of these genres is that Modernism attempts to search for an idealized truth, where as post-modernism accepts the impossibility of such an ideal. This is reflected, for example, in the rise of abstract art, which is an art of the indefinable, after about a thousand years of art mostly depicting definable objects.
Magic realism (1960′s Germany) often included animals and birds, but usually as a minor feature among human elements, for example, swans and occasionally other animals in many paintings by Michael Parkes.
In 1963, Ray Harm is a significant bird artist.
Robert Rauschenberg’s “American eagle”, a Pop Art (mid 1950′s onwards) piece, uses the image of an eagle as a symbol rather than as something in its own right, and thus is not really wildlife art. The same applies to Any Warhol’s “Butterflys”.
Salvador Dali, the best known of Surrealist (1920′s France, onwards) artists, uses wild animals in some of his paintings, for example “Landscape with Butterflys”, but within the context of surrealism, depictions of wildlife become conceptually something other than what they might appear to be visually, so they might not really be wildlife at all. Other examples of wildlife in Surrealist art are Rene Magritte’s “La Promesse” and “L’entre ed Scene”.
Op art (1964 onwards) such as M. C. Escher’s “Sky and Water” shows ducks and fish, and “mosaic II” shows many animals and birds, but they are used as image design elements rather than the art being about the animals.
Roger Tory Peterson created fine wildlife art, which although being clear illustrations for use in his book which was the first real field guide to birds, are also aesthetically worthy bird paintings.
Young British Artists (1988 onwards). Damien Hirst uses a shark in a tank as one of his artworks. It is debatable whether this piece could be considered as wildlife art, because even though the shark is the focus of the piece, the piece is not really about the shark itself, but probably more about the shark’s effect on the people viewing it. It could be said to be more a use of wildlife in/as art, than a work of wildlife art.
Wildlife art continues to be popular today, with such artists as Robert Bateman being very highly regarded, although in his case somewhat controversial for his release of Limited-Edition prints which certain fine-art critics deplore.
Sources :- Wikipedia
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