Summary Of Henry John Drewal's Perceptions Of Art

Henry John Drewal wrote an article “Senses in Understandings of Art” in which he describes his research path of discovering how important the five senses of the human are to create understandings in Art. He gained a lot of his insight of multi-sensory concepts in the African art from the Yoruba people. Drewal focuses a lot of the article on mind-body matter that he learned throughout his research. This essay includes my response to Drewal’s perceptions and ideas in his article.

Henry John Drewal has a project of studying human senses in understandings of African, African Diaspora art, and general art. He has learned that words are often used to teach the art, but actions can do as much work as words can to help bring understanding of the style and aesthetics. He discovered that it is vital to have a bodily or multi-sensorial experience when getting an understanding of the Yoruba Art and their culture. Drewal explains in his article how Yoruba’s have a different understanding of their art because they use multiple senses at once as they experience their art.

Earlier in Drewal’s life, his PhD field research involved Efe/Gelede masquerades because it represented how deep and

In this seminar, He had students research different African masquerades and find sensory data. In an example of the findings, his student Michelle Craig found that in an initiation ceremony, the people in a Niger cult would have a ritual consumption of sacrificial animal ears, eyes, tongue, and foot to strengthen their sensory receptivity. Drewal explains that his sensiotic language helps understand contemporary African art as well. He describes how he learned that Blues music originated in Africa after watching a documentary directed by Antoine Fuqua, and how it is important understand the senses that shape the artistic