African Art Myths

Hi, I'm Morgan Robinson.

And this is my presentation on myths about African art.

Yeah, Prezi.

What if I question if these pieces were art?

If I gathered around a group of people in the

museum, Look, these pieces up and down and said These

aren't art.

What do you think the response would be?

What if and said, I described he's pieces as primitive

or suggested that all art that came out of Europe

will virtually the same and carry the same meaning.

How do you think people respond to those claims?

While those claims have never been put into those pieces

themselves, pieces like these have been given those clients.

Okay, The art that comes out of Africa is described

as primitive or to universally have the same aesthetic, and

I'm here to prove that that is not true.

First, let's discuss the claim.

The African art is primitive In H.

W. Johnson's history of art, Jansen showcases sub Saharan African

art and a section titled Primitive Art.

The Ancient World.

Jansen states that he uses primitive as a convenient label

for a way of life that has passed through the

Neolithic Revolution but shows no signs of evolving in the

direction of the historic civilizations.

In this section, Jansen shows Ah, work from the 13th

century. Ah, work from the 15th century and the other

works in this section were from the 19th and 20th

century. Keep in mind.

This was first published in 1962.

I have provided to definitions of the word primitive one

relating to are produced by the people or culture that

is non industrial and often non literate in tribal and

to belonging to or characteristic of an early stage of

development. One could argue that Jansen is trying to describe

the peace is as old or not made in this

current time period.

But that argument doesn't hold strong seeing as some of

the pieces he did provide or from the 20th century,

and also, and when talking about art from ancient Greece,

it is usually defined as classical and not primitive.

The second myth about African art is that African art

has a universal aesthetic or that African art has no

aesthetic. Even artists who saw inspiration from African art described

it as having a universal setting.

But this is not true.

Africa is a continent made up of 56 different countries.

That is many different cultures, languages all in one place.

So trying to describe it as having a universal aesthetic

is very untrue.

Yeah, imagine arguing that Irish culture is the same as

German culture.

People will look at you weird and argue that they're

very different.

And we should hold the same anger when it suggested

that all the whole continent Africa shares one culture would.

In reality, it is a beautiful continent, made a made

up of many different cultures.

Now I would like to present to artists who I

think greatly defy thes two myths.

The first artist I want to present is Sakari Douglas

Camp for a little background.

So Zachary Douglas Camp was born in Boo Com, a

river state, Nigeria.

She currently resides and splits her time between Nigeria and

England. So in her art, she likes to incorporate both

sides off the culture she was brought up in.

So she likes to include British culture of where she

resides now, but she also likes to interpret Nigerian culture

and in her art as well.

Even her choice of material is impacted by her experience

in Nigeria, so Correa chooses toe work with steel recycled

from oil barrels in the*** Delta.

Oil is the main protest, so she chooses to use

the steel, too fuse where she's from now with back

home, which is all surrounded by oil.

So she chooses what's in her environment from both places.

Toe work with as a medium.

Now we look at some of her work.

This is her piece pucker from 2000 and 18, and

it is made out of stainless steel in car paint.

It is a bright red color, and she uses leaves

and flowers made out of steel to kind of infer

Ah, head wrap on the top of the pieces.

Head head wraps are a big piece of Nigerian culture

in our big throughout African general.

Thes pieces are a bit more political.

They're also made out of steel, but Zachary uses these

pieces to connect to to comment on society and our

dependence on oil.

This piece is playful and bright, but holds of much

deeper meaning when you know the context of where she's

from and the and how she's affected by the material

she uses.

And the last piece we're gonna look at is titled

Europe, supported by Africa in America.

It's from 2015, again made out of steel.

So Carrie replicated the drawing with the same title by

William Blake, which is at the bottom of the screen.

But in her own style, she described her redesign as

Africa as African izing the original figures.

But if you look deeper into the where the cloths

come from, um, she says, she got the Some of

the cloths are from Asia, and some of them are

from Europe as well as Africa.

And she does this to imply how are environments work

together and we build off of one another.

Zachary's pieces defy these myths because there is a deep

meaning behind it.

They're modern, their innovative, anything but primitive, and she distinctly

uses materials that affect her from where she grew up

in Nigerian culture.

So these pieces might be different or tweet if she

grew up anywhere else or any other part of Africa.

The next artist I would like to present is Abdullah.

Abdullah was born in 1953 and Molly.

What makes Abdullah's work unique is that even though is

he is from Mali, his art is very is based

on a traditional fabric that comes from Ghana, and he

mixes his culture with the traditions from Ghana.

So now let's look at his works.

This first piece depicts in a shanty king and the

colors that are used are very important, like yellow is

usually used to represent royalty and blacks and blues.

They could also refer to strength uh huh.

And this is also very significant because a shanty kings,

um, we're usually the only ones who were ableto wear.

Um, can take cloth, which does, which is from originally

from Ghana.

You will see in a lot of Abdu is textile

work, his use of bright colors and they always are

significant and have a meaning.

And he does this on purpose, like the fading hombre

in the back of this is to represent the sunset,

which I think he's done beautifully with the colors he's

chosen and typically, um ah, lot of his work is

political, but for this presentation, I've chosen some of his

most recent work, which, um has not, which is not

as political, but just more of ah, mixing and showcase

of bright colors and yeah, his own experience in Africa.

It it's This collection is titled Symphony Of, and It's

again to represent the mixing of traditions of in Ghana

and Kent and Molly.

And he showcase the connections in his art in these

two traditions and these with these two cultures and again,

like I said before, usually his art depicts of or

warns off the realities of war in the AIDS epidemic.

But the ones I've pieced here are taking two different

cultures and makes thumb together to make a symphony, as

the title implies.

Okay, so final thought and question.

I think Abdul A and Sakari showcase the opposite of

primitive work.

Their work is very modern, and what I've shown you

is very recent work of.

There's African art still exists, so it can't be described

as primitive.

And, um, they continue to create.

And they're taking modern situations and creating and using art

as their outlet to express how they how these current

situations and current yeah, ways of life are impacting them.

And they do showcase their culture as well as other

cultures they connect with in their art.

And they're very different and distinct and what they choose

to use in Abdullah using can't cloth and Zakaria using

steel because they reminds them of their home and what

they want to represent.

So I think the claims that African artists primitive it

is very false.

And there art is true examples of why.

Okay, So my question is, do you think knowing an

artist origin is crucial to fully understanding their work?

If so, what do we lose by not knowing and

if not names and pieces that have clear meanings even

without knowing anything about the artist?

Okay. And here's my were excited Page.

Thank you so much.

African Art Myths

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