Gerard Sekoto's Song of the Pick

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Recommended: Relation between art and society

Gerard Sekoto. Song of the Pick. 1946-1947. Oil on board. Private collection. (Loots. 2002)

I have chosen to describe the artwork Song of the Picks by Gerard Sekoto. I will look at what defines a work as modern and discuss Sekoto's background to fully understand his work and to prove whether it is modern. Several people influenced, supported and encouraged Sekoto and I will briefly discuss them. I will give a brief history of European modernity and its influence on Africa in order to understand African modernity.

Modernity started with industrial revolution and Enlightenment in the 18th century in Europe, it encouraged the move from rural to urban and from agrarian to industrial. Before modernisation 'the group' was more important - but then the individual become more important as society advanced. Industrialisation is also linked with progress, if you don't move forward then you move backwards which is regressing to the 'primitive'. Ethnocentrism becomes more important, your ethnicity is at the centre and everyone else's ethnicity must follow yours. But quite often development can breed discontent, and people were unhappy with modernisation, as a result colonisation started. Colonisation was a political and economic phenomena where by various nations send settlers to explore, conquer and settle. This had a big influence on art. African art is classified according to pre and post colonialism, but African art also spread to Europe where it influenced movements such as Impressionism. (William, 1985:212)

This discontent also had a big influence on artists, and they reacted differently as a result of it. Courbet painted pictures of labourers and everyday scenes, which was revolutionary for his time. Seurat developed his individual...

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...theartstory.org/artist-kirchner-ernst-ludwig.htm. (18 May 2011)

Buchheim, LG. 1960. The Graphic art of German Expressionism. Universe Books.

Hill, A. (7 October 2001).”Gauguin's erotic Tahiti idyll exposed as a sham.” London: The Guardian. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/oct/07/arts.highereducation. (20 May 2011)

William, SR. 1984."Primitivism" in 20th century art: affinity of the tribal and the modern, Volume 1. New York(N.Y.): Museum of Modern Art.

No name. No date. Pigment through the ages, visible and beyond. [Online] Available at: www.webexhibits.org/pigments/intro/visible.html. (20 May 2011)

Herbert, B. 1983. German expressionism:Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter. Jupiter Books.

No name. No date. German Expressionist, the home of German Expressionist arts. [Online] Available at: http://www.germanexpressionist.com/. (20 May 2011)

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