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art of benin essay
EUROPEAN IMPERIALISM and Africa
the european imperialism in africa
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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. Initially there was a great deal of debate about Benin art and its display, as it did not equate with the perceptions then held about Africa. Until the British conquest of Benin in 1897, little was known about Benin and its culture apart from brief interaction with other Europeans in the sixteenth century. The perception of Africa was of a primitive, savage and uncivilised land, full of ‘abuses and fetishes and idolatries’, (Hodgkin, 1975, p33). Therefore, when the British invaded Benin they treated any artefacts they found as ‘war booty’ (Woods, 2008, p30) and sold anything of any value to pay for the expedition. They removed artefacts and artwork without recording any contextual evidence of form or function. These ideas are evident in the photographs in figures 1.10 on page 31, 2.2 on page 50 in Cultural Encounters (AA100, Book 3) and Plate 3.1.14 in the Illustration Book: Plates for Book 3 and 4 where artefacts are bundled into piles with centralised white figures suggesting only British triumph (Loftus, 2008). The ‘clever workmanship’ (Gallewey, 1893b, p37) and ‘delicacy of detail’ (Bacon, 1897, p39) attest to the quality of the artwork and the subsequent bidding by rival museums and galleries for the pieces did not prevent the perception that Africa, and thus Benin, as being barbaric and primitive. The debate was how such a barbaric society could produce such sophisticated artwork. The quality of the Benin bronzes, based on... ... middle of paper ... ... Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 45-58 Mackie, R. (2008), ‘The Art of the Benin: Changing Relations between Europe and Africa I: The conquest of the Benin in the 1890’s’, in Brown, R (ed.), Cultural Encounters (AA100 Book3), Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 16-32 Pike, J. (2008), ‘Cultural Encounters and Cultural Exemptions’, in Brown, R (ed.), Cultural Encounters (AA100 Book3), Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 90-122 Wood, P (2008), ‘The Art of the Benin: Changing Relations between Europe and Africa II: The Benin bronzes and Modern Art’, in Brown, R (ed.), Cultural Encounters (AA100 Book3), Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp.58-78 Woods, K (2008), ‘The Art of the Benin: Changing Relations between Europe and Africa I: The Art of the Benin’, in Brown, R (ed.), Cultural Encounters (AA100 Book3), Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp.4-16
After reaching the school building, David struggled with the door, and found his way inside; the crowd immediately swallowed him up, before Susan could catch up and start to walk beside him. She then gave up, after his friends, Jeff and Mark joined him at his side. After she had been pushed into her homeroom, number 117, she had two minutes to wait for class to start and sat uncomfortably at her seat, rummaging through her purse, for a lack of something better to do.
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.
Unfortunately, that can overshadow the grim reminder of their culture essentially being snatched from them. New schools and products have modernized Nigeria into a world power, but the price of this success was conformity to European (and especially British) customs. The Britons’ goal was simply bringing both positive and negative change to this nation. Through Chinua Achebe’s novel and countless Internet sources, the complexity of the relationship between Great Britain and Nigeria is fully revealed. Influence is powerful, but at what
According to the book, A History of Nigeria (2008), Nigeria is historically unique for three different reasons. First, it was found that there had been a high level of migration from the Northern part of Nigeria to the Southern part due to the Savanna. Second, humans within the regi...
African Art has played a significant role in shaping the culture and history of the world around us. Stokstad describes the belief that Africa is the cradle of history of mankind and how that belief is quite unshakeable. Origins of African art date back long before recorded history, and is many centuries old. The basic subject within African art is the human figure. The art aspect of this culture deals with strong formal qualities which were exhibited with the strong design features that create balance and harmony, as seen in almost all pieces of work from this time. There are quite a few subgenres to African Art, which Stokstad demonstrates as the chapter progresses, and the earliest art form in Africa goes by the title of Rock Art1. Africa contains the oldest and greatest amount of Rock Art on Earth. The Saharan Rock art is located in central Sahara contains images that span a period of thousands of years. The earliest
...ge (ed.), The Cambridge History of Africa, 2: From c. 500 B.C. toA.D. 1050. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.
...’s depictions of both traditional and modern beliefs in varying degrees illustrate the importance of both in contemporary Nigerian culture, as well as the greater Africa as a whole, and how both are intertwined and cannot exist without the other. In effect, she skillfully subverts stereotypes or single perceptions of Africa as backward and traditional, proving instead, the multifaceted culture of Africa. She further illustrates that neither traditional African nor western culture is necessarily detrimental. It is the stark contrast of the fundamental cultures that inevitably leads to clashes and disagreements. In the end, what holds African countries such as Nigeria together is their shared pride. Modern, western influences can bring positive changes to society, but new cultures cannot completely eradicate the foundational cultures to which a society is founded on.
Toyin, Falola. “The Power of African Cultures.” Woodbridge, Suffolk, United Kingdom: University of Rochester Press, 2003. Print
Benin is a small country on the west coast of Africa. In pre-colonial times, Benin was home to one of the great medieval African kingdoms called Dahomey. Even after independence from French rule, Benin still has strong French influence, French being the population’s official language. This small country is a tropical and sub-saharan nation and is home to many unique cultural traditions. Despite all of the struggles of the past and current challenges facing Benin, the small country is thriving with its uniquely rich culture.
Someone pulled a strand of her curly dark brown and red hair from behind. “Hey!” she exclaimed, but she already knew it was her best friend, Adaro. She shut and locked her locker and turned around. Adaro had hazel green eyes and long red-dirty blonde hair that was almost
Nigeria contains more historic cultures and empires than any other country in Africa. People were first known to inhabit Nigeria as early as 5 B.C. They first constructed a kingdom in the center of Nigeria, which is named Jos Plateau. This was the first of many widespread kingdoms of that region, but two centuries later it would extend to Bornu, which is located on the western region of Nigeria (Gascoigne 1). Nigeria was made up of mostly kingdoms until British colonized in the 1800’s. The Soko Jotojhad and Yotruba wars encouraged slave trade at the time the British were trying to abolish the slave trade. Slaves were normally traded for European goods such as guns and gun powder. At this time, the British encouraged trading palm oil over trading slaves. Many of the slaves that were exported to Britain were intercepted by naval ships and shipped to Sierra Leone to collect palm oil. Some Nigerians began to migrate back from Sierra Leone in search of their homes and trade. British missionaries were invited to follow the slaves back, and in the 1840’s they wer...
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).
Almost every civilization or culture all at least has their own forms of traditional art, doesn’t matter if the art was influenced, taken, or created. Art includes almost everything to anything, from physical things to things you can only hear or even feel, for example: painting, music, sculptures, dance, architecture, literature, movies, plays, and much more. Art is also very important because it contains meaning and expression behind it. This all includes the Igbo culture, a civilization found in Nigeria, Africa. The Igbo culture reflects many types of traditional arts such as dances for various occasions, masks and maiden masks, various musical instruments, and architecture.
Moreover, the influences of African art are not entirely limited to paintings. Expressionist Architecture draws a great deal from African art, especially in the visual sense. Expressionists discovered in Africa a new repertoire of proto-symbols. With this discovery the space is now composed by single forms that refer to human proportions and its
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.