FAH 0004
INTRODUCTION TO THE ARTS OF AFRICA
Fall 2015 / Monday & Wednesday / 3:00 – 4:15
Professor Peter Probst
Course Readings
You will find all the course readings as pdf files on Blackboard. Since the readings give
the background information necessary to initiate stimulating class discussions,
assignments must be read prior to the date they will be discussed in class. You should
read the articles with care, highlighting the main points in each chapter or article and
making notes as you read. Be sure to write any questions or comments you have and we
can discuss them in class.
Course Requirements:
Group Project – Quartet (20%)
Group Project – Virtual Exhibition (20%)
Response Paper (20%)
Midterm Exam (20%)
Final Exam (20%)
1. Group Project I / Card Game - Due October 28
Create an African art collector quartets card game. Quartets is played with three or more
players, with the aim to win all the quarts (sets of four). Each card usually has a number
and letter (1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 2A, 2B etc. ) in the top right or left corner of the card.
Let’s say you play with four players then you need to identify 8 well-known ethnic
groups and select four objects representing characteristic stylistic features of the group. In
total you need to have 32 cards each depicting an object of African art making 8 quarts.
Each card has two sides. The back which is facing the other players is blank. The front
(facing the player) has a picture of the object and a short description underneath (who,
what, where, when, how much?, etc.), On the upper right corner is the number of the
quart and card (IA or 3B or 4D)
The cards are shuffled and dealt evenly between all the players and the cards get held
face up in a players hand. The player to the dealer's left starts by asking another player if
they had a certain card (example, card 4C) which would help the player create a quart. If
the player does have the card, then they hand it over. If the player doesn't, then it
becomes his turn to ask.
When a quart is created, or a complete quart was dealt, then the cards creating the quart
are placed in front of the player. The game ends when all the quarts have been created.
The winner is the person with the most quarts.
2. Response Paper (three pages) November 25
Choose one and write a response to the argument put forward in the article
1. Sidney Kasfir, “African Art and Authenticity. A Text with a Shadow,” African Arts,
Vol. 25, No. 2 (Apr., 1992), pp. 40-53+96-9
2. Wyatt MacGaffey, “Magic, or as we usually say, Art. A Framework for Comparing
European and African Art.” Enid Schildkrout and Curtis Keim (eds.) The Scramble for
Art in Central Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998, pp. 217-235
3. Tobias Wendl, "Entangled Traditions: Photography and the History of Media in
Southern Ghana," RES: Journal of Anthropology and Aesthetics, vol. 39 (Spring 2001),
pp. 78-100
4. Olu Oguibe, In the “Heart of Darkness,” Third Text, No. 23, (1993), pp. 3-8
3. Group Project / Virtual Exhibition - Due December 7
Team together with two or three fellow students and conceive an exhibition on African
art. You need to choose a particular topic or theme and then select objects which illustrate
and comment on this theme. You can choose ‘traditional’ objects of African art and/or
works of modern and contemporary African art. Depending on the objects and theme you
need to organize the exhibition space, you need to write texts introducing / explaining the
exhibition as well as object labels.
4. Exams / Midterm and Final
The exam consists of two parts: A) slide identification with questions pertaining to origin,
date, material, form, and significance/meaning and B) responses to essay questions.
Academic Conduct
Plagiarism is defined as representing the work of another as your own. This includes
copying the answers of another student on an examination or restating the work of
another person without citing the appropriate source in a written paper. I am required to
report cases of suspected academic misconduct to the Dean’s Office and penalties include
suspension of expulsion from the university. If you are in doubt as to whether you are
appropriately using research materials, please contact me.
COURSE SCHEDULE
Introduction: The Fields of African Arts
W 9/9
M 9/14
Welcome and Introduction to the Course
Perceptions and Receptions of African Art
Aminatta Forna, Through African Eyes, BBC 1995. 47 mins
African Art as Form
W 9/16
M 9/21
Style and Style Provinces
Wingert (1972)
http://www.britannica.com/art/African-art#toc220380
Postures and Trans-Saharan Aesthetics
Vogel (1986)
African Art as Space
W 9/23
M 9/28
W 9/30
M 10/5
Mali ((Perani & Smith 1998; Visona 2008; Prussin 1974)
Akan (Quarcoopome 1997)
Ife (Poyner 2008: 228-238; Blier 1985, 2012)
Benin (Cole 1998: 272-283; Plankensteiner 2007)
W 10/7
Museum or Gallery Visit
http://www.hamillgallery.com/SITE/contact.html
http://www.mfa.org/collections/africa-and-oceania
African Art as Performance
M 10/12
W 10/14
M 10/19
W 10/21
M 10/26
Determining Destiny (Lawal 1985; 2005)
Producing Gender (McClusky 2002a)
Healing Afflictions (McClusky 2002b)
Preserving Memories (Nooter 1996)
Confronting Death: Fang Reliquaries ( )
W 10/28
M 11/2
Revision
MIDTERM
Migrations: Africa in the Americas
W 11/4
M 11/9
Reworking Saints in Cuba and the US (Brown 1993; Ramos 1996)
African Water Spirits in the Dominican Republic (Drewal 2002)
T 11/10
Ghanaian Kente Cloth in the US (McCluskey 2002c) (substitute for 11/11)
Modernism: From Urban Art to Studio Art
M 11/16
W 11/18
M 11/23
W 11/25
Photography and the Celebration of the Urban (Lamuniere 2001)
Popular Art and After (Kasfir 1999: 18-47; Magnin 2004: 10-34)
Modern African Art: The Case of Nigeria & Senegal (Okeke 1960; Kasfir
1999: 124-165, Harney 2001)
No Classes / Thanksgiving
Contemporary: Beyond Identity?
M 11/30
M 12/2
Yinka Shonibare (Enwezor 2004; Oguibe 2004: 10-17, 33-44)
El Anatsui (Harney 2011; Enwezor 2011)
Second Group Project Due
W 12/7
M 12/9
Revision
FINAL
Bibliography
Blier, Suzanne. 1985. Kings, Crowns, and Rights of Succession: Obalufon Arts at Ife and
Other Yoruba Centers. Art Bulletin, Vol. 67, No. 3, pp. 383-401
Brown, David. 1993. Thrones to the Orishas. African Arts, Vol. 26, No. 4: 44 -59
Cole, Herbert. 2001. Benin: Six Centuries of Royal Art. In M. Visona (ed.) A History of
Art in Africa. Upper Saddle River. Prentice Hall.
Drewal, Henry. 1997. Ogun and Body/Mind Potentiality: Yoruba Scarification and
Painting Traditions in African and the Americas. In: Sandra Barnes (ed.) Africa’s
Ogun. Old World and New. Bloomington: Indiana University Press
2002. Mami Wata and Santa Marta. Imag(in)ing Selves and Others in Africa and the
Americas. In: Paul Landau & D. Kaspin (eds.) Images and Empires. Berkeley:
University of California Press
Enwezor, Okwui. 2004. Yinka Shonibare. In: Laurie Ann Farell (ed.) Looking both Ways.
Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora. New York: Museum of African Art
2011. Cartographies of Uneven Exchange. Nka, No. 28, pp. 96-105
Fortes, Meyer. 1968. Of Installation Ceremonies. Proceedings of the Royal
Anthropological Institute for 1967. Pp. 5-20
Gilbert, Michelle.1987. The Person of the King. Ritual and Power in a Ghanaian State.
In: D. Cannadine & S. Price (eds.), Rituals of Royalty. Power and Ceremonial in
Traditional Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Glaze, Anita. 1986. Dialectics of Gender in Senufo Performance. African Arts, Vol. 19,
No. 3 pp. 30-39+82
Harney, Elizabeth. 2002. Ecole Dakar. Pan-Africanism in Paint and Textile. African Arts,
Vol. 35, No.3, pp. 12-31
2011. A Nomad’s Revolutionary Beauty. Nka, No. 28, pp. 115-128
Kasfir, Sidney. 1999. Contemporary African Art. London Thames and Hudson
Lamuniere, Michelle. 2001. You look beautiful like that. The Portrait Photographs of
Seydou Keita and Malick Sidibé. New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 13-43
Lawal, Babatunde. 1985. Ori: The Significance of the Head in Yoruba Sculpture, Journal
of Anthropological Research, Vol. 41, No. 1, pp. 91-103
2005. “Divinity, Creativity and Humanity in Yoruba Aesthetics.” In Before Pangea:
New Essays in Transcultural Aesthetics, edited by Eugenio Benitez, Sidney:
Sydney Society of Literature and Aesthetics, pp. 161-71.
Mack, John. 1995. Fetish: Magic Figures in Central Africa. In Fetishism: Visualising
Power and Desire, ed. by Anthony Skelton, London
Magnin, Andre. 2004. Cheri Samba. London: Thames and Hudson
McClusky, Pam. 2002a. Beauty Stripped of Human Flaws: Sowei Masks Art from
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Art Museum, pp. 227-43
2002b. The Fetish and Imagination in Europe. In Art from Africa. Princeton: Seattle Art
Museum, pp. 143-167
2002c. Wrapped in Pride, In Art from Africa. Princeton: Seattle Art Museum, pp. 98-105
Nooter Roberts, Mary.1996. Luba Memory Theatrer. In: Mary Nooter Roberts & Allen
Roberts (eds.) Memory: Luba Art and the Making of History. New York: The
Museum for African Arts, pp. 117-149
Oguibe, Olu. 2004. The Culture Game. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
Okeke, Uche, 1995 [1960]. Natural Synthesis. In Catherine Deliss (ed.). Seven Stories
about Modern Art. London
Quarcoopome, Nii Otokunor. 1997. Art of the Akan. Art Institute of Chicago Museum
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Plankensteiner, Barbara. 2007. Benin. Kings and Courts. African Arts, Vol. 49, pp. 74-87
Perani, Judith & Smith, Fred. 1998. Visual Arts of Africa. Prentice Hall
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Prussin, Labelle. 1974. Introduction to Indigenous African Architecture. The Journal of
the Society of Architectural Historians .Vol, 33/3, pp. 185-203
Poyner, Robin. 2008. Yoruba. In Monica Vison at al. A History of Art in Africa. Prentice
Hall, pp. 104-114
Ramos, Miguel. 1996. Afro-Cuban Orisha Worship. In: Arturo Lindsay (ed.) Santeria
Aesthetics in Contemporary Latin American Art. Washington: Smithsonian Press
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Sprague, Stephen.1978. Yoruba Photography: How the Yoruba See Themselves. African
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Art Museum