Art Assignment Evaluating The Influence Of African Art On European And American Art

Question

Task: How has African Art influenced famous European and American Artist and art pieces?

Answer

Introduction
This art assignment assesses how African art has influence international cultures and how the art styles have been used by famous artist on popular art pieces. Art tends to mesmerize human beings and every culture in the world has developed a unique form of art famous to the region. While some cultures pride themselves for art paintings, others are famous for carving, sculpting and many other forms of art. This results in each community having its specific Artistic Skill and certain cultural arts tend to have a positive attraction and effects on other cultures. While compiling this art assignment, this was observed on several European and American artists who have adapted and infused several African Art styles into their artworks. Adopting foreign cultural art styles has become an important form of art created in the 21st century making it an important topic to explore and understand (Bassani 2006).

Infusion of Cross-Cultural Art to Produce Modern Art Works
Modern art has grown famous in recent years but the art style is complex and considers several factors as well as infuses art styles from different cultures to produce unique artworks. Among the pioneering artist identifies in this art assignment to begin infusing foreign cultural art styles into his art was Henri Matisse who adopted several African art styles into his paintings. The cross-cultural art influence does not stop there with many other artists like Cézanne, Gauguin and Pablo Picasso also adapting the art styles into their own. Picasso is among the first modern art producers identified during this art assignments research and he had a massive collection of over 20000 art pieces. These included paintings, sculptures, carvings, pottery and many other art forms which he created with a twist and resulting in the birth of modern art (Perkins & Morphy 2006).

Figure 1 - Modern Art

This art assignment also indemnified modern art involves the production of artwork through less principled or planned manner resulting in odd artworks which will have a different meaning to each art lover. This could result in splotch painting, odd sculptures and many other forms of artwork which don’t have specific rules implemented during its creation. Modern art was first derived from the infusion of different cultural art styles to develop a blend between the different styles and to infuse and blend them, it becomes necessary for art rules to be broken (Schrank 2005). It also made art much easier to be created and resulted in artists being able to produce much more unique pieces of art which depicted their inner self, feelings and desire. Infusing different cultural art styles also resulted in breaking art boundary lines allowing for young artists to develop unique talents within art which were un-explore able in the past due to art lovers limiting themselves to perfection. But a reality identified on this art assignment is that life is not perfect and each person, animal and creature requires to be admired for what it is and not what you expect it to be.

Famous Cross-Cultural Art Works
This to understand the influence of African art styles on European artworks, the art assignment will review some famous art pieces created by several artists from history as well as in the modern-day. Some famous cross-cultural artworks include:

Head of a Woman – 1909
This sculpture was produced by Pablo Picasso in 1909 made of the cast of bronze but resembles an African head carving from East Africa (Kasfir 2000). The bronze caste is also specially made to deliver an awkward appearance which places the caste into the Modern Art Category. The caste has been classified to be among the best examples of African art styles being used on European art resulting in a unique fusion representing both cultures. Closely examining the woman’s head reveals that each individual has a different observation regarding the artwork. While it’s clear that the sculpture has a woman’s face moulded into it the face seems to intermingle with protrusions on her face resulting in a rustic appearance. While some people claim it is her hair others think its headgear drooping over her neck on to her shoulders. As mentioned earlier on this art assignment, modern art has no particular message and is read by each individual differently. The Head of a Woman remains as the best example of an artwork which infuses both African and European art styles into one unique art creation.

Figure 2- Head of a Woman

Woman in an Armchair
Another clear depiction of African art influence on European art can be seen in another of Picasso's artworks, the painting ‘Women in an Armchair’. This painting is vague and unclear with a not clear illustration of the women as well as her armchair. The painting is a work of art which was created by an artist deep in his thoughts and creating a message through his piece of art. The painting was made in 1909 after Pablo Picasso had returned from visiting his girlfriend and lover at Horta de Ebro. The Painting depicts women but her facial and body features and posture is vague and unclear yet the walls and surrounding room features remain clear. The reason behind fading out the women in the painting remains unclear but closer examination clearly shows Picasso paints the face referring to an African Masks thus helping fad out the person’s features (Strother 1992).

Pablo Picasso is a pioneer in creating modern art and the artist has helped inspire thousands of modern artists who continue to infuse different art styles to develop new styles and also preserve the ones which are being lost to modernization. The combination of different cultural art styles identified on this art assignment continues to spread across most cultures today and can also be seen on construction decorative designs being used today.

Modern Use of Multicultural Art Styles and Features
While many limit art to the painting or sculpture, art is not limited to any specific field and comes in all shapes, sizes and different styles. As globalization takes a tighter grip on every culture and society, the adaption of modern art and decorating styles is being used more commonly. The art assignment also identifies that Afro-European art styles are used to decorate homes and offices with many homeowners creating a wall-size painting using the modern fusions (Stuhr 1994).

21st century Afro-European Art Enthusiasts, Collectors and Promoters
On this art assignment it is clear that art attracts collectors from across the globe and whether it is Afro-European style art or modern art certain art enthusiasts, collectors and promoters have helped boost art. Today many people have a piece or two at home but certain individual invests heavily on art and the true supporters of Art skills globally (Goetzmann et al. 2011). Some major art collectors include:

David Geffen
The art assignment also identified David Geffen is the founder of Dream Works Animation and is among the biggest artwork collector in the world. He has managed to invest a whopping 1.1 Billion dollars accounting to 20% of his net worth on different types of art! Although a prominent supporter of American artworks he also has an impressive collection of Afro-European art pieces.

Steven A. Cohen
Steven A. Cohen is famous for investing huge amounts of money to different artworks from across the globe. During the art assignment research we identified he has invested 12% of his wealth into collection artwork accounting for approximately $1 Billion. Cohen is the 2nd biggest art collector globally and continues to invest in different art styles.

The Future of Afro-European and American Artwork
Time tends to change everything and this has left out art also. But the changes can only be made to a certain level after which the entire artworks’ style changes(Elkins 1995). This makes it important for articles to retain a certain degree of the original art styles to infuse the style into their artwork. Many articles looking to add African style art to European and American styles will usually require including a basic art style recognised for being African. African communities are famous for facial art carvings and masks making this a popular form of depicting African art styles in a painting. There are also the dressing styles used by certain communities as well as the clothing colour such as this worn by the Masaai which are recognised globally. The art assignment identified that including such features to artwork; the viewer can connect to the artist’s style and understand the message being sent.

Conclusion
Every community has managed to develop their unique art style but artists tend to seek better ideas to include in their paintings, resorting to adapting many styles from other cultures. The art assignment also identified that Africa has always attracted artists due to the rustic art styles used by the different communities on the continent. Rather than following a set system, most African artworks and artists remain rough, basic and straight to the point. This has led to a unique style being developed were many articles in history as well as in modern time have adopted specific modern art styles which they have infused to their artworks to create unique pieces that are known to the world as being ‘great’. This art assignment can be concluded with these words “Art is created, and artists must be creative to produce works which will attract art lovers and keep viewers mesmerised always (Groys 2008)”.

Reference List
Bassani, E., 2006. Masters of African Sculpture: Forms and Styles. Tribal, 11, pp.66–7.

Elkins, J., 1995. Art History and Images That Are Not Art. The Art Bulletin, 77, pp.553–571.

Goetzmann, W.N., Renneboog, L. & Spaenjers, C., 2011. Art and money. In the American Economic Review. pp. art assignment

Groys, B., 2008. Art Power,

Kasfir, S.L., 2000. Contemporary African art,

Perkins, M. & Morphy, H., 2006. The anthropology of art: a reader,

Schrank, S., 2005. Conversation Pieces: Community and Communication in Modern Art. The Public Historian, 27, pp.80–82.

Strother, Z.S., 1992. Inventing masks: Structures of artistic innovation among the Central Pende of Zaire. (Volumes I and II).

Stuhr, P.L., 1994. Multicultural Art Education and Social Reconstruction. Studies in Art Education, art assignment 35, pp.171–178.

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