Visual Culture Out of Africa

International Sat 04-12-2010

Visual Culture Out of Africa
Nytimes.com

Africa is everywhere, so pervasive in our lives that we barely see it. Since it is in all likelihood the continent where human evolution began, it is literally in the bloodstream of everyone. DNA aside, huge portions of everyday life and cultural achievement are unthinkable without Africa.

An installation view of “The Global Africa Project” at Museum of Arts & Design | Photo: Nytimes.com

What would Modern art be like if Matisse had never gone to Morocco or if he, Picasso and the German Expressionists had never set eyes on the sculptural innovations of sub-Saharan Africa? Very hard to say. And popular music? Around the world, it incorporates sounds and rhythms that originated in Africa. More locally, jazz — not Abstract Expressionism — was the first American art form of international stature.

“The Global Africa Project” at the Museum of Arts & Design tries to survey this pervasiveness, in terms of contemporary visual endeavors of all kinds: jewelry, fashion, architecture, basketry, ceramics, painting, utilitarian design.

For more on this story visit: www.nytimes.com

Posted By: Hirum Ndungu

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