African art is no different. For some, it may initially hold few clues that help unpack its meaning. Those viewers may have little knowledge of Africa or could actually be African–from a different part of the continent, a totally different culture, or members of a religion that distances them even from a work their own hometown produced.
No art is completely transparent, letting us understand all of an artist’s constraints, thoughts, choices, or associations. But if we are not privy to all of an artist’s perceptions and interpretations, we can lessen the differences in our understanding–and this is a process that creates human pleasure in both cerebral and sensual ways. By familiarizing ourselves with art, learning its visual vocabulary and grammar, assessing our taste for it, and placing it within the contexts of its makers and users, we expand our world.
- Subject:
- Art History
- Creative and Applied Arts
- Material Type:
- Textbook
- Author:
- Kathy Curnow
- Date Added:
- 10/25/2022