Animal Crossing is a game that oozes with charm. From the cutesy villagers to the relaxing music and activities, it’s hard to not fall in love with the game. I’ve been playing it for years now, and I still get excited when I see a new villager or an item I’ve never seen before.
Some of the villagers are more talkative than others. There are some like Bunnie who will give you plenty of details about her life, but there are others who only say a few words, so getting to know everything about them can take a while; fortunately, their profiles can be found in The Museum.
And that’s where all the anthropomorphic art comes in! You see, this is my dissertation topic; I’m an anthropology student and this is my senior project. I’ve been working on it since May 2012 and have been interviewing people since 2011; this blog is part of my research (I’m hoping to publish a paper on the topic).
The anthropomorphic art that you can find in Animal Crossing is based on many different things: hobbies, appearance, species and personality traits. Let’s start with hobbies: some villagers may have an interest in art since they’ll have paintings hanging at home or will tell you they’re a
The Museum is a local attraction where you can buy paintings and sculptures from the art world. It is divided into three sections: Modern Art, which sells pieces of work found in the game; Posters, which displays some of the more well known art works of the Animal Crossing world; and Old Masters, which features classic paintings and sculptures.
Towards the back of the museum you will find a large area dedicated to Bluebear’s own creations. Here you can purchase one of his commissioned artworks or even request an original piece! The prices for his pieces vary but they may be expensive compared to other works of art in the museum.
As you start to buy more works of art, Bluebear will begin to set up temporary exhibitions at the museum that feature pieces from his personal collection. You will also be able to sell him your own artwork that he may not have seen before.
Where To Find It
First, we need a little background information. You can find this art in all of the following places and ways:
In the museum, which has four levels. Each level has three pieces of art available for sale. The first piece is always available. The other two are unlocked at random, but you can guarantee that they’ll both be there by buying one of the first two pieces. In your house, which has four pieces available for purchase. These are special paintings that you can place on any wall you wish. In villager’s houses, which have anywhere from one to five pieces available for purchase. Sometimes these are special paintings; sometimes they’re regular ones from the museum. The Animal Crossing: New Leaf e-Reader cards have many artworks on them!
**Note** I will be using the term “painting” to refer to either a painting or a special piece of furniture that you put in your house (for example, a sculpture).
Now that you know where to find it, let’s talk about how much each piece costs and how to buy it!
Painting Prices
The prices at the museum are easy; they’re all 2,800 bells!
In your house, they range from 3,800 bells
Animal Crossing is full of art, but it’s not necessarily the kind of art you’d expect. The museum, for example, has a lot of pieces that are clearly meant to be understood as anthropomorphic. A lot of fans have pointed this out, but I’ve never seen anyone try to systematically figure out where the art comes from and what it’s trying to say.
T here are many ways to think about this sort of thing. To start with, you could look at the style of the art itself. This is how museums label things: they make a judgment based on the content or style. But if we’re looking at Animal Crossing as a whole, it might be more useful to ask why we’re seeing some works in an art museum and others in an antiques store. What does that tell us about what Nintendo thinks about these works?
This is where it gets tricky. One obvious answer is that Nintendo thinks some art is “better” than other art; that there’s something more artistic about a painting by Van Gogh than a painting by Thomas Kinkade . And this may well be true. Or it may not be true at all.
Nintendo could believe that some kinds of art are better than others, or Nintendo could believe that every piece
I’m going to assume that the people reading this blog are already familiar with the AC art style. If you’re not, or if you’ve been living in a cave for the last ten years, there are plenty of other blogs out there that will explain how to get started.
So today I’m going to talk about where to find the art in-game, some of my favorite pieces and where you can buy them from at Nook’s shop. If you have your own suggestions, please feel free to leave them in a comment!
The museum is a great place to find new AC-style pieces, but it’s also kind of overwhelming if you’re just starting off. To make things easier, I’ve divided the collection into several categories: paintings, sculptures and sketches.
The Museum is one of the biggest changes in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It gives you a chance to collect art and sell it for bells. Sounds cool, doesn’t it? But how do you find all the art? And what else can you sell to make bells fast? We’ll be covering all of that here!
What is Art?
Art is a new currency in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. You can get it from the museum and also buy some from Nook’s Homes and Redd’s Tent. You can then use this art as decorations for your house or as a way to make money. In order to get access to most of the art, you have to complete certain buildings in your town. These include the following:
– The Public Works Projects (PWP)
– The Observatory
– The Museum of Modern Art
– The Town Hall (preferably with a second floor)
– The Train Station*
You also need to have a second floor on your home and have donated at least five pieces of furniture to the museum before you can buy art from any shop except Redd’s Tent. So let’s get started on where to find this art!
The art world has a way of changing the meaning of things.
So what’s going on here? What does this painting have to do with anything?
And most importantly, why does it fit so well in a museum exhibit about Japanese art?
This painting is actually a good example of anthropomorphic art. It’s an animal dressed up as a human and standing in for a human. But there are some differences from the classic definition of anthropomorphic art that might be important to consider. It was created by a designer, not an artist; it was produced specifically for a video game; and finally it is not intended as fine art, but as commercial design. And yet, because of its subject matter and its style, it fits right in with fine art in a museum setting. If we look at the term anthropomorphic more broadly than we did originally, we can see that this work fits into the larger history of the genre without being representative of all of it.
