Social context and 2 works of art

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I was going to post about this doll, since I had similar story dolls (Wolf/Red Riding Hood, not Black/White) when I was a kid.  Also the narrative here seems so strongly one of our national context in the mid 19th c.  We could also put it into the context of art/kitsch that is part of our current blog conversation.  A (semi) mass produced doll, made to be played with not preserved.  But toys/low art have an important role in defining our lives: "The story is that these were made by black women working for white families, and which head was shown would depend on the race of any adult who was in the room" according to the curator.  Interestingly, the black doll in the case shown is nowhere near as exaggeratedly featured as some of the very racist kitsch of the day; we might think about how the work was made by blacks for white consumption as a subtle anti-bigotry influence on the children of the Civil War generations.  Now, what was cheap, low-culture, semi-disposable has become expensive art.

Metropolitan Museum, early 9th c. carved teak panel

This was on my art of the day feed from the Met.  Many of you might recognize it as a Jewish star.  What's complicated here is that the panel is an Islamic work, from Iraq (Baghdad or Takrit), in the early 800s.  I think it's an excellent reminder of what Islam was at that point--defining itself in relation to other monotheistic traditions of the time, where Islam came from--the image of the hexagram can also be seen in Jewish art of the 3rd or 4th century and Roman mosaics from as early as the 2nd c. BCE, and what Baghdad was--a thriving community in the ruins of the Sassanian Empire, in conflict with the Byzantines, a cosmopolitan city with Muslims, Jews, Christians of several different varieties, and a few pagans.  As an ornament, the hexagram is a lovely image of interlaced balance, fitting as a statement of God in any of these three monotheistic traditions and therefore appearing in all.  (And by the way, also in several Eastern religious traditions).

The story is that they were made by black women working for white families, and which head was shown would depend on the race of any adults in the room, said Stamps, who is African-American.

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