Ishani Pendse

"How did European art and
African art influence each other, both in new content as well as in essence starting from colonialism to modern periods?"

Paul Klee / Senecio / 1922 / Oil on gauze / 40.5 x 38 cm / Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Fertility Figure: (Akua Ba), Asante People of Ghana. 19th-20th century. Wood, beads, string. 27.2 x 9.7 x 3.9cm. The Met.

Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Paris. 1907, Oil on canvas. 8' x 7'8".

Twin Figures (Ere Ibeji). Nigeria. Yoruba culture, 20th century. Wood, height 20cm. The University of Iowa Museum of Art.

Overview of Modern African Art

• Initiation
  • Rites to being confirmed→ trials to prove responsibility
  • Spirit masks → Bwa initiation (young adults initiated into adulthood by being “kidnapped” and then being stripped of clothing and beds, then taught about the spirit world and must memorize the spirit stories important to each clan, perform with a mask)
• Leadership
  • Use art to establish dominance and leadership
    • Validate right to authority
    • Communicate moral laws
  • Gold → used by Ashanti
• Spirit world
  • Local customs and beleif systems to answer existentialist questions
  • Many african belief systems no one supreme god who is fundamentally involved in human life → very opposite to Christianity (assimilation)
  • Many spirit forces that interact with humans and take interest in their affairs
    • Spirits in fields, rivers, forests, land, ancestors
  • Control success/failure and relationships with spirits require maintenance
  • Art used in relations with spirits→ offerings, ritual performances
    • Diviner calling upon spirits

African influence
- colonization
- human origins
- much more “primitive” style that went back to the basics
- artifacts (natural history/ethnography) --> art → ?
- influenced the Modern Movement as colonialism in Africa led to the acquisition of new artifacts from this region → artists seeking to expand found great inspiration in the very necessary, strong and minimalistic style of the african masks
The art of Africa often had vital religious functions, however the influence of African art often only extended to the external aesthetic qualities that artists such as Picasso, Modigliani, Klee and German Expresionists adopted. However, part of the attraction was also based in the essence of African art and what it meant to each individual, whether this included the original religious/ritualistic significance or not. (Ganesh and aesthetics)
primitive -> purity

• Artists wanted to expand and found inspiration in the new→ western art had been rehashed many times with always an expansion followed by a return to classical values in almost a cycle of sorts (neoclassicism vs romanticisim, etc)
• Sought new ideas and found them in something that had not been used before at all

European influence
- colonization so response to that
- "westernization"
- resistance over decades
- modern art --> african artists modifying tradition in diaspora
- creation of identity
Due to heavy resistance to colonialism and "westernization," European art had probably less of an aesthetic influence. The African people continued making art significant to their cultures and much of the change that has come about has arisen from adapting to new times and new technology- such as the use of paint by the Guro people in making masks. However the period of colonization was very turbulent and led to the perhaps a shift in the essence of African art, seen in the search for a new identity.

• Still used “art” for religious and tribal functions → art/artifacts
• The way they were used were different 
• assimilation→ europeans brought medicine, schools, Christianity and in turn took away from the art of the Africans prior to colonization
• Still tried to hold onto roots and cultures but hard with attempts at assimilation and view that Africans were “barbaric” or “primitive”

When one culture tries to take over another, both will be fundamentally changed. The one that must submit to the will of the stronger one will experience a change in its very essence as it will be resistant, however in Africa you can see that there is a strong holding onto the roots. European art, while it’s very identity was not questioned because of colonization experience a much more dramatic change in its art on the surface level. However this is reflective of the nature of the culture of one who takes over another as it is constantly looking to expand. 

Connections: 

• Leadership: art used to establish dominance just as it was used to do so in ancient Assyria where the large scale architecture was used to establish power. 
• Modern ethical dilemma: using religious artifacts from other religions for aesthetic purposes
• Art used in modern times as well to send a message and create identity→ Beyonce 
  • Cultural appropriation 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

"African Colonization & Independence." Rachel Strohm. N.p., 01 Feb. 2014. Web. 02 June 2016.
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"Fertility Figure: Female (Akua Ba) | 1979.206.75 | Work of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016. Web. 20 May 2016.

Music, Modernity, and the Global Imagination: South Africa and the West (03 June 1999) by Veit Erlmann

Stokstad, Marilyn, and Michael Watt Cothren. Art History. 5th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2014. Print.

Thompson, Robert Farris. "African influence on the art of the United States." African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter 13.1 (2010): 7.
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