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History of african art 275 exam 1
African art history essay
History of african art 275 exam 1
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Cultural Experience at James E. Lewis Museum
Art is known as one of the greatest assets that portrays different African cultures. African art includes pottery, sculptures, and masks. It serves different purposes such as entertainment, education, and communication with spirits. Wood, iron, clay, and textiles are used in sculpting pieces of African art, especially when creating masks. Art allowed African ancestors to preserve the value of the culture and maintain social order in communities. Each culture has its own artwork that presents a different meaning. A visit to the James E. Lewis Museum of Art in the Murphy Fine Arts Theater on the campus of Morgan State University teaches about the cultural, traditional, and spiritual significance of masks and the skill involved in their creation.
Masks in African societies are important because they express spiritual purposes. African culture portrays the struggle of mankind to find harmonies through traditional ceremonies masks are worn to connect people to the gods. Magic, which is one of the components that completes the society in the Parrinder model, is shown in Yoruba culture where the Gelede masks are said to protect man from witches by supernatural means which involves magic, sculptures, and dance. The Gelede mask that is on display in the James E. Lewis Museum of Art has animal and human features, which represent the spirits of the ancestors. They are mostly worn by men and are used to invite their ancestral spirits to participate in ceremonies like initiation, birth, naming, weddings, and funerals. The spiritual connection conveyed by the wearing of the masks during the ceremonies is vital because it fulfils the society’s order.
Masks have particular significance in the ...
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...eveal their purposes. Some are used for religious purposes while others are used for entertainment. African art also reveals a great deal about cultural, traditional, and spiritual beliefs. African people mainly preserve their culture by passing the skills they have learned to the generations to come. Arts pieces are gathered and presented in museums in order to sustain their value. The ideas and meanings behind these works of art are cherished and passed on through oral and visual traditions to the next generations.
Works Cited
"History of Masks - Ancient Use of Masks." History of Masks. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.
"Unique Dogon Culture Survives in West Africa." National Geographic. National Geographic Society, n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.
Yoruba Culture. Face mask. Wood, patina, dark brown. James E. Lewis Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD. 04 April. 2014
Art is also used for ritualistic purposes. Men's loincloths were painted and decorated with tassels to symbolize falling rain. Men also wore elaborate costumes that include special headdresses, masks, and body paints during ritual ceremonies and dances.
There are any kinds of masks. There is the story; the masks are the masks that tell
The Columbus Museum of Art is a place rich in local history. A place where items of historical and artistic value are stored for safekeeping and allow access for public viewing. The museum has several locally named galleries. It also has a cute children’s area, complete with artwork from little local artists from several schools in the area. The children’s area has several pieces of art that children may touch, like Chicken George. I remember touching that chicken when I would visit as a child. The area also has a mini art studio to cater to the little creative minds that pass through.
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,
The trip to the metropolitan museum was a great trip to learn and to study art. What is art you may ask, well art is an expression you use to show a visual picture. It can be through painting or through sculptures. Some other example of art is music, literature and dancing. For today 's paper we will be talking about art as a sculpture. The two sculptures in this photo are King Sahure and a Nome God and Marble Statue of Dionysos leaning on archaistic female figure (Hope Dionysos). You can find these statues in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. King Sahure and a Nome God is an Egyptian art that was made in 2458-2446 BCE. The artist is unknown. It was during the 5th dynasty and it also belong to the old kingdom. The Marble statue of Dionysos Leaning in the archaistic female figure is a Greco-Roman art. Belonging to the Roman imperial period of the late first century A.D. Augustan or Julio-Claudian period 27 B.C., to 68 AD. It is classified as a stone sculpture and it is made out of marble. The height of the statues is 82 ¾ inches. There is no evidence who was the original artist.
Art is to be valued, treasured, and respected. Artwork speaks to everyone in a different way, and when asked the right questions, can give great answers. In an age where cameras and pictures are most dominant, original pieces of art are to be cherished and appreciated.
The Navajo Sand Paintings is an example of a sacred symbolic object commonly misinterpreted as nothing more than an artistic piece of primitive art. In actuality, the beauty is being overseen because Navajo sand paintings have more significance. This so called `piece of art' serves as a major device, but in a...
A common aspect of African culture is our mediating of deities, ancestors, and spirits, by performing rituals and contacting ancestors or historical ideals. This spiritual combination creates a non-Western idea of movement in art. I enjoy this part of our culture, where we create a less static environment. We become other beings, through our usage of art, dance, and costume with mask and headwear. Our artistic creators are forgotten. Our original artwork are eventually forgotten. The work goes back to the Earth, for the only true matter is how the spirits are manifested in the objects at the current time; eventually even this wears out. At the time of the spiritual manifestation in the objects, they are some of the most powerful aspects in our society.
Over the course of history, art has been used for many different purposes. It has been used to relay a message to the illiterate and show off the face of an emperor. Presently, art has no other purpose except to be aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Back in the days of ancient Greece and Crete, that was not the case. The Minoans were a people who lived on an island near one of the oldest and most well-documented civilizations of the Western world. While they may have been advanced for their time, much of what we now know about their culture has come from examining their art. In the Minoan culture, different forms of artwork held different religious and political meaning.
Angeles, Los. (2009). African arts. Volume 28. Published by African Studies Center, University of California.
Seemingly non-artistic creations such as shovels, or things that others might not see as having true artistic merit like finger paintings can yield powerful emotional and spiritual reactions. Such reactions are the core of traditional African art. The study of and response to African Art by artists at the beginning of the twentieth century created an explosion of interest in the abstraction, organization and reorganization of forms and the exploration of emotional and psychological areas unseen by Western Renaissance art. With the influence of traditional African art, art in the west ceased to be merely and primarily aesthetic, but became a true medium for philosophic and intellectual discourse. Overall, thanks to the discovery and influence of African art on such prominent figures as Pablo Picasso, Jørn Utzon, and Paul Rudolph, art in the west has become more truly and profoundly aesthetic than ever before, and continues to inspire and give people profound emotional and spiritual
In many African customs theirs rituals, sacrifices, ancestors worship and rites of passage. African religions emphasize maintaining a harmonious relationship with the divine powers, and their rituals attempt to harness cosmic powers and channel them for good. Ritual is the means by
the tradition of primitive tribes. “In many cases the painting was only used to decorate
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...
Oti, Adepeju; Ayeni, Oyebola. (2013) Yoruba Culture of Nigeria: Creating Space for an Endangered Species Cross - Cultural Communication9.4 : 23-29