African Art

1. I chose the two videos “African Art” and “African Art: Legacy of Oppression” because they had to do with Africa. In my readings, I found African art to be the most interesting, especially some of the ways women were involved with art and the ways they were portrayed. Much of African was connected in some way with spirits which was also very interesting to me.

2. The first video I watched; “African Art: Legacy of Oppression” explained many works of art in the Tervuren Museum in Belgium. The art that affected the west was dramatic and startling. Many African artists moved away from representing people or landscapes as ‘realistic’ and inspired many modern artists such as Pablo Picasso.  Ivory was a common material used in art. Rubber became in high demand and families would be kidnapped until the males came back from the woods with their quota of rubber met. Some sculptures were meant to ‘speak’ to the dead and were used to connect with spirits or send messages to them. The second video; “African Art” focused on what the art meant to the people. It explained the geography of where the art progressed over time. There was a distinct architectural style of the Africans and they built many places of worship. The acts of their lives, such as hunting and gathering, were shown in ancient rock art. The video also explained the two basic approaches to artistic expression- conceptual and perceptual. Perceptual is what the artist sees throughout their life, while conceptual is what the artist sees in their imagination. The conceptual approach was most common in African art.

3. The videos spoke of how much of the art portraying women glorified motherhood, which was also discussed in the text about multiple sculptures of women. Also, some of the artwork was used to ‘stick it to their enemies’ and in doing this the artists would stick nails in a work of art or various other things. This was something that was also discussed in the text; sometimes using art for evil. All African art played a role in daily life or ceremonial rights. Many of the works were to or for spirits. They also discussed this concept in the book and how the works represented spirits or ideas and not specific people. Both the movie and the book, too, discussed how important masks were in the African culture. They would represent spirits and be worn in parades and they were also used in war until the bullets were proven to withstand them with no problem at all.

4. I liked these films quite a bit. They shared many same concepts with the text which made it easier for me to understand them because I had already read about much of what they were saying. They gave a lot of background of African art and showed how it progressed and changed and even how some pieces were copied and recopied. They also explained how to look at the art in a way in which to make it easier to understand.