In Jamilla Okubo’s, African-American Gothic, African culture is woven into an interpretation of Grant Wood’s famous painting, American Gothic (http://www.americangothichouse.net/about/the-painting/). Through this painting, I believe that African American artists today do identify with their ancestral past in Africa. Okubo is a Kenyan-American artist who works primarily with textiles (Afful). In this painting, one can see that Okubo has added her own cultural spin to American Gothic. She portrays the farmer couple from the original with African skin tones. Also, she has added kente and kanga fabric scraps, fabric native to African countries such as Ghana (“The History of Kanga”, “Kente Cloth Origins”), to give the couple traditional African
middle of paper ... ... The texture, balance, and the use of color are unique to their own personalities and experiences. Works Cited African American Art -- Jonathan Green. African American Art -- Jonathan Green.
When visiting the McKissick Museum I was engrossed by the American Folk Art, ceramic Face Jugs, also known as ugly or grotesque jugs. There are gaps in the history in regards to how the face jugs were made, what they were used for, and the meaning of the face vessel pottery. However it is believed that these vessels were original, useful, creative expressions of the African slave culture of the time created as early as the seventeenth century. Few artists of face jugs have been identified and their inspirations for producing the vessels are not completely known. According to Hirst, it is believed that this art form originated in Edgefield County South Carolina, from African slaves who worked on the plantations as potters. They worked on these jugs after work and it’s believed that they were a product of the heritage and tradition from Africa and held a spiritual connection for the potters. Hirst also stated that, Dave Drake, a slave and employee of a pottery factory is the only known producer to ever be allowed to sign and put the date of manufacture on some of his face jug work.
Kehinde Wiley was born in 1977 in Los Angeles, California. He is a New York visual artist who is known for his highly naturalistic paintings of black people in heroic poses. As a child, his mother supported his interest in art and enrolled him in after school art classes. When Wiley was 12 years old he attended an art school in Russia for a short time. At the age of 20 he traveled to Nigeria to learn about his African roots and to meet his father. He has firmly situated himself within art’s history’s portrait painting tradition. He earned his BFA at San Francisco Art Institute in 1999 and he received his MFA from Yale University School of Art in 2001.
Grant Wood’s American Gothic is one of the most famous paintings in the history of American art. The painting brought Wood almost instant fame after being exhibited for the first time at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1930. It is probably the most reproduced and parodied works of art, and has become a staple within American pop-culture. The portrait of what appears to be a couple, standing solemnly in front of their mid-western home seems to be a simplistic representation of rural America. As simple as it sounds, when looking deeper into this image, it reveals something much more complex.
Andy Warhol’s vividly coloured Marilyn represents pop art, whereas Grant Wood’s American Gothic illustrates regionalism by portraying a realistic scene of rural America. The colour scheme of American Gothic is grayish and blunder compared to the neon colours of Marilyn.
Sieber, Roy, and Frank Herreman. "HAIR In African Art And Culture." African Arts 33.3 (2000): 54. Humanities International Complete. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
Aaron Douglas was a well-known painter and illustrator who created art throughout the Harlem Renaissance. He was iconically remembered as the “Father of black American art” because he came into New York from two mainly white populated schools with an individual style and personality expressing his culture and ethnicity. He was heavily influenced by being surrounded by his mother’s watercolors in his childhood home and by the art deco style emerging in New York while he lived there. Aaron Douglas’ work is a completely unique and beautiful combination of the two. He incorporated every aspect of African imagery, culture, ideas, and history into his paintings which led him to be known as one of the best visual artists of the jazz age.
The Victorian Gothic and the Southern Gothic couple to highlight the deviant nature of humanity through their stylistic views in the realm of supernatural phenomenon, the conventions of setting, the implementation of a damsel in distress, and the development of unrequited love validated by Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and Poe’s “The Oval Portrait”. Both works incorporate these elements but boast disparities of each other: In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde employs an antagonistic approach by centralizing the plot on the negative impacts of influence and corruption on society, while Poe underscores the consequences associated with preoccupation and obsession.
Culture carries the history and stories of those who belong to that culture. History is deeply embedded in African culture. No matter what region of the world people of black descent can relate to African culture. The differences in culture found in the different regions of the world come from the diaspora of black identity and because of this African culture is home. America is heavily influenced by African culture, the history of slaves in America is the main reason why black culture is an important aspect of America's history. In Michelle Hay text, “Popular culture : pan-African dimensions : a survey of scholarship”, she touches upon the spread of ideas and history that ultimately black people around the world seek even when they aren't
Southern Gothic Literature is a subgenre of Gothic fiction writing, which takes place in the American South. The Southern Gothic style is one of that employs the topics such as death, bizarre, violent, madness, and supernatural. These tools are used “to explore social issues and reveal the cultural character of the American South (Wikipedia).” The view of the South which is self-identified as the “national” or “American” view is basically a colonial Romance, with the rest of the nation identified with the forces of the light and the South with the forces of the darkness (Wacker 107).The authors of Southern Gothic typically use damaged characters to make their stories better, and to show deeper meanings of unpleasant Southern characteristics. These characters are diverse from society due to social, physical or mental disabilities. However, not all characteristics of the characters are bad; it is that a mixture of good and bad is found in most of the characters. Two authors who express the Southern Gothic writing style are William Faulkner, who wrote “A Rose for Emily,” and Flanner O Conner, the author of “Good Country People” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find.”
White, David. “’Everyday Use’: Defining African American Heritage.” Luminarium. Annina Jokinen, 19 Sep 2002. Web. 17 Mar 2014.
This photoshoot took place to shine bright lights on the Nigerian Culture. It was in efforts that Nigerian culture would not be seen as being black rather than being a separate entity. The models of Nigerian culture who were photographed were seen to capture their culture through lens. They are seen to be proud of where they come from.
Kasfir, S. L. (2007) African Art and the Colonial Encounter: Inventing a Global Commodity, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
...e by the use of colorful patterns, especially the beautification of house walls, and a renewed passion towards spatial surroundings, settings that not only appeal to people on the basis of their convenience but also bond well with man's discernment. From the literature in the presiding paragraphs, it is clear that African art is broad and wide- extending from carvings, through weights to clothes. Some of the geometrical shapes used in modern-day schooling were devised by African artists. It can proudly be said that the history of African art has through the centuries shaped the art we currently witness all over the globe.
African Innovations is described by the museum as a “highly selective assortment of works from the Brooklyn Museum’s extensive collection of African art, includes objects of transcendent beauty and sophistication.” Although the phrase “African art” suggests a continent wide form of visual expression that is both unitary and timeless, the museum took effort to reflect the diversity of Africa’s expansive empires, localized kingdoms, city-states, and autonomous villages, by using a stylistic range. For the first time, the Museum arranged their African gallery chronologically to emphasize the continent’s “long record of creativity, adaptation, and artistic achievement.” This museum was also the first in America to display African objects as works of art and has since been one of the largest and most important collections in the country. However, with these wonderful achievements, there was still one fault with the artwork. This specific crown has some damages to it. In the top of the cone, crown area there is visible damage to the beads. The veil flap specifically is missing beads where it is supposed to join the crown. This is implying that the crown was sold from its original community, most likely away from it’s original purpose. The crown has such a strong spiritual tie that it is hard to believe that it was carelessly given to anyone. Since it holds such high divine power