African Art and Architecture
The history of art in Africa goes back to prehistoric times. Among the
most ancient African art forms are the rock paintings and engravings
from Tassili and Ennedi in the Sahara (6000 BC-1st century AD). Other
examples of early art include the terracotta sculptures modelled by
Nok artists in central Nigeria between 500 BC and AD 200, the
decorative bronze works of Igbo Ukwu (9th-10th century AD), and the
extraordinary bronze and terracotta sculptures from Ife (12th-15th
century AD). These latter show such technical expertise and are so
naturalistically rendered that they were originally, and quite
erroneously, assumed to have been of Classical Greek inspiration. The
rich artistic traditions of Africa continue today, both along
traditional lines and in completely new modes of expression.The
African continent is home to a wide variety of African cultures, each
of which is characterized by its own language, traditions, and
artistic forms. Although the immense expanse of the Sahara Desert
serves as a natural barrier dividing North Africa from the rest of the
continent, there is evidence that considerable dissemination of
influences took place along trade routes that traversed the continent
from early times. Today, for example, many Islamic art and
architectural forms of North African inspiration appear among cultures
south of the Sahara. In addition, research has pointed to concurrent
influences of sub-Saharan African arts and cultures on northern
African areas closer to the Mediterranean. Egyptian art and
architecture, one of the most resplendent of African traditions, can
also be seen as having important...
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...nctive regional architectural traditions. In
addition, differences persisted between the art produced in cities and
that produced in rural areas within the various regions; rural
artists, trained or untrained, were isolated from current trends and
competitive pressures and developed highly individual modes of
expression that were imaginative and direct, independent of prevailing
formal conventions. This type of American art falls within the
tradition of folk art, or naive art.
The decorative arts, in particular metalwork and furniture, also
represented an important form of artistic expression during the
colonial period. Silver, in the 17th century, and furniture, in the
18th century, were perhaps the most significant American forms of
artistic creation and represented the most sophisticated and lively
traditions.
Long before Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic to the ‘New World’, the Western Hemisphere had already divided and developed civilizations. Some of these civilizations were extremely advanced for the time. As people settled in the Americas and developed cultures, so did differences in the life styles, religions, and art of these peoples. The cultures of Mesoamerica, South America, and North America all developed many different types of art, most notably ceramics and larger scale items that still baffle historians today.
The display of Benin art in museum and galleries reflect the attitudes and perceptions of Europeans towards non-western artefacts, especially African. Thus as European attitudes change towards non-western art since the discovery of Benin art in 1897, Benin art has been revaluated and re-categorised.
One of the more famous African American potters during the Civil War times in the United States was David Drake (Burrison, 2012). Until he became emancipated he was known simply as Dave or Dave the Slave (Burrison, 2012). In 1801, Dave was born in the United States under his first owner Harvey Drake (Burrison, 2012). Harvey Drake is the most probable person to have taught young Dave how to read and write because of his belief that God gave him the responsibility to help his servants, or slaves how to read the word of God (Burrison, 2012). Many of his pieces are signed and dated, some have short facts about the piece, and others have short poems (Burrison, 2012). The words written on the pottery seems to have been inscribed while it was barely damp greenware (Burrison, 2012). Harvey Drake died in 1832 and in 1834, the South Carolina General Assembly passed a regulation that made it illegal for slaves to be taught how to read and write (Burrison, 2012). In 1840, after passing from one master to another Dave was finally given to Lewis Miles (Burrison, 2012). Dave was one of the few enslaved potters to be allowed to sign the ceramic pieces he produced during his enslavement under Lewis Miles (Burrison, 2012). On one piece Dave inscribed the words "LM says handle will crack" (Chaney). These words mean much more than what is written. It shows that Dave knew what he was doing and possibly even knew more than his master LM, Lewis Miles (Chaney). It seemed that Dave who was an enslaved man was the master, and his master was the fool because the handle, to date, has never cracked (Burrison, 2012). Dave Drake continued to sign his name and sometimes writing poetry on his pottery even though the law had been passed that made it illegal (Burri...
Two main devices used in Egyptian art from the fourth dynasty, that also help classify it, are a strive for naturalism and the use of sculpture in the round. In addition to the large burial monuments being built, portraiture became quite popular at this time in history. Paintings featuring humans used their own form of "sculpture in the round" by painting in ...
Many African cultures see life as a cycle we are born, we grow and mature, enter adulthood, and one day we will eventually die but the cycle continues long after death. In Africa art is used as a way to express many things in their society, in this paper I will focus on different ways traditional African art are used to describe the cycle of one’s life. Since Africa is such a large continent it is important to keep in mind that every country and tribe has different rituals and views when it comes to the cycle of life. It is estimated to be well over a thousand different ethnic groups and cultures in Africa today. Thousands of cultures in Africa see the stages of life bound together in a continuous cycle; a cycle of birth, growth, maturity,
Western attitudes to African people and culture have always affected how their art was appreciated and this has also coloured the response to the art from Benin.
In the article of “Exhibiting Intention: Some Preconditions of the Visual Display of Culturally Purposeful Objects”, the author, Michael Baxandall mainly discussed interrelationship within the group of three agents upon their influence and reflect of the artifacts in the museum, and the understanding of culture elements behind the display. In the first part of this paper, I will identify the points of view of the author. In the second part, I will analyze the layout of the gallery, “Imagining the Underground” in Earth Matters in Fowler Museum in UCLA. Several discussion related to the settings of the museum and the article will be discussed interactively. In general, this paper tries to show the robustness and the weakness of Baxandall’s model, which will specified.
?Any work of art owes its existence to the people and culture from which it has emerged. It has a functional and historical relationship with that culture.? Michael W. Conner, PhD#
In summary, Davidson successful traces Africa’s earliest origins and demonstrates that this is a civilization far from having no arts, technology, sophistication and unique culture. Culture and civilization as we know it today can be traced back to Africa, and modern science has verified the early perceptions of Europeans to be wrong. He provides more than adequate evidence of Africa having a history complete with vast and rich civilization, including archaeological finds and specialized interviews with distinguished scholars and philosophers. Despite the fact that society possesses a more positive attitude towards African civilization today in terms of recognition, equality, and acceptance than in the past, negative stereotypes are still acknowledged and modern day racism unfortunately exists. I believe that the existence of Davidson’s work and videos such as Different but Equal are crucial to challenging these stereotypes and discrimination in order to create a more accurate image of Africa and its history. Overall, Davidson proves that the continent of Africa is home to a history that is just as meaningful, comprehensive, and progressive as that of any other civilization in the
Brief History From the 1500s to the 1700s, African blacks, mainly from the area of West Africa (today's Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Dahomey, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Gabon) were shipped as slaves to North America, Brazil, and the West Indies. For them, local and tribal differences, and even varying cultural backgrounds, soon melded into one common concern: the suffering they all endured. Music, songs, and dances as well as traditional food, helped not only to uplift them but also quite unintentionally added immeasurably to the culture around them. In the approximately 300 years that blacks have made their homes in North America, the West Indies, and Brazil, their highly honed art of the cuisine so treasured and carefully transmitted to their daughters has become part of the great culinary classics of these lands. But seldom are the African blacks given that recognition.
One of the biggest ways Africans were able to endure the institution of slavery was by finding similarities in the European culture that coincided with their native customs. “ The similarities between many European and African Cultural elements enabled the slave to continue to engage in many traditional activities or to create a synthesis of European and African cultures.”1 While there were many
The attitudes towards the display of Benin Art, adopted by European museums and galleries have dramatically changed over the 112 year period since their initial acquisition. This has been for a number of reasons including the societal transition from accepting colonialism to acknowledging cultural diversity, the gradual integration and cross-fertilisation across the academic fields of anthropology, ethnography and art history and the ongoing debate regarding provenance and repatriation.
In the slippery terrain created by globalization and cultural brokering, contemporary art made in Africa (and its diasporas) has enjoyed a steady growth in interest and appreciation by Western audiences during the last few decades (Kasfir, 2007). Several biennials, triennials, and scholarly works attest to that, with much of its impact owed to the figure of Okwui Enwezor. However, seamlessly uniting diverse African artists under the untrained Western gaze for the commercialism of the international art circuit – notwithstanding their different cultural contexts and the medium in which they work – is bound to create problems. Enwezor’s and other authors’ sophisticated publications and curatorial works show both the vitality and issues still to be addressed in this field of study (Ogbechie, 2010).
An Image of Africa Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad has been depicted as “among the half-dozen greatest short novels in the English language.” Chinua Achebe believes otherwise. In Chinua Achebe’s An Image of Africa: Racism is Conrad’s Heart of Darkness he simply states that, “Joseph Conrad was a thoroughgoing racist” [pg.5]. Achebe argues that the racist observed in the Heart of Darkness is expressed due to the western psychology or as Achebe states “desire,” this being to show Africa as an antithesis to Europe.
Most art has some sort of reason or purpose behind it. It might be religious, symbolic, literal, traditional, customary, or just a preference by the artist. Most African art has a symbolic reason. Masks, pottery, figures, portraits, jewelry, baskets and clothing reflect the religious belief of the different tribes. Africans believed that everything in nature is alive. For example: rocks, grass, plants, trees, rivers and mountains. African art was not popular and was looked down upon until recently. In Nigeria, people were tattooed as a test of courage. The figure- “Portrait Head of a King (Oni)” reflects this. The King has this tattooing on his entire face. The King has big slanted eyes, a prominent nose, and big full lips. All these things represented something to the Nigerian people; the King...