Influence of African Art on European and American Art since 19th century - Research Paper Example

Influence of African Art on European and American Art since 19th Century Discuss the influence of African art on Europeanand American art from the 19th century through the present, citing specific works, artists, styles, or movements that have been influential. Introduction African art became a powerful influence among European artist during the early 1900s. The traditional African sculpture became highly valued throughout the world during that time. The creativity that was employed during this time marked the beginning of modernism. It was during this time that most of the African artist had discovered the significance of artwork in expressing the daily encounters. Most of the artist used their talent to pass important message to the European, who for a long time, had been dominating the Africans. The study done by Sey (459) shows that European and American artists were drawn to African sculpture because of its sophisticated approach to the abstraction of the human figure. However, they were not impressed by the creativity involved. This is evidence by the way the Europeans and Americans used to treat the African artwork. Sey found out that Europeans and Americans treated African artwork as artifacts of colonized cultures rather than as artworks, and held so little economic value that they were displayed in pawnshop windows and flea markets (467). Discussion The main factor that makes the African art to be influential is the fact that most of the African artwork were designed during the colonial times and hence had direct impact on the European and American who were the major colonialist. Most of the African art were designed to expose the limitations imposed on the Africans by the colonialist. A study that was conducted by Salah that explored the twentieth century history and sociology of the western countries reveals that most of famous and creative artist comes from previously colonized territories, including Africa, London and Rome (453). This signifies the fact that Africans played a significant role in shaping the art industry both in Africa and western communities. The study states that the intellectual employed by African during production of its art is essential to understanding the global modernity. This is because most of the African art overlaps with that of the European counterparts. African artist employed different styles in their artwork. These include the Masquerade and masking traditions have a role of underlining the historical continuities with a pre-colonial past. The use of these forms of tradition compounded by creativity employed has made most of the African art to be among the most admired. It has encouraged the modernist from the entire continent to continually engage in African masking traditions. They masking and masquerade constitute the major forms of art of presenting a person. In order to fully discuss the reasons behind the superiority of African art, it is important to first explore the meaning of the term Africa (Sey 459). From artistic point of view, Africa is described as a complex intellectual construct that signify different opinions. Africa integrates certain cultural values, cultural features and values meant to depict Africa as a continent (Salah 472). One unique thing about Africa and art is that Africa went through a myriad of political and social changes. Africa is a continent with a lot of experiences in aspects such as slavery, colonialism and diasporization of African people and cultures. Because of all these experience, Africa is a complex continent. This is why most of the artistic activities made in Africa are outstandingly unique. They are normally carved out based on the cultures, experiences and the day to day encounters. This means that artwork is just a representation of social or political phenomena. In this context the African art are products of the historically complex encounters. One thing that should be notes as far as African art concerns the dynamic nature of the artwork (Salah 452). Social changes that are responsible for modernizing the continent are also the main basis through which the African artwork is understood. This means that Africa owes its success to the phenomenon of modernity. Through modernity, a variety of artwork was developed. In the field of visual arts, modernity is best described as a main transformative social force. A person can learn the nature and condition social, economic and political condition through analyzing the various forms of visual arts (Salah 456). A good example of the role of African artwork can be observed when the work of a famous artist, Cajres Baudelaire is considered. This artist creatively and critically prepare a piece of artwork that had the beauty and tall other features of a perfect piece of artwork (Sey 457). The main goal that Baudelaire had when he was preparing the piece of artwork was to display the experiences of urban life. According to the available sources, the influence of African art on Europe started at different time at different parts of Africa. It is clear that some parts of Africa pioneered the idea of artwork (Salah 457). Places such as Egypt and other parts of North Africa are thought to be among the first nations in Africa to prepare pieces of artwork that match the qualities of modernism. In other words, it is possible to trace the instances of modernism in many aspects of art and society in these regions to as early as the beginning of 20th century( Sey 453). The term African modernism was coined to describe the period in human history that the pieces of artwork from Africa had an influence on the European nations. It was during this time that the new generation of African artist, driven by the fervor of nationalist and anticolonial movements turned to ancient art and architecture in their search for the better and new visual style to express their need for freedom (Salah 459). In Egypt, such rush for the freedom through artwork brought about a phenomenon called neo-pharaonic style in painting. This style was unique in the sense that it combined artwork with contemporary popular and peasant cultures. The rise f the strong art education further facilitated the generation of Egyptian and Arab artist (Sey 451). Most of the African artwork that had an impact on the European was mainly those forms of artwork that were used to mark the major social movements such as Egyptian surrealists, abstraction, and cubism. Another important feature that marked the period of African modernism includes experiences such as slavery, colonialism. The nationalistic cultural resurgence that was prevailing in many newly independent African countries compounded by the government patronage and interest in the arts facilitated the integration of artwork into the decolonization, developmental projects and refashioning of the self in modern term as (Salah 460). There was creation of new movements in artwork and social life. This movement was meant to construct new tropes of self representation. African modernism in artwork is largely based in the struggle for liberation and decolonization. Artwork was the main tool that was used to symbolize in the association among Africa and the rest of the world. A clear example justifying this statement can be discerned when one considers the photography and film that was used to display the antiapartheid movement in Algeria. This photography was used by Algerian to express the despair they were going through. Critical analysis of the nature of photography that was used indicates that it had deeper meaning related to the apartheid movements (Salah 462). It is important to note that there are specific artwork and exhibitions that have had an influence on the western or Europeans countries. These include the work of the famous artists such as Mancoba, El salahi, sokoto and Uzo Egonu. Mancoba‘s earliest forms of artwork involved sculpture. However, he then gradually shifted from sculpture to other media such as painting drawing, and print making (Sey 445). His artwork demonstrates his familiarity and ease with contemporary European modernist styles and aesthetics. However, despite the fact that Mancoba had talents in artwork, he was not able to progress in his talent due to the limitations that were imposed onto him by the western art world. The cases of exclusionary practices of mainstream museums and the western world were common during that time. Every African or Caribbean artist who defied the colonial predetermination of their subjectivities faced the same repercussion (Salah 467). This means that despite the significant contribution made by the Mancoba towards the art industry, he was not able to get recognized. He made a great effort of defining African modernity. He is therefore part of the respected artist who, like his European counterparts, wanted to explore the limits of artistic experimentation despite the limitations from the colonialist. His story is a representative of the complex artwork of African modernism that was sidelined by European simply because they were against their expectations. The art and contributions of most of the famous African artists were poorly documented. Most of the art work that were produced by the famous African artist are scattered in European and American collections and are bound to be erased from the history (Salah 469). This discussion reveals that despite the fact that most of the African artist had a lot of influence in their artwork, the style, and the movements that were behind their pieces of artwork were largely determined by the socio-cultural factors. Struggle for liberation and decolonization were among the common issues that were being focused by the artwork. This greatly limit African artist from becoming famous because the Europeans had to employ their exclusionary measures to bar them from getting ay form of recognition (Salah 473). This means that despite the fact that African artist had a lot of influence on the European nation especially when their creativity and originality is considered. Other sources claim that the African artists, despite their talents, have not been afforded the same license for appropriative practices as compared to their European counterparts. Most of them are limited by the stern measures and consequences that they can be charged in the pretext of in authenticity. Africa wanted to Most of the African art studies revolve around the masquerade and masking traditions (Salah 477). Conclusion It is undisputable to note that African artwork had a significant influence in the European art. The main factor that made African artwork to be outstanding is the fact that the continent Africa is a relatively complex continent. It is a complex continent in the since that it went through a number of socio-cultural experiences. It is also important to note that artwork is a product of the environmental factors and the creativity (Sey 443). The environmental factors include political factors, colonial factors, slavery and many other factors. Environment is the main source of innovation. Because most of the African’s went through many forms of hardships, they had the ability of coming up with interesting pieces of artwork that were catchy, beautiful and creatively prepared (Sey 441). These forms of artwork had a lot of influence especially to the European art. However, because most of the pieces of art designed by African aimed at decolonization and were anticolonial in nature, the European could not allow the African artist to exploit their talent fully. European had to adopt the exclusionary measures to ensure that their wish is done. This therefore represented the main limitation concerning the African art (Sey 439) Work cited Salah Hassan. African Modernism: Beyond Alternative Modernities Discourse. South Atlantic Quarterly 109:3, Summer 2010. DOI 10.1215/00382876- 2010- 001. Sey, James Alexander. The trauma of conceptualism for South African art. Critical Arts: A South-North Journal of Cultural & Media Studies, 2010, 24 (3), p438-456 Read More