African Art Essay

Grupo Mondongo’s medium choice is quite new and their collage is quite extraordinary, its basically a sculpture of small things that most people have likely seen, put together to make it look like a skull in a size of about 5 foot by 4 foot. The artist probably chose to make it a skull because Calavera is a sugar skull that is eaten on days leading up to ‘The Day of the Dead’ in most Latin American countries. The title of the artwork is obviously shown in the sculpture, it shows a skull and has a picture of a skull. The references to these sculptures has a lot of different historical paintings such as, “The Last Supper”, “Lady with an Ermine”, “The Great waves of Kanagawa” and “Michael Jackson and Bubbles.” There are also famous movies such as “King Kong,” “Star Wars,” and “The Terminator.”

To start at the beginning or the Canon of these works of art would be to go to the Prehistoric times. To give some background about this time, the prehistoric period was art found when people were still living in caves and just starting the first civilization of humans. According to Smarthistory.org the oldest collection of ornamentation was found in Africa and being over 82,000 years old. The sculpture I'm going to be talking about from this period is the sculpture called “Lion-Human”. The Lion Human to me looks like a tall older man with the characteristics of a lion with a long mane with a long pointed nose. The artist used expressionism to show that the man had the qualities of a man but also had the inner workings of a lion. It was probably how he

This pair figures represent Yuny and his wife, Renenutet seated with rigidly formal posture next to him. This statue depicts a powerful couple that looks straight ahead, with their heads held up and blank eyes widely open. The form of their features and

Consider how Africa’s geography has changed over time. What positive and negative effects would these changes have had on human populations on the continent? As their new homes changed they were able to adapt due to their innovative mindset. This can be attributed to the new found organization thanks to language. Allowing Africans to grow and expand throughout the entire continent. Other factors that can be attributed are the change in geography for some parts such as the Sahara drying out and swamps and lakes disappeared.

Interestingly, instead of four, only three sides of the Sarcophagus are filled with images. The long section illustrates two Greek heroes, presumably Herakles and Iolaos, battling evil centaurs. The two other sections show a centaur attacking a lioness and the other, the representation of peace in this work, two centaurs getting along. Herakles and Iolaos are highlighted by the artist’s careful attention to make them protrude the greatest, accentuating their impact and overall importance in this sculpture. Every powerful muscle in their bodies is portrayed and given detail in three dimensions. The three-dimensions not only bring these characters closer to reality but also heighten the heroic nature, masculinity, and belligerent attitude of the Greek heroes. Instead of using basic geometric shapes to create works of art, the sculptor chooses to increase the detail in the Sarcophagus by giving everything in the sculpture individual characteristics and traits. They are presented as being stressed

The Dogon used a distinctive style of sculpture used in rituals, typically that were made of softwood and freestanding figures were made in a cylindrical style. ("African Art") The Seated Couple has iron embellishments on the hair, ears, and wrists of the figures. Iron is historically worn or placed next to the dead during Dogon funerals so this work was most likely displayed during funerals or was created to honor ancestors. ("Figure: Seated Couple") The iconography of the Mayan Vision of Lady Xoc lintel is unique in that it depicts Lady Xoc performing ritual sacrifices, not a typical image of women in ancient Mayan art. “Though few became rulers in their own right, women held positions of substance and power as wives and mothers of kings. By the seventh and eighth centuries women had risen to a public role, commanding wealth and prestige.” (Kerr) According to Patty of Kachina House, the positioning of the Coyote Clan Kachina Doll arms and that the arms are pinned on, not carved out of the same piece of wood as the body indicate that this is a Zuni piece and not a later piece done by the Hopi. (Kachina

Because many works were commissioned by the king to adorn his palace, relief sculptures that depict the life and stories of Ashurnasirpal are a popular theme for Assyrian art. The pose in which the figure’s eye and sometimes torso are front facing while the rest of the body is shown in profile is called a composite pose and it appears in many works, including in the faces of the figures in the piece given the title “Ashurnasirpal II with attendants and soldier” which would have also resided in Ashurnasirpal II’s Northwest Palace (Kleiner, Gardner’s Art through the Ages: The Western Perspective, p. 47). The composite pose is also found in ancient Egyptian art, Persian art, early Greek art. The use of round spiral shapes to create the texture of hair and beards was also a common technique used by Assyrian artists, appearing in an abundance of works. For example, the hair and upper beard of the man-headed winged bull, “Lamasu,” are constructed using this same technique (Kleiner, Gardner’s Art through the Ages: The Western Perspective, p.

Sculpture is considered the highest form of art in the Roman culture. It also belongs to the Roman culture and the early imperial period. It is a roman copy of the Greek original by Kalamis, which represents the rape of Cassandra. Cassandra in Greek mythology is the prophetic daughter of Piram.In the original it features a woman who appears distressed and her garments slip and reveal her breasts. This work of art symbolized rape. This head was beautiful and focused. The sculpture was the first thing on display in this gallery. The head looked like it belonged to a much larger work of art. It seemed copped off and unbalanced. The curls on the side of the head were deep and accentuated. The curls on top of the head had less grooves, shadows, and depth. The nose was broken off along with the right eyebrow and chin. I could not tell if it was a woman or a man. When you view the artwork from different angles the facial expression is different. It is a simple work of art.

African life has a big impact on African art. Many art pieces are inspired by a story of a culture and how they lived and what inspired them to create some of the works. These art pieces can come in many forms such as painting, sculpture, and dancing and they each convey the cycle of life with the importance of pregnancies, beauty and youth and afterlife. These three things are represented in so many African art pieces.

In simple terms, the Diaspora as a concept, describes groups of people who currently live or reside outside the original homelands. We will approach the Diaspora from the lenses of migration; that the migration of people through out of the African continent has different points of origin, different patterns and results in different identity formations. Yet, all of these patterns of dispersion and germination/ assimilation represent formations of the Diaspora. My paper will focus on the complexities of the question of whether or not Africans in the Diaspora should return to Africa. This will be focused through the lenses of the different phases in the Diaspora.

The little that is known of the history of the African people comes from the stories that the Africans pass down from one generation to another. These stories have been changed or confirmed by the studies of archaeologists, who have found evidence doing so. The biggest problem for archaeologists is that most of the artwork and other remnants of the African culture has been destroyed over the years due to natural elements (Jirousek, para.1). This is because they were made of organic materials, which decompose easily in the environmental conditions of Africa (Jirousek, para.1). Even though there is not many examples of historical African Art archaeologists

The seated female figure is used by the Bamana people of Mali. It is about two-feet tall, made of wood, beads, and metal, and represents a woman sitting on a stool. The woman’s hair is separated into four equal quadrants and appears to be twisted back into a beehive-like style. Her forehead bears many different scar patterns which extend down the sides of her face. At the top of her forehead is a band of squares, below that is a band of arrows directed to her left. Under the band of arrows, there are two raised ovals which are symmetrical and directly under the ovals is a band of long rectangles.

My experience from The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, was favorable based on one initial discovery. That being, the Water Deity Headdress. Not only did I get a viewing of the Headdress in the fixture, but they were displaying a video on the screen of an African dance, they were wearing water deity headdresses, and Bwadi bwa Kifwebe. The water deity headdress is also called the Etim Abassi Ekpenyong in Nigerian. These headdresses were constructed of a variety of materials such as: “wood, goatskin, and pigment”. This headdress shows the winding hairdo of an Efut women. The headdresses facial section replicated the look of a crocodile, and appeared rather heavy. Through this exhibit, I expanded my knowledge and learned that this mask speaks to a stream soul who accepted the style of a

When trying to compare and contrast the music-culture and society of the Mbuti and that of the Venda, it becomes difficult to comment on sound when we haven't heard any Venda music. It's easy to recognize that for the Mbuti the music embodies the heart of the forest, and for the Venda the relation to nature is the act of a mother giving birth. Thinking about concept and behavior this makes the music performed by the two cultures separate and distinguishable. This is where culture and environment become important factors. How noticeable is this when listening to the music of both peoples? When given the opportunity to listen, without a trained ear, it would be difficult to find differences in the sound of the music.

During the mid 19th century up until the Great War of 1914, European countries began to heavily colonize and come into contact with African nations. This was called "new imperialism". During this contact, European culture was influenced by Africa. The influence of the African people can be seen in the European society of the time. In the 19th and 20th centuries, modern artists embraced African art for its lack of pretension or formal qualities.