For many years African art has been thriving throughout Africa. Works can be characterized by bright colors, intricate sculptures made of magnificent and rare materials, and reflect the styles of various cultures throughout the continent. These works were present even long before anyone had started recording accounts of writing, art, or aspects related to a particular culture. What I hope to do with this project is to learn more about the actual recorded data. There are many questions I hope to answer a few of them being the following:

  • How did they create these pieces? (What were the materials)
  • Who was creating the pieces? (Was it only the elite or did the average person create works of art)
  • Was it traded among the different people in the towns and cities?
  • How was it viewed then? How is it viewed now?
  • What was the motivation to start creating this art (was it suffering, was it something they saw when captured by Europeans, was it a means of documenting history)
  • Who are the people who were standout artists of that time? Are there any standout artists?
  • From what regions do most of the documented art come from?
  • Who are the main collectors of that art in contemporary times?
  • How does this art play a role in shaping the art world today? Essentially, does it have a significant contribution and if so what is it?

Here are a few links I hope to start with answering the questions:

Helpful links:

http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=aa39

http://curatorseye.com/collection.php

http://arthistoryresources.net/ARTHafrica.html

http://www.galleryofwestindianart.com/

http://www.medalia.net/ahistory.html

http://www.africa.si.edu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEGp7-2a7lc

Hopefully with these questions answered I can create a page will resemble this structure:

I. Introduction of African Art History

II. Cultural significance when it was originally created and cultural significance today

III. Who the creators of art were

IV. Popular artists of those times  (if documented)

V. Who purchased the art back then and who purchases the art today

VI. Famous pieces

VII. Some of my newly discovered favorite pieces and artists

VIII. Why this art is essential to the art world.

Works cited:

http://www.all-about-african-art.com/african-art-history.html

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2 Comments

  1. Cheryl Finley

    Dear Dalanda, you topic is close to my own special interests and indeed exciting, but I'd like for you to try to focus it a bit more on the market for African art as opposed to a history of African art, its forms and its makers. You could do this by honing in on a time period or a specific artist or culture. In your outline, you're not very clear about time period, maker, culture, or type of art work. As you know, Africa is a vast continent, which is to say that African art is equally as vast. In the past 7 to 10 years, there has been a great interest in the global art world in contemporary African Art and many artists from the continent, including Yinka Shonibare, Berni Searle, Romuald Hazoume and El Anatsui, to name just a few, have gallery representation, track records for sales in auction and exhibitions at major museums, biennales and art fairs. There are many other artist that fall into this category as well. Classical African art and sculpture is always offered for sale at mainstream auctions like Christie's and Sotheby's if you would be interested in looking at this work and, perhaps, identifying a particular style, genre, or culture, which sells particularly well. Finally, if you were interested in contemporary African art on the continent, you might consider looking at the biennales that have taken place there for the past 20 years, including Dak'Art in Dakar, Senegal, which will celebrate it's 20th year this May/June; Johannesburg Biennale, which folded in 1997, but has since sought a revival; or the Cairo Biennale, which was a big hit of the art world, but since the so called Arab Spring, one wonders if it will return. I hope these are some helpful ideas for you to explore, Dalanda. I urge you to try to focus your topic a bit more. Let me know what you think. Good luck!

    1. user-c6d08

      Wow! This is definitely a lot to think about. I wasn't really sure how I was supposed to structure this presentation but it is becoming much more clear to me. I think I'm going to focus on the contemporary art market in a few countries in West Africa and focus on the major dealers, buyers, auctions, and such that are on the scene now. Could my presentation consist of those players, notable works, the way business is done, etc? I'm still a little unclear as to what exactly is enough but I do have some better idea thanks to the samples.