Contemporary African Art

At the end of the course, students should be able to: 1. understand contemporary African art history; 2. its relevance to cultural production; 3. symbolic icons of the contemporary African art world; 4. explore its iconographies; 5. interpret forms in contemporary African art ; 6. appreciate form in contemporary African art ; 7. master its historical timelines with emphasis on artists who shaped ideas in contemporary African art; and 8. understand the ways of art history contra visual culture.

The course is a survey of the beginnings of modern art in Africa. It evaluates chronological developments in the evolution of artistic styles and forms from the mid-nineteenth century to the present on a pan-continental scale. It will also promote Diaspora traditions of modernism. Responses by artists to the pull of Western European-inspired modernism and indigenous or other options open to the artist in contemporary cultural contexts will be examined.