History of Art 190T Midterm

Uli Mural

Helen Obiora, 1955 - recognize Uli

metal, mixed media 2008, 2012

Herard Celeur

metal, mixed media 2006

Herard Celeur Skills and huge fallace • Frame of the chair rusted assemblage for body, fallace almost looks like it's being clipped, like a cigar

Kwame Nkrumah, Ghanian revolutionary & first president, late 1950s

Kente becomes a symbol of Ghanian national identity and of pan- Africanism/pride in African heritage • He was not a monarchist; Marxist; anti-elite

"aberwa ben" detail

Kente, Ghana (late 17th century) - strip cloth, repetitive patterns but varied Originally worn only by the elite, commoners not allowed - wavy lines because the devil moves in straight line

wood altar figure

Lawrence Ayodele, 1998 - female wood figure shows generosity and calm self possession - images like this function as a kind of idealizing mirror - successful reproduction

Krista Thompson's "A Sidelong Glance"

- Africa vs Diaspora are different things -

Kasfir

- In the field of contemporary African art, curatorial and critical attention has shifted away from Africa-based practice to a global, diasporic one - Diasporic African artist in the West changes media and genre so as to compete as an equal on the world stage.

Nok Terracotta Sculptures

500 BCE - 200 CE - reference Nwoko adam and ece - similarities show different process of natural synthesis

kongo cosmograms

- appear at center of the veve, quintassential vodou art - Kongo cross: "the circling of souls about the vertical "power line" linking heaven above with the dead below in the water and the intersecting "Kalunga Line" forming the boundary between the living and the dead. This is the Kongo wheel of cosmos "the sign of the four moments of the sun"

Uli Artists

- competitive - individual

Igbo Uli Motifs

60s - inspo for okekes practice of natural synthesis natural is ironic bc its modernizing

Transatlantic Black Art History

- world is indebted to Africa because cool art "has showered the world with assuaging brilliance and sensuous discipline"

Akan Throne

1700

Young woman painted with Uli

1944 - Ala goddess of the Earth, ensures land fertility and keeper of moral conscience - women made in Ala's image - beauty associated with morality, goodness - women have authority to make final judgement - Uli artists sustain good and morality - points of best attributes

Okeke, Mma Nwa Uli

1972 - Okeke mother was an uli artist, source of design inspo

Chief Diko Pim III in Regalia,

1976 wears kente Kente cloth was worn by elite figures, royalty Associated with the kingdom of Assante, formed in what is now Ghana, late 17th century Small akon states are very wealthy from gold, gold is important (heavy gold jewelry) Global trade shifted to atlantic Kwame Nkrumah, Ghanaian revolutionary and first president (1950s) Kente became a symbol of Ghanaian national identity and of pan- africanism/ pride in African heritage. Important in establishing ghanaian nationalist sentiment American grads sometimes wear kente stoles at graduation

Entrance to the Compound of Mgbaduna Okanumme

1986 - decorated walls - ritual power of design and paint on house - she did murals

Yoruba Coolness

1990s L: Lawrence Ayodele, altar figure, 1998, wood. R: David Doris, Photograph of divination specialist Aderemi Fagbade, 1998

Uli Drawing by Madame Okanumme Nnobi

1996 - representation of wooden ritual platter called ufo, symbol of good luck - dish hollows, kola nut broken, offerings are placed - some artists do explicitly say what it represents

Yoruba Divination Trays

19th Century Plate 22: Northern Yorubaland, Nigeria Plate 23: Brazil, face of diety Eshu, serves as a medium between ancestors and humans -duality, androgynous, character -coolness -find equilibrium because they're hot, not cool

Estampa 13 from Paredes Pintades da Lunda

2006 Trienal de Luanda Lunda Tchokwe signed his own name on the works, students erased this to show he did not create these

wind sculpt 2

2013 shonibare

20th cent. Saramaka peanut-grinding board,

20th century both woven, grain is different

Uli Drawing on paper

Collected by yeatman Anambra Region 1930s - cosmic balance - looks like western modern art

Okeke-Agulu - Nigerian case

Conservative reaction to 2001 exhibition organized by El Anatsui: installation = Western and hegemonic; painting = Nigerian. Irony: most influential artists working in Nigeria today are not painters.

Photograph of divination specialist Aderemi Fagbade

David Doris, 1998 - chose this pose - calm, coming forth (throne-like) - Intentionally cooled his face - seated, elite symmetry - contrasts background, not wealthy, control his body, robe and how others see you

Intamicy of independence

Demas Nwoko 1959!!!!!!!! - seems western formally - 1959, time of revolution, final hour for the british, black men in background - profoundly nationalist - draws from Nok tradition

Heviosso shrine, Come, Benin

Efficacy-not beauty-is at the center of Vodunaesthetics. The accumulation of bottles is evidence of shrine's ongoing efficacy.

Dzesi II

El anatsui , 2006 !!!!! Importance of bottle caps as something we would throw out, but also something that so many people have touched/connecting people together

sequins

European in origin but in the Haitian representation they become ritual metallic dotting • Ritual dotting (Thompson, from the isle 114) • Associates with mediation of the secrets and the power of the dead in Kongo.

Adam and Eve

Nwoko, 1967 and 68 - certain features appropriate Nok formal tropes - impersonal portraits - ancient yet contemp

Okeke Spirals

Okeke, 1960s - Okeke- Agulu sees uche Okeke turn to Uli as an expression of ethnic nationalism

Baron Lacroix

Roudy Amor, after 2000 - cool elements, walks out of cemetery in a white suit - extreme Haitian aesthetics - visceral sexuality in the international marketplace. Such open displays of sexuality had no place in the iconography of the earlier drapo traditions"

wind sculpture SG 1

Shonibare, 2018 wax fabric started in indonesia, got dutch produced, sold to west africa became a west africa thing Wax fabric is a very transnational object moved in multiple directions like wind

From the forest and head of a girl

Uche Okeke, 1962 - spirals - act of drawing produces enjoyment - the process is important, as well as product - meaning comes from context - take something old and use to mean something contemp.

Ala Shrine

Uli god women are seen as representation of

Adinkra Symbols

Visual symbols originally created by Ashanti • Adinkra are used in fabrics, pottery, logos and advertising • They are engraved into walls and other architectural features • Fabric adinkra sometimes used at funerals, dead may wear it • Pattern individualization has changed with commercialization • Symbols indicate something about person, may refer to folklore - abstract ideas through abstract symbols

Flag (Drapo) for Carfour Danger

Yves Telemak, 1994. Fabric sequins, beads. • Increasingly associated with Bawon/Gede • Bull is very evocative of heat and danger • Bawon is the god of the dead and cemetaries, escorts people to the underworld

Uli Drawing Containing a representation of ufo

by Mgbaduna Okanumme, 1986 - wooden ufo platter

Alsatian chair

carved in motif from Middle Ages mid 19th century

Nkisi Mbumba Mondo (Kongo Charm)

central africa 1919 Tapered basket/jar • Often communities what's inside is sacred and shouldn't be messed with

Saramaka peanut-grinding board

collected 1929

Saramaka carved door

collected 1960s resembles Ghanian symbols

King Obalufon II, copper

early 14th century - Ife, Yoruba - facial expressions stoic, cool - ideal coolness - old but remain in ritual - ancestral ideals - coolness transfers from past to present

fresh and fading mems

el anatsui 2007 !!! Tears in the work, unsure if its intentional or not Fortress like, chainmail looking

mobility

shonibare 2005 Decapitation in relation to aesthetic of the cool - Head is the center of the cool • Could relate to his position as a disabled artist — they are the opposite of him • Hidden edge of consumerist culture

Straying Continents

el anatsui 2010 !!!! Intentional tears, wounds, fractioning of the adinkra symbol — one way he's taking a critical stance of kingdoms like the Ashanti and work with slavery etc. • Bottle caps from alcohol reference slaves sold for alcohol; alcoholism = serious social crisis • They would take European silk, tear it up, and use it to make Kente • Looks almost alive/in movement, he doesn't want them to be static/fixed • Triangle trade brought people together with great human cost - Taught at the top, folds lower throughout - Nets are negative space, water maybe, and the bottle caps are land

God's omnipotence

el anatsui, 1974 !!!!!!! Experimenting with the sign in a kind of cosmological representation

Dusasa 1

el anatsui, 2007 !!!! bottle caps, drapery, mvmnt

Ancient Kongo Medicines:

horns, medicinal leaves, water

Bird Yoruba Staff

late 19th century - wrought iron, bird staff - represents cosmic balance and order - Bird represents Osanyin, God of Herbal Medicine, commanding head and war on witchcraft - Ifa Tales, seeds and bells used to fight witches of feathered form - staff has elements that help healer fight evil RF Thompson "bird is mind of healer and warning to mothers that he knows true form, disk covers secret antidotes, bells and seed are guards or extensions of neutralizing impact of herbal meds"

Rooster Yoruba Staff

late 19th century (cuban influenced Miami, NY, NJ) - metal rooster discarded from weather vane or furniture - jingle bells, looks ornamental, base holds more L (Nigeria, late 19th cent.)M (Brazil, 1968) R (Brazil, 1941)

Faces of the Gods Exhibition

maria concordia, 1994 !!!!!! Assemblages that enable the devotee to communicate with the spirits

Ewe Kente

mens cloth more extreme variation - Tradition, Ewe claim kente comes from them - Originates from Nigeria, moved to Ewe area - Ewe and Ashanti argue about origins of kente - Ewe kente has duller colors, lots of rectangle patches

cross with the spoon and fork

pierrot barra, 1995 !!! - justice figure, scary - turns souls to zombies - goal of state power is to turn people into zombies - zombie = enslavement

victorian philanthropist parlor

shonibare 1996 !!!! Wax fabric for sale in Lome, Togo • Women have been very powerful in these sales black bodies on the walls, exploitation of black people

kongo packets

• Sequins and ribbons