African art is very unique in many aspects. African art is traditionally abstract, and beautiful in its own way. Many people believe that African art is so different that judging it based on the scale of the rest of the world is useless, due to the fact that African art is not like anything else in the world. African art seems to have never gotten the proper discovery it deserved, and here’s why. The process of the discovery of these artifacts were poor. The archeologists who found the arts were educated and wealthy white European men who just wanted to “try it”. They had no experience or skill at doing this. They put all of the artifacts into jeopardy. Jeopardizing the very history that the creators tried so hard to preserve and show in their …show more content…
European artists created works that were smooth and beautiful versions of the real world. Sculptures like Michelangelo’s David are more than what the person looked like. They were beautiful, flawless sculptures. The sculptures and paintings are of real things and portray real objects. This makes them more pleasing to the eye, more desirable and more popular. The European attitude to the arts of other cultures were negative, they were influenced by ideas of evolution. Both ideas put European culture at the top of the scales, using its works as the judgement standard for the arts of other cultures. And since most of the sculptures and masks from Africa were very abstract in style, European people looked down on them as "primitive" and a sad attempt at recreating life like images. Even though in the early 1920’s the discovery of terracotta heads and brass figures happened they thought it was the works of foreigners. They believed that it was the Greeks. African art was traditional, and abstract in style. In Europe artists created works of art for viewing. There was no other deeper meaning behind their art. That is one huge difference in art type. The African people had more connection with their art. The artists of Africa created figures for shrines, to worship their gods, in the pavement areas of the Yoruba
In the essay “Why Africa? Why Art?” by Kwame Anthony Appiah, he talks about basically how Africa is thought to be an uncivilized barren and that’s the stereotypical thing that comes to most people’s mind when thinking about this continent. African art has to look a certain way to be able to be called “African.” It has to be made by a tribe, not just one person which is why he says that most African pieces are signed with a tribe name, not just one name. Appiah gives an example of these Asante gold weights that his mother had a collection of. Their use value was to weigh gold dust, which used to be the method of currency. They were made as a utilitarian product, not for art, but many people started to recognize the aesthetic value. He says, “…in appreciating and collecting these weights as art, we are doing something new with them…” These days art is defined to be a certain way and look a certain way. It can’t just be anything, it has to have an aesthetic value to be considered art and to fall into the “guidelines”.
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.
For instance from Aztec art one can learn about the rituals they conducted, the type of clothing they wore, the gods they worshiped, and the history of the people. Not only should the Aztec art be preserved for the sake of remembering them, but to show the more creative side of the Aztecs since they are often viewed as violent by most people. Aztec art utilizes many techniques and materials such as feathers and obsidian, in an age when fine art is being taken out of the picture in favor of digital art the Aztec art grasps the public’s attention, and makes fine art relevant
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.
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,
In this article Winckelmann states that the good taste in art that is present in contemporary works stems from the work of the ancient Greeks. The beauty in the modern works of artists like Raphael (especially his Madonna and child with St Sixtus and St Barbara) hold such beauty, complexity of emotion, and good taste because he draws on the ideas set up by the great ancient sculptures and society in which they lived and drew inspiration from. Winckelmann categorizes the ancients greatness into two main ideas that are necessary for contemporaries to draw from in order to reach greatness: Natural beauty and noble simplicity and quiet grandeur.
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.
Angeles, Los. (2009). African arts. Volume 28. Published by African Studies Center, University of California.
The art of the Americas was changed dramatically with the arrival of the Spanish and many aspects of European art and influence can be seen in the art of colonial America. However, there are still many significant examples of indigenous influence in colonial art. Whether one looks at the early works that were seen when the Spanish first arrived or the work that came in the late 1700s, the influence of the indigenous natives had a long ranging influence on various aspects of the art including materials, subjects, and details within the paintings, sculptures and architecture.
People always had a strong fascination with ancient Egypt for the great pyramids, the kings and queens, hieroglyphs and their advance knowledge. Many artists had appropriated ancient Egypt within there work; you can find it in many artwork, pop culture and literature. As example, Cleopatra 1963 Hollywood movie, Dark horse by katy Parry and many more. One of the artwork what grabbed my attention was a piece done during the Harlem Renaissance what displayed a lot of Ancient Egyptian symbolism in the artwork.
The construct of the ‘Roman copy’ in art history has deeply rooted and extensive origins. Whilst this prejudiced was attached to Roman sculpture from an extremely early time in modern archaeology and art history, the construct viewed in a current context reveals issues with both its development and contribution to historical understanding and education. The construct is formed upon several main factors that have recently been called into question by revisionist historians. Firstly, the development of the construct by conservative historians during the 18th century, a context that valued artistic originality and authenticity, lead to it’s popularisation and circulation as a respected model. Secondly, the construct rests entirely on the presumption that Greek art is in fact aesthetically and artistically superior, insinuating a negative predisposition towards Roman artistic workmanship and aesthetics. Lastly, technological advancements aiding historiography have asserted the fact that many conclusions drawn by conservative historians through their methodology are in fact irrefutably incorrect. While the basis for much of the conservative historians argument has been seen as flawed, or otherwise seriously questioned in terms of accurate and reliable history, the construct of ‘Roman copies’ of Greek originals has remained a legitimised understanding and interpretation of Roman art for centuries. The question can then be raised as to whether the attention given to this aspect of history is worth the fact that much of the history being taught is now being heavily questioned.
The Italian Renaissance included some of the greatest artists we have ever seen from Leonard Da Vinci, to Michelangelo, and Raphael. The Renaissance took place from the late thirteenth to sixteenth centuries and is know as the ‘rebirth’. The idea that the rebirth of the arts after being asleep for a thousand years is an amazing thing to grasp. This time brought back light to liberal arts, which were on the brink of being extinct. (Murray 2) What is also interesting about art during this time was that most of the art had Christian in its roots, for example, Botticelli’s The Allegory of Spring (Faure 1) is said to have had a Christian interpretation. (Murray) “Every Italian artist, willingly took the title of architect, sculptor, and painter” (Faure 2). At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Italian painters had asked the Flemish painters for their secret techniques because the Italians felt like the language of painting was one that was always meant for them. (Faure 4) The sculptors claimed their inspiration from ancient works. Lastly the Renaissance introduced idea of individualism, which helped the Italians get away from everything that was going on during that time. Art during the Renaissance included painting, sculpting and architecture, all of which were an important part in expressing the idea of individualism and making art what is is today.
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.
Kasfir, S. L. (2007) African Art and the Colonial Encounter: Inventing a Global Commodity, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
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...