TOEFL Questions

Navajo Dry Paintings

A two-dimensional technique which may be regarded as intermediate between painting and mosaic is that commonly referred to as sand painting. Dry painting is a more appropriate term since besides red, yellow and white sands, such materials as corn meal, pollen, pulverized flower petals, and charcoal, separately or in mixtures, are strewn on background of usually tan-colored sand. Paintings varying in size from 1 to 24 feet across were made exclusively for ceremonial purposes by the Navajo as well as by inhabitants of the Pueblos, of southern California, and occasionally also of the Plains. Dry painting is an extremely impermanent art form: no fixatives are used, and the painting had to be destroyed for religious reasons immediately after use.

Very little is consequence known about dry painting from the Pueblo area, where traditional religion is scrupulously concealed from outside view, and from the Plains, where little attention has been paid to it, except that it originated it the Southwest. Navajo dry painting, first recorded in 1885, was made permanent by White observers who copied the originals on paper or cardboard, and later by Navajos who did the same in spite of traditional prohibitions against the making of fixed representations of the sacred designs.

An insurmountable problem in the study and appreciation of Navajo dry painting is that none of the sources permanently available for inspection is original. Traditionally, the paintings themselves represented the communal effort of four to six men working under the supervision of the ritual specialst. This practice, however, has been abandoned in favor of more individualistic efforts. Besides being in a different medium, copies by Navajos often exhibit color changes, while copies by Whites display many stylistic conventionalizations and idiosyncrasies of their collectors. Since 1958, permanent versions of dry paintings on boards have been produced for the tourist market. Made by more than 500 Navajo men and women, especially from the Sheep Spring area in New Mexico, they are hardly representative of the original art form.

Q1. The word that in the passage refers to

(A) painting

(B) mosaic

(C) technique

(D) art

Q2. Based on the information in paragraph 3, what can be inferred about dry painting made for the tourist market?

(A) They are no longer communal effort between artists.

(B) They are a major source of revenue for the Navajo.

(C) Their styles have been altered to suit the tastes of buyers.

(D) They are the only dry painting left in existence

A1. (C)

A2. (C)