Art of Africa

We don't know nearly enough about creativity in sub-Saharan Africa but Polly Savage's book Making Art in Africa 1960Africa -2010 gives us a way in. The word 'making' in the title is significant. Much of this work is very hands-on and physically striking.

This is a preview of a chapter in Saffron Books forthcoming title, Artists and Art Education in Africa Art and Art Education in Africa, edited by Elsbeth Court and part of Saffron African Art and Society Series, [ISSN 1740-3111 | Series Editors John Picton, Sajid Rizvi, www.saffronbooks.com], documents an extraordinary symposium of 130 visual art specialists from twenty countries, mostly scholar-practitioners, who debated about art, African art and art education in Africa at the peak of the africa’95 season in London. The collected texts indicate a variety of conditions which, in turn, generate contingent ways of becoming and being a contemporary artist. These comparative configurations of artistic production and practice move the discourse beyond the rhetoric – and, indeed, prejudice – that persists in obscuring the actualities and accomplishments of ‘African art’. The beam of continuity in the book is the sharing of both visionary and practical approaches to education in and through art. The texts include (i) Historical and institutional backgrounds for specialised art education; (ii) Case studies of specific situations: some that involve the processes of decolonisation and re-engagement with traditions and others that set out regional and trans-Africa initiatives and (iii) Artist statements in prose and performance about their careers and concerns. The majority of the texts are edited versions of the original papers, most of which have been updated, revised and/or supplemented (as indicated by the year).

This article examines the process by which early 20th century European modernists and African-American artists of the Harlem Renaissance negotiated the influence of traditional African sculpture. With a focus on African-American painter, Aaron Douglas, I investigate how and to what end his generation of African-American artists incorporated these influences. I additionally discuss how their methods and the conditions surrounding them compare to the aforementioned Modernists. In examining the roots of these respective trajectories, I discovered that various people and factors including: critics, cultural and political leaders, patrons, philanthropists, artistic/aesthetic movements, colonization, commercialization, racism, and social responsibility impacted the abilities of modernists and African-American artists to embrace or reject the influence of traditional African sculpture. I urge art teachers and studio art professors to be mindful of the power structures that inhibit our abilities to look inclusively at the complexities of traditional African sculptural influences and their potential, during student critiques.

This article examines the process by which early twentieth-century European modernists and African American artists of the Harlem Renaissance negotiated the influence of traditional African sculpture. With a focus on African American painter Aaron Douglas, the author investigates how and to what end his generation of African American artists incorporated these influences. The author additionally discusses how their methods, and the conditions surrounding them, compare to the aforementioned modernists. In examining the roots of these respective trajectories, the author discovered that various people and factorsincluding critics, cultural and political leaders, patrons, philanthropists, artistic/aesthetic movements, colonization, commercialization, racism, and social responsibility-impacted the abilities of modernists and African American artists to embrace or reject the influence of traditional African sculpture. The author urges art teachers and studio art professors to be mindful of the power structures that inhibit their abilities to look inclusively at the complexities of traditional African sculptural influences and their potential during student critiques. While completing my doctoral studies in art education, I enrolled on an independent study course under the tutelage of a visiting studio professor. I set up a studio in my basement and surrounded myself with an eclectic grouping of inspirational images and objects. When my professor arrived for our scheduled critique, I was eager to discuss a new series of small earthenware figurative vessels that integrated the design sensibilities and physiognomy of my surrounding collection of Dan and Goli masks (see Figure 1). After looking closely at the large nose and sensual lips of my forms, he hesitantly offered some surprising advice. He suggested: 'You might want to watch out for stereotypes.' Before I could respond, I noticed his eyes readjust as if he had suddenly come to a realization. He gasped, changed his authoritative tone, and humbly withdrew his initial response to admit: 'Maybe I should watch out for stereotypes.' He then regretfully admitted that the historical baggage of cultural domination inhibited his initial interpretation. Did the African influences I drew upon lose their ability to evoke meaning or did he enter into this critique with some preconceived notions about my influences, their origins, and my direction? Although my masks-their significance and function-preceded the stereotypes which subjugate them, in his view, my subsequent sculptures served only to reinscribe racial stereotypes. Thankfully, his forthrightness led us to a fruitful exchange regarding the impact of stereotypes, power, privilege, the credibility of influences, historiography, and the colonization of meaning. The following summer I visited another studio professor who had recently returned from his sabbatical in Italy where he studied ceramics. He was in the process of creating a new series of