M8 QUESTIONS ARTS

I N T RODU CT ION :

S usan Vogel ConUlct with the West has been the determining experience-though cenaioly not rhe only influence-for Afric,'ln an in the twentieth

century. European military and political domination during the colo- nia l period enfor,ced countless changes. some overwhelming. others imperceptible, leaving virtually no one untouched. and repercussions from these changes have continued to echo through the quarter centu ry since most African nations became independent. The lives of ordinary people everywhereon the continent have been affected by the advance ofIslam and Christianity. urbanization. Western-style educa­ tion. the int roduction of a money economy, and o ther developments in the wake ofcolonialism. Throughout the century. Africa has been engaged io a continuing pursuit of real economic and political freedom. and in an effon to negotiate itS proper relation~hip with the West and

with the Arab world. A[rican peoples· efforts to situate DIGESTING THE WEST themselves and

their traditions in relation 10 Europe and Is lam have Cr-.imed the work of almost all 1we1111ieth-century African artists.

African an during the colonial period was shaped by a period of enforced peace. Throughout the century. rapid social change has deepened the need for spi ritual solace, satisfied in pan by new and expanding syncretic churches and healing cult~. which often promote the creation of anworks. Countering these favorable conditions for ritual activity and artmaking has been the destruction or removal of art by white soldriers. missionaries. African converts to Christianity or Islam. and a seemingly insatiable world an market. This century has also been marked by the availability to African artists ofan unprece­ dented range of media, techniques. patrons. and ideas.

Contradictory conditions like these have changed African an and artists profoundly in the rwenne1h century. There is reason 10 believe 1h01 earlier masquerades and cullS were reinvigorn1.-d every generation orso by the int roduction of new gods or po"ers. new cull require­ ments, new mask personae with new names. and new music. dances. and sculptures; these new culls ortcn closely resembled earlier fo rms. but they nonetheless renewed artistic traditions without a ltering under­ lying structures or values. Funliermore. political and social upheavals periodically produced radical changes and discontinuities in llrt well

/.I / 1\ TRODllCTION

◄ Fig. I. Kali Kit(Sharp kit), 1985, by Etale S ukuro (Kenyan, b. 1954). This satirical took at African appropriations of W estern gadgets was painted not for safe but for display, to radi.cali:ze thepeople at toe.a.I art fairs. Suku ro is one of Kenya's more prominent artists and has received nu­ meroustrnport~t com missions. (One of his murab: was made for the United N a tkm"' c ..,n,..._,.;1111 A~bly HaJJ in New York.) Here a large woman in traditional Turkan a necklaces and clayed hair laughs at htt small citified sister. who has fooJ.. ish ly attempted to Westemi:z.e her appeM"­ ance by u:sing an appliance w ithout being able to read the imtructions (A,the 1990a:418). Co llection: Museum fOr VOlker1<unde:. Frankfurt. Photo: Maria O berma.ier.

16 I ,\' TR O D U C T I O N

before 1900. But the current century has ~een change of a d ifferent sort: the creation ofentirely new an forms that respond 10 social and cultural situations peculiar 10 twentieth-century Africa.

Continuities Visual links between current and past African art are surprisingly hard to find. Contemporary artists genernll)' avoid the older African me­ dium of wood sculpture. and echo its forms no more than do many Western artists. The exception is contemporary traditional art , which is a direct cont inuation of earlier ar1. The discovery that traditional sculpture in this decade compared to the beginning of the century in fact seldom shows radical changes in form contradicts common as­ sumptions that it had remained unchanged for millennia. then sud­ denly lost its character completely on contact with the West. More usual than a radical change in form is the complete elimination of a genre of sculpture, or its waning in favor of other forms of expression. Both objects made for utilitarian contexts and those used in fervently felt religious cults obey this general rule.

A remarkable cont.inuity in artistic vision was an unexpected finding of this study. A similar conception of art-one notably different from Europe·s- ulllites African artists from the beginning of the cenrury until the present: we find similar ideas about the purpose of art. the artist's role . his or her interaction with clients, and the way he or she works. even among African artists living in Europe or America. Content. for example . is of prime importance for African artists. critics. and audiences, who tend to share an expectation that works of art wiU have a readable message or story. African art of all kinds is likely to be explainable in terms of a narrative or a religious , social. or political text known to botJ1 artists and audiences. T hese explanations. however. are fluid, varying from ci rcumstance to circumstance and even from individual to individual. This bas long been recognized of traditional and Urban art , but is a less acknowledged part of Interna­ tional art. where the narrative may be more obliquely stated. 1

That all fonns of contemporary African an are seen as functional, or as serving some common good, was one of the most surprising find­ ings of this srudy. While I expected contemporary traditional art 10 show this similarity to nineteenth-century rradi tional art. and knew that Urban art was in some respects utili tarian, I did not anticipate it in International art. The emergence of the strain I call New Functional art underscores the continuing communal use of art in African socie­ ties. As in the past , most kinds of African art (except some Urban art) seem to have a kind of seriousness, a higher mission than pleasure or decoration alone.2 The general consensus is that it must honor, instruct , uplift, clarify, -0r even scold, expose, nod ridicu le 10 push people 10 be what they must be. Even at its most lighthearted, it is never trivial.

African art is seldom strictly private. It is almost always displayed today in relatively public places; even in the home, art , inch1ding portrait photographs. is seldom kept in the bedroom or other private areas of the house. U rban ari''is displayed in living rooms, or, when it is created as advertisement , in the streets o r ii:t public areas such as

Fip. l. a) Hurnanicide ons.,,- H ere, 1985, pastel and collage, 63 x 51 an. b)Shore scene, paint4'd for Gallti-y Watatu, 1989. Bodi by Etale Sukuro. Sukuro has had con$idenbte success w ith the attractive landscapes he paints fOf' white collectors in Nairobi. Meanwhile he works in a dif• ferent sty·le for himse.lf. In a style one might ca.JI imaginary realism, he paints biting political statement> that he di,plays atdieart fain he heJp4'd to Htabllsfl in markets., streets, and rura.l ar~These sophisticated renderings ofcartoonJike subfecu are dnlcned to raiM t.hc politic;.al consciou,n...ofdiepeople (A gd,e 199011: ◄ 18). a) Collect.ion: Museum fUr VOlker­ kunde, Frankfurt.. Photo: Maria Oberma.ier. b) Courte<y Gallery Watatu, Nairobi.

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resiaurants. Other :Strains of an are routinely commissioned by associ­ ations or corporate groups for d isplay in public settings ranging from a national bank tO a village funeral. Because twentieth-century African art is functional and in some measure public, its interaction witb its audience is of capital importance-another continuity with the past. T he audience is 001 only the ··receiver"' of art (as the designated " receiver'' of a folktale must be present for it to be toid3

) but a lso the respondent and in some ways the animator of the work. (The call-and­ response pattern of African music. where the soloist sings or drums a segment and the group or orchestra produces an answering passage, is particularly analogous). Just as it would have been senseless and incomprehensible to hold a traditional masquerade performance with­ out ru1 audience, the idea of the artist in a garret creating works in isola tion, for no on,e or for him- or herselfalone, seems quite peculiar in Africa. In a traditional context it might even suggest madness o r witchcraft. In modem settings we occasionally find artists making art for themselves. and not for sale. but such work is usually spiritua lly meaningful. o r has a function as decoration or instruction.'

The audience also exerts the only contro l on innovat ion. In the past. the expectation was that each work of art would reprise a fami liar theme, and any piece lha t innovated too much was no longer recog­ nized as a version of the prototype. Nol only the human commission­ ers and spectators of works of an fulfilled the ro le of audience, but also the ancestors and spirits. who could refLL~e to accept a work that deviated too far from the norm.5 That ro le is now filled by the audience and the market, those who commission works of art and those who buy.

Repetition or Rep.-ise The interaction between artjst and audience may involve a kind of repetition o r reprise of themes familiar to bo th. This is an important characteristic of African art and music.6 One aest11etic criterion of African traditional art is the artist's ability to hold in tension creation and the audience's expectations, in other words the opposed forces of

I N T R O I) U CT I O N 17

LA SEDUCTION - ~A ,a t C)S L-. l11'= ..0.. 1-.A El l ll!ll-lil

18 I \' T R O D l C T I O .\

fii-. 3. The:se nine paintings on the subject of Hami Wau .ond Papi Wata, allby Chffi $.unba~irian, b . 19S6), were painted ~ 1979 in Kinshasa. w ith the excep­ ciao of the. last one, painted in Paris in lft'9. Cheri ~mba h,as worke.d and re-­ woriced this popular th~ many times~ bac he: never quite repeats himself. The cbeme.isalways var-ied and has an ongo,. ills.life. The-artist can cut bade: to it -wlleniever the market c>r his own preOCQ.I;•

palioDs .suggest it. Photos: courtesy ~weis.Ubersff:.Museom, Bremen. aadJn,n-H v-c Patras Galerie, Paris.

innovation and repetition. What James Snead says of music bolds equally true of African a rt: ·'Black music sets up expectations and d isturbs them at irregular intervals: that it will do this, however, is itself an expectation" (1990:222). Each traditional sculpture is seen against the ground of people's expectations about the type of art being created. and their memory ofother versions. "Without an organizing principle of repetition, true improvisation would be impossible, since an improviser re lies upon the ongoing recurrence of the beat' · (ibid. :221). Like a jazz player's, the artist's variatio ns on the theme rely on the audience's familiarity with the basic format. The interest and the surprise lie precisely in what is o mjued or altered in comparison with that model.

The seeming repetitio usness of contempo rary African an of all kinds-from glass paintings to coffins and academic painting-can be troubling to those who define creativity in Western tenns that put a premium o n originality. Joseph-Aurelieo Corne t writes of a fundamen­ tal continuity through time that is ·'above all linked to the deep psychology....There ex-ists .. . a sort of cultural parallel to the desire for security. a real satisfaction in repetj tion , whjch is so different from modem Western art"s spirit of adven ture. This refuge in repetition can be seen even int.he most recen t Zai rian a rts. African art is more an art o f stereotypes than o[ creation·· (Cornet et al. 1989:55-56).7 African artists characteristically develop a personal idiom (or more than one) early in their careers and then change it li ttle over their lives.

One of rhe inl-iehts eained from an overview of African art is that the idea of the artwork as a reprise of familiar themes lies deep in the African conception of creativity. Where orig inality. the abil ity to create something never before known, remains a fundamenta l concept. however strongly contested, in the Western idea of the artist. the African artist is more likely to be seen as part of a continuum or community of artists drawing o n preexisting forms. (Since all artists re-use exfating forms, this distinction between the Western and the African artist may be more a mailer ofemphasis than a real differ­ e nce .) The African artist is never solely an imitator, never literally repeating an earlier form (as craftspeople do), nor can the work be called stereotypical. since it always changes. The work should rather be called a reprise_Where repetition in European art is often directed toward pe rfecting I.he model. the African reprise is an end in itself, designed not to develop or improve on the basic theme but to embody it in a given instance or 10 play off it. One might say that_ like a Western theater performance of a Shakespeare play, an African work of art is never seen, as a culmina ting statement. is oever definitive; the model is never exllausted or perfected, and therefore does not have to

be discarded. (This idea of perfection is rooted in the Western norion of progress.) Magdalene Odundo·s sensuous pots return again and again to the rrullen,rual African round-bottomed. swell-bodied form without ever exhausting or repeating it (cat. 105-107).

A particular kind ofc reativity inheres in this conceptio n of a rt. African verbal art . scholars say. ·'has a prior existence. which the verbal a rtist [the storyteller] makes manifest in performance. . .. 'a

I N T R O O U C T I O N 19

narrative is pemrnnent and eternal".... verbal a rtis ts bring somethjng into being during a performance which d id not have existence in that time and p lace before"' (Peek 1981:30-3 1. partially quoting LaPin). Traditiona l African sculptors often say they are freeing a form they see in the uncarved wood: it may be j ustifiable to postulate that in the visual arts as in the verbal. creativity consists in materializing some­ thing tha t al ready exists. 01 igi11al ity, then, would lie in the abi li ty 10

improvise, to create interesting variations. rather than in claiming to

invent something completely new. As in music. the artist can c ut away from an ongoing rhythm or melody-or form-to improvise against it. then can cut back to the waiting o r ongoing form. Over a fifteen-year period. Cheri Samba has frequently cut back to the theme of Mami Wata , repeating it in many guises, including one conceived in Paris. No two are identical.

Artists and audiences alike value the creativity involved in the particular instance- in the ma king of an individual object o r in the invention of a particula r model. A painting or sculp ture that an artist bas copied from bis or her earlier work because it is particularly successful is likely to be a more desfrable purchase for the client tha n a work that is original- in o ur Western sense-but less popular. A certain kind of repetition, such as that seen in Kane Kwei 's coffins (cat . 34-38), is thus the sign not of a fai lure of imagination but of success. Urban artists like Moke orTshibumba (cat. 65-75) repeat their own best themes and compositions (but never exactly-such a commission would cost eX'tra) . Lesser artists are limited to copying 1be successes of other, more popular artists.

l n additio n to reprise-of earlier forms , rhythmic repetition of forms within the same work is a minor aesthet ic trait of African art. Photog­ raphers all over Africa enjoy mult iple printings of the same negative for aesthetic effect. Fode Camara repeats pairs of hands down the side of his canvas (cat. 102); Mode Muntu repeats his stick figures in nearly identical poswres (car. 90-92); hosts of costumed Dogon dancers wear­ ing similar kanaga masks create a stunning effect; rhythmically spaced. vinually identical metal bands create the forms of Sokari Douglas Camp·s sculptures (cat. 100-101). Repeating panerns or motifs are used by pain ters as different as Pilipili and Twins Seven-Seven. On the streets, in churches, and in homes, visitors to Africa are always amazed to see groups or families dressed a like for specia l occasions. a popular expression of the same taste for rhythmic repetition.

Client Driven Art

Like nineteent h-century traditional an. virtually all strains oftwentieth­ century African an are client or market driven. Recent art forms as rliverse as sign painring , e :,sr.1 p:, inring. ;in rl cement romh figures a re made and sold by professional artists who must satisfy the changing dema nds ofclients or customers. In response to current events and market demand, the Kinshasa artists who paint in volume for sale through streer vendors can add current topical subjects 10 their reper­ toire with lightning speed. A r"elatively high proportion of Interna­ tional artists

' create works on commission for businesses or 2overnmen1

~

20 I NT R ODUCTIO .\ '

Fig. 4. Three pots, 1990, by Magdalene Odundo (Kenyv,, b. 1950). Odundo make. few pou each year, tMJt herrepetiti0t1 of theJr pure forffl$ seflnS to spring from a desire to c:te_lve ever deeper into some-­ thing ine.x.haustt"ble.. She does not always work in sen.es and no two ofMr pots are alike. Uke other African artists-' wo.r-k, hers seems to lade the Western klnd of linear repetition-the drive to perfect a mode, then to dtJcard it and a:n advance to-another. All he.r WOf"ks are slmulta• n~fyp..edous objects and simple pots. Photos: court.e.<Sy Anthony Rafph Gallery, New York.

f ig. S. Portrait by .an unknown lvoi.-. ian studio photographer, Yamoussoukro, 1970..The rilytt,mic~tion of th~ girl's head, printed from a single negative" is a popular device among tt.udio photogra• phe.rs and the.Ir c.lients.. Private collection.

agencies. The size. s ubject maner. materials. and sometimes other aspects of these woriks are commonly part o f the clienfs order. Artists who work for the tourist art market are also notoriously responsive to the demands of thei.r customers (see chapte r V).

Today. the interaction between African artist and patron in gene ra l continues ihe traditiona l relationship between artist and dient , and between the artist and the work. It is an underlying assumption of the: traditiona l artist's ro le that the client is a collaborator in the making of the work , which will reflect his or her ideas as much as or more than the artist"s. Further. the practice expresses the essential ro le of the audience in the creation of art. The relative absence of personal subjects in any strain of African art is explained by the i.roportance of the client. and by the essentially functional namre of African an­ which exists , o n the whole. not to express the i.odividual but to answer some larger collective purpose.

Twentieth-Century Aesthetics Between lhe eady a nd the late twentieth century, African aesthetic

I N T R O D U C T I O N 21

Fig. 6. Ode--1:ay co.stume by the Sierra Leonia.n artist Aia.ni (b. J950s). Freetown, 1979. Seeking to produce an effect of danling lu.xur-y and comple.)(ity. the artitt

h.u combined an assortment of bright~ shiny imported materiaJs; Christmu or• naments, fake pearls. upholstery fringe, feather boa.s~ tinsel, p lastic flowus.. mir--­ rors, and various showy fabria. The pearl face--screen derives from me bead veils of Yoruba Egungun mask~ The costume ex• emplifies the late-•tweritieth•c.entury taste fot' heterogeneous, confusin,g. often un·• s.table compositions, an aesthetic prefer• e.nce. that may renect the uncertainties of contemporary existence in the boomlng cacophony of cities, with their jumbleof ethnic groups. Photo: Hans Schaal.

intentions moved in a consistent d irection. T he forms of the earlier woFk were most often harmonious. resolved, classical. The work was magisterial, and conveyed a sense of overriding o rder-or else it p roduced a sense of disquie t and threat by playing on the viewer's familiarity with tllat aesthetic ofo rder. There was a close relationship between fonn and meaning, often embedded in the very materials used: Zairian Kongo figures (cat. 127-129). for example , along with various other kfods-ofsculpture, could be understood partly through puns on the names of their materials. or th rough color syrnbolism.8

Form and meaning were closely related to function: Kota re liquary guardian figures ( cat. 120-122) have polished metal surfaces that not only reflect light but cast back the evil intentions of intruders .

As the tumultuous twentieth century advanced. aesthetic intentions changed, just as they did in other pans of tile g lobe. African art­ again with exceptions- became less defini tive in its attitude. less unified in its composition, and more visually complex. Many works became heterogeneous in manufacture and in effect: where earlier sculptures might have been carved from a single piece of wood. new works began to be made of miscellaneous ersatz materials. often from disparate sources. combined in visually and sometimes pllysically unstable compositions. T he Ode-lay masks of Freerown (cat. 31-33). for example. have wobbling superstructures made of wire covered wi th materials that convey no complex meanings: fabrics, fringe. plastic flowers , Christmas ornaments, porcupine quills , and cowrie sllells. The Sibondel and al-Barak lleaddresses made by the Baga of Guinea have markings on the sides invented by the originator of the art form, and made with h is son·s school compasses and protractors (cat. 17-18).

These new works do not srrive for the majesty of the earlier sculptures; they aim instead to stun. T iley are loud. surprising, excit• ing, d is turbing, active. Colors a re strong, ,vith higll contrasts. The scale is often large and tile tone brassy. Tile work is not without complexity or nuance. but its subtlety is not of the old, classically restrained kind. To be successful. Kane Kwei·s coffins (cat. 34-38) need their bright colors and surprising forms .

The compositions of late-twentieth-century art sometimes look fragmentary and confused compared to earlier art. but they express the complexities and confusions of the modern world. The uncertain• ties that have pervaded life in urban Africa. and increasingly s ince mid century in rural Africa as well. are mirrored in the continent's new art. The relationship between form and meaning is tense now. Meanings are no longer embedded in the materials of the works themselves. or in coded but fam ili,,r symbolic systems known to the intended audience; they are often newly invented, and must be explained. Messages may be ambiguous. personal. and situational, less universal than before. Audiences have become so diverse and interpretative systems so decentralized that Cheri Samba and otller Zairian painters write titles and explanations on their paintings-some in two languages (cat. 63-83). Even then, the content of the works is so fa r from universa l that a viewer in Dakar or Nairobi might be a t pains to understand it.

The single most striking change is the new reliance on color. This

l .\' TRODUCT / ON 23

Fl1. 1. Malagasy grave post rsom the se<Ofld tralf of die: nine~endl c.@nwry. The memo:ria l 1s fu ly s.wlptu=I and ·styliz@d, pr,@Sall!nti i a gene.r· c image of me de«ued, Color does ot -.n to ,haYe MIMI @:!lSl!n'b al ·to the :IHtih t ic. Collec:tiom C...rlo Mon:zino. Phot10: Hatio ·Carrle:t

Bg. 8. Hal:apsy grave post from the 1920s:. The n1ure is more IH .tuf'a'listk u d indi­ vidualized!, and ~ -imatied bJ d\e w.i,IJ<­ ing st.anc.e. Col ertio . Thi!: Paul and Ruth Tishrnan Colle,c ·on of African Arit, Willt Disney Co., os Allgeles. Photo:Jerry L . Thompson.

chang · a mpanied b a rr ponding d emph · n pla · · . - _ th r pJacem nt of culpl · ht o-dimen io a l rt." m nt fr m lum c c 1 r d in · · · "bl of cont ·.t ·. ig riao Ha · u e t f · m h ith linear pat er in mud r lief. but

color d pattern · o a.I ulp~ b p ts, wbfoh a , ood unpainted

ro k tom n \ not ro · or d but are re d ion and f orh r thin t [ all . ture nO\l

tim u . B b tn. Fa u ed t

fi r co tu.me in h natur d d bla k nd deep mau nta . With the availabi fancy e me aid gf'een brtgh t pu · o, co tu gourd in the mark t are Lik 1 t .111iant ol , he11e o ,ce th •w r ngra d. o matter ,vhen hey re car ed . ma '· and aU kind · · u e t d are almo t alwa fre y paint. d wi th ha . .

Th intr du tio imp rt d pain · · us explanati n lor a a m e 1 ng- tandin admiration f, r lean. fre b ly paint d culpture i a n-

th r. In fact. , c d ranee f b ight . pai d . · - ject no.. ·nu r n · u that th traditi nal v. m ooU · ( · 1 t m · · at w rce n t br u lu t ight

h .tiv:e ( fr"ca an· sit ,., a: , app nl L fugitive paint origi bright r than ·r Jik . li:h

. lhink a • . d \

,,. eT n o l r d . · · e all oru a mr . ·· amana m · , the Baga a, n zen f

her bject t 'P . Th d i.ti na in t n tur

ti i t an a ,tbe i mp uralf . rm. Im , ,t ne · d

~ v n n ,_ .,.., · in it If. In n ineteenth- em ulp a re alm t invariably b d . reli but fl n much m re . r ·n mat rial. d in uch a wa a o und m in culpturnl a tention t haU w-carv d. d tail.

The liec nt u ·t lier r l li_ ic t ndenc of r ntt th~c ntury r ican art : th de ·ir foe an ki ri im il i-

d . B th trait r ff a ban d latio hip to the i ibl world. h a rtin

workin in and can be a c nt ral imp io 'i ent ieth an art. T hi ed in mdi- . na l culp b c m mnli t i

th ugh u · th century. a t mi -da ·de age 'ine . mod l d mu · • th - and ti ure · n w

bo..,,vn in m lion. a ninet enth- nt . ry xampl almo t · ·

1-1 l , · T R O D t' C T I J '

Fig. 9. Malagasy irave post ( in a diffe~nt regional style from tht: previous two). 1940s•l960s. The 1mage depicts a scent: of activity-the carrying of the coffin. The tomb also includes a dt:.piction of a bus., as well as the traditional birds and cattle.. The scu•pture was probably painted; those ma.d~ in 1989 for the ·•Hagicit:ns de la Terre0 e xhibition at the Centre Pompi,. dou, Paris were painted bright co1or,. Color h~d become essential to the total effect ot the sculpture. Photo: susan v oge1. 1979.

Fig. 10. Malaguy tomb structure with a painting depicting gr.ave posts. 1977. Color and a two--dimen~onal image have re-­ placed sc.ulpturt: here. Photo: Susan Vogel. 1979.

were. Urban painf ings from Zaire ga in authority from the accumula- 1ioq,of naturalistic detail. which rhe artisis use 10 prove that their moral ta les are Lrue. and that the historic events they depict really happened. 1 1

International art has a more ambiguous re lalionship to the visible world: International a rtislS virtually never depict it as such, though they a re often trai ned in the observation of nature. Typically they mix naturnlistic with n.onnoturn list ic e lements. Trigo Piula (cat. U4-l 16). for example. bui lds-mystical scenes out of rcalfatic e lements: Mbuno (cat. 87-89) uses natura list ic shading to model stylized figures on a flattened grotmd; and Fode Camara (cat. 102-104) traces the actual outline of his shadow. Nonetheless. many artists. like Malangamna (cat. 108-109). scarcely allude to their visible surroundings at all.

Western images. especially photographs. a re usually proposed as 1he source of the new naturalism , especially in traditional and U rban art. I would dispute this. Photography has been a presence in Africa since the late nineteenth century. and has clearly been absorbed into the culture. Ponrait photos can be seen in the remotest villages: in conversacion. villagers will frequently compare photographs to their tradi tional sculptures as vehicles of representation. But African pho­ tographers don't necessarily use photography naturalistically. They often improve on the visible world. creating arresting effects Lhrough stylized poses. manipula ted negatives, and painted backdrops (cat. 58-62). Furthermore, the kinds of artistic solutions photographs propose a re pictorial. and are hardly useful to traditional wood carvers-whose work sti ll shows the trend toward naturalism. Africans hardly needed the realism ofEuropean photographs to validate changes in their traditiooa.l imagery. Nor, obviously. did they need photographs to conceive of a naturalistic art .

U rban painters clearly use photographs in parts of the ir work. especially for faces. Certain Senegalese paintings on glass are based on photographs-notably the widely diffused portrait of the Mouride leader Sheikh Amadou Bamba (Chapter III). And the face of the Zairian patriot Patrice Lumumba that appears frequently in Tshi­ bumba·s work is based on a photograph (cat. 67). Nonetheless. Urban painters seldom describe space in a photographic way, and in general seem to have borrowed more from c-0mic book drawing than from photography. ll is tempting 10 say, in fact, that the reverse occurred and that Urban painters have influenced studio port ra it photographers. who often use backdrops pa inted by local a rtists to create the unreal spaces in their images.

Something qui te d ifferent from the influence of photography may be expressed in the interest in natu ralistic art: a progressive lessening of confidence in the invisible world, and a new Je lationship to the visible one. A fTica·s defeat by colonial forces. and its subsequent inability to control its own affairs. may have conspired with the growth oflslam and C hristiani ty and other factors to undermine the old faith in the powers. spirits. and ancestors who once were expected 10 protect believers. Simultaneously. a new materia lism was inc reasing every­ where . T he main focus and subject of traditional art had been the invisible. That arr·s famous stylization resulted in part from its concern

INTROVUCTION 25

Fig. II . House facade in Kano. N igeria. 1990. This style of monochrom~ mud tto­ lief decoration is typical of the middJe of the twentieth century. It has been ttplaced by two--dimen.siona.l, colored decoration in sim ilar patterns painted on ce ment buildings.. Photo: Robert Rubin.

with depicting not the visible but the o ther world. and the beings in it-or even with the materialization of new beings. 12 A njneteemh­ century figure representing a chief is not a description of how a man looks but an expression of ideals of proper leadership; a mo1her-and­ chi ld figure, more than a woman with a baby. emborues ideas about increase. nurturing, and protection. Traditional African artists do continue 10 carve figures and masks for the old gods. But they a lso refer increasingly to the visible world.

The interest in verisimilitude is accompanied by a new interes1 in material things. 1 ineteenth-century traditional sculptures seldom de­ picted man-made objects-their main images were of living beings. 13

They depicted plants rarely and landscapes virtually never. But con­ temporary traditional sculptu.res of the human figure include man­ made things formerly e ither absent or used only in the forn1 of real attachments. such as cloth or beads. GarmentS, shoes, ornamentS. weapons, seats . umbrellas. and so on are now carved as integral parts of traditionaJ a n . Late-twentieth-century African artists working in various strains still follow 1he old subject-matter conventions and focus on the human figure. but with a new interest in manufactured things. The gleaming garments in Sunday Jack Akpan·s cement portraits have a preternatural immediacy almost greater than the small faces (cat. 39-41). Objects become decorative motifs. and sometimes the eotfre subject-as in Kane Kwei"s coffins (cat. 34-38). Koffi Kouakou·s sculpted suits . shoes, and computer(cat. 84-86). and Sokari Douglas Camp's bed and boat ( cat. 100-101). Landscapes still attract almost no atten­ tion. but objects, mostly man-made. have taken on some of the value. power, and fascination that formerly belonged only to living beings. 1

•

Ethnicity and Individuality A desire to make " nonethnic·' art runs throug), all kinds of twentie th­ century African art except traditional art. Ethnicity. or ·•tribalism ,"' has consistently been seen as divisive in contemporary Africa, aad as a sort of throwback to an earlier form ofsocial structure. The wearing of modern (we caU it Western) dress has been one way ofexpressing a commitment to a multiethnic state. Artists have taken their inspiration from objects not identifiable with s1:>ecific e thnic groups. or have deliberately mjxed elementS from several ethnic traditions. Nonethe­ less. ethnic ties are probably sti ll the single most important determin­ ing factor in political. social. and economic relations in African villages and cities. Contemporary African art"s avoidance of strong ethnic identifications is remarkable. for it is created in countries where ethnic tensions have. if anything, worsened since independence. The silence of artists on t h is issue can be taken to show that they are in agreement w it h the consensus tha t art should express not actual personal experi­

ence but socially useful ideals . T he inhibition on ··ethnic'· art may be least felt by anists living farthest from Africa's ethnic divi.siveness: Sokari Douglas Camp. working in London for a largely European audience, does not hesitate to draw upon the specific art forms of her own Kalabari people. "'

Thoug~ their art is not particularly inspired by personal experi-

U l .\'TRODUCT / 01',"

Fig. 11. Senufo painted re.lief, Niofoin, Ccl te d'Ivoire., 1981.. Though m e re lief i.s painted. the color is secondary, serving only to emphul:z.a. its p lastic qualities. International painters often use lines and dots li ke th<>Jeseen here. Photo: Susan Vogel.

Fig. 13. Bobo masquerade r in Yegue.reuo village, near Ouagadougou, Burkina F~$0, 1990. The dancet" is we.ving a con:serv-a• tively carved mask w ith a fibe r costume. of the traditional design, but the raffia has been dyed eme rald grttn where it was forme.rl·1 bufr or black. This use of strong color is a lat~twentieth..century phenomenon understandable in these mo-­ nochromatic villages whf!re: streets, walb, and all structures are made of the same buff-<e>lored earth. The area has seen relativel y little economic development. Photo: Boure.ima Tie.koroni D iamitani.

cnccs. artists of all k inds have begun to seek personal recognition for their works. Tradi tiooal artists of the past were often willing to be relatively anonymous. but artists patronized by Europeans began signing their works as early as the 1910s.15 Today some. especially cement sculptors and Urban pain ters , sign works with names and addresses as a mar keting strategy, in the hope that this will bring them clients. and because certain names selJ. Cheri Samba explains his autobiographical paintings (ca t. 79) as a way to introduce himself to his public. H e keeps one on display in his shop-cum-studio, and says he puts one o r two in each of his exhibitions (Jacquemin 1990:82).

Patrons too have wanted to be represented in a more individua.lized way than they did in Lhe past. to have their particula r features recorded in portrailS. and to have their names written on works of art. Thjs desire to be individually named or depicted can be found in artworks as differe nt as the studio portrai t photograph (cat. 55-62) and the traditionalfla/i mask wilh the owner's name written upon it (p. 33. fig. J) . An interest in recording a persoo·s phys ical fearures intersects with the new vei:isimi.litude. taking several different forms. It bas created a flourishing market for portrait photographs since the early part of this century. Such photographs are used co achieve the best poss ible likeness of Lhe deceased in cement sculpture. These photo­ graphs have also been copied in rwo ancillary an forms: painting on glass, and enlarged. colored portrait paintings by Urban artists. 16

Distinctive new memorials to the dead have come into existence and new kinds of funeral ans have appeared in answer to thjs desire to be individually remembered. Traditional graves were usually unmarked

I NTRODUCT I O N 17

and located in rarely visited places. and cemeteries. if they existed at all. were small and simple; memorials to the dead were usually in o r near the village. away from the place of burial. 17 Increasingly in the twentieth century, conspicuous cement or rile tombs have been built. individualized by the photograph o r at least by the written name of the deceased. Traditional funerals of important people were always e labo­ rate. well atternded. and expensive; commemorations (which were often performances, frequently mainly verbal) underscored group history and family connections to other persons living and dead. In the past. a person·:s greatest importance lay in belonging to a group. or in fulfilling certain social roles. 18 To these elements have been added the dimensions of personal history. character. appearance, and individual achievements. as exemplified by the naturalistic cement grave sta tues ofSunday Jack Akpan ( cat. 39-41) and the referential coffins invented by Kane Kwei (cat. 34-38).

The changes in twentieth-century African art-the attempt to fuse divisive ethnicity into national identity, the interest in the visible world and in depicting the particularity of individuals, the emphasis on color. and the aesthetic of immediate impact-are not only remarkably consistent all over Africa, they resemble changes apparent in the arts of other parts o f the world. such as India. Mexico. and Indonesia. 1

' 1

Weste m isms African artists and their clients who have assimilated foreign elements are often described as '·Westernized.' . The word has been used as a kind of accusation, and a pretext for dismissal. What Helena Spanjaard writes of ladomesian art is equally true in Africa: '"Western cri ticism often states that modem Indonesian art has become Westernized. is not oriental enough and [is] therefore plagiarism·· (1988:131). "West­ ernization'" seems 100 sweeping a tenn for the phenomena we have observed. and 100 monolithic in its suggestion that there is a single process at wori.k. What is happening is actually far more subtle and less random th.an the blanket term "Westernization" suggests: African artists select foreign ingredients carefully from the array of choices, and insert them into a preexisting matrix in meaningful ways. Foreign formal e lemeAts-including those from other African groups-are virtually never· adopted into works of art unchanged: they are reinter­ preted and assimilated into local styles and structures. To regard the entire resulting work as ··Westernized .. is to ignore the substantia l part that is African. Artists using foreign themes and techniques in their work do so nol as a sign of their domination by the West, or of their repudiation of the ir African heritage. but in terms of their own culture.

A more useful approach to describing this process might be to locate · •Wcstcrnisms""in Afric-an art. This conceptual term allows us tQ

distinguish among the constituent parts of a work and 10 discuss them clearly. Westernism is not an art style or movement like European "primitivism,., its mirror image; there is in fact no African movement tha t can be called by the name. Rather. a Westernism is a discrete element such as a motif. a style, a technique. Like primitivism and o rientalis1n, however, Westernisms are a projection: they reflect an

18 I X T R O D U C T I O N

Fig. I ◄. Portrait of a man by an unknown studio photographer. Yamoussoukro. Cote d'l'voire, 1970s. Photognphy ,. not created u a particularly naturalistic medium in Africa. Painted lnd<drops (often wrinkled, and not necessarily realis.-tic). standard equipment from the earliest days. are used to provide a symbolic presen« rather than an illusion. Thi< photo:era9h was a.ken in the open air by a town photogn.• pher on tou:r in the villages. His subject, seated on a Joc:al carpenter's chair. wanted to be portrayed surrow>ded by Wertern- 1.srm: a radio on his lap, an airpl-an~ at his b~ck.. Private c:ofle<tion.

... ..~

,,. "'" •,:<, .. -..,.. ...,,;... -,~ :_;.,~llfo..:;:;;t;n._~_,,,___~=..:;;,e_.,J_,._....,.. ....__...,....,'"'"..._____

attitude. They are African visions and fantasies of Western culture, they may or may 1101 correspond to Western culture's readings of itself. Like primitivizing European artists_ African artists borrow foreign elements tha1 answer their own needs, and that may have li11le relationship to even ts and ideas in the West itself. 20

Westernisms are used self-conscio usly to make a statement; they are not every Western element we may see. When Christian or Muslim Yoruba parents replace carved 6gures with photographs in the twin cul t. the pho1ographs are Westernisms. proclaiming a different kind of relationship 10 the traditional cult (cat. 22-26). Ponrai1 photos made as parlor decorations are 001 usually Weste rn isms (cat. 55-62) bul simply a norn1al pan of the decor. Iba N'Diaye's use of Vela,zquez's ponrait of the black man Juan de Pareja is a Westemism: it asserts N'D iaye's connection to a classical European painting tradition, and makes a statement about the position of blacks in a wllile world (cat.113). His use of the medium ofoil on canvas does not seem to be a Westernism here, though in o the r circumstances it could be. Trigo Piula uses

I NT R ODUCT IO N 19

Westernisms :systematically to comment upon the culrural predicament of bis people. The nursing Kongo mother in his Materna (cat. 114) feeds her child with imported. canned evaporated milk; as the slang expression goes. we can see where her head is: it bas become the head of a white wo:man.

Many WeStern idioms and objects visible in African art must simply be considered assimilated parts of 1he culture of the Africans who use them- much as Americans use Japanese e lectronics unthinkingly as part of American culture. This s tudy demonstrates the abiHty of non-Western peoples to apprehend. digest. and appropriate parts of Western culture without losing themselves. For too long we have regarded this process from a st rictly Western point of view, and have been unwillilllg to surrender ownership of our own material culture after it has been pemianently borrowed by others. At what poin t will suits and ties, o r the medium of oil on canvas. for example. cease to

be seen as borrowed-even stolen-expressions? When Europeans and Americans acquire African masks, hang them on their living room walls (never wearing them in rituals). and interpret them according to their own cultural categories (home decor. or objets d 'art). those masks become pan of the culture of the West. Their owners haven't compromised their Western cultural identity. nor do they think of themselves as "Africanized," or, worse, as "'unmodem·· or traditional.

The widespread assumption that to be modern is to be Western insidiously denies the authenticity ofcontemporary African cultural expressions l>y regarding them a priori as imitations of the West. This book and exhibition contradict that assumption by showing that African assimilations of imported objects. materials, and ideas are selective and meaningful; that they are interpretations grounded in preexisting African cultural forms, and that they contribute to a continuous renovation of culture.

NOTES

I. Babalunde Lawal. a prominent Nigerian criLic. dismisses the widely admired an of the Oshogbo school because he finds a lack or contcn1 in i1. This an. he argues. is ..essentially an exercise in color doodling and simplistic representation:· and Nigerians r<.>gard it --as a kind of fodder ror the 1ouris1 ... To Lawal. the art"s claim to project Yoruba m)~bs and folklore is an afterthought more closely bound up with the works" t itles than wi11J their imagery (Lawal 1977:147).

2. Ia many respects. tradjtional ninetcenth--cenru.ry African socie1ie-s were exception• ally aesthe1icizin,g compared 10 Western socieries-they sho-.-ed a strong impulse 10 decorate or crea.te aesthetically satis'fying environments. archi1ecr-urc. and utilitarian objects. A grca1 deal of rirual sculp1ure was made as ··arr 10 look a l.·· virtual decoration. for example in shrines where the significant ritual focus was on some nonaes1hetic obj;ect. Though Africans clearly value decoration and the pleasures of aestheric stirroundings, the impulse to create such surroundings seems to have dimini$hed in recent time$ and in modem settings.

3. I am gra1eful to PhiLip M. Peek for bringing this LO my anenrion.

4. The Kenyan a nist Etale Sul.-uro (figs. 1.2) is an interestingcase: Sukuro paints au.ractive stylized landscapes for sale to while colleclors at Gallery Wa 1a1u in Nairobi a, the sam<! time 1ha1 he works in a different style for himself. producing p;,imings and pastels in a style one might call imoginary realism. Yet these works . biting politic.al sra,eincnts. arc still intended for an audience; Sukuro exhibilS them at local an fairs

JO J;\"TRODCCTION

to raise the political oonsciousnessof the people (Agthe 1990a:92).

5. ,'\.t least theoretically. spirilS who ..refused'' a work would refuse sacrifices and would not grant the i,,cnefiis sought by their devotees. lo reality, the potenrial for rejection seems more imponant than the practice; l have found almost no actual instances or a work l>ein,g rejected by a cliem-buman orO'lherwise.

6. James A. Snead's ··Repe1jtion as a FigureofBlack Culture·· (1990). which deals mainly wilh literature and music. is full of interesting ideas applicable to African visual

art.

7. Most writers on tradiifonal art a llude to this repetitiousness. though few have put it so 1ar1Jy. Most a re concerned with the interplay between the individuaJ artist and the regional style (e.g., Kasfir 1987; Brain L9S0:26Iff). and have argued (or the creativity allowed the artist (e.g ..Vansina 1984:45ff) without considering the nature of African creativity o r of the inherited styles. The best definitionof the situation I have found is by Denis Williams. ,vhoscparates and discusses ·•type-motif.·· --stereot)•pe·· (which I call ..type.. in this texl). "archetype.. (which I call "form''). and •'ioon" (1974:20-24).

8. Wyatt MacGaffey cites a violen t power figure with charcoal attached to it that could be interpreted by a pun on the Kongo word forcharooal (ka/ozima) and the words meaning ..to b,c alert"' (kala zima): a parrot feather helped the figure 10 speak magically-as parrot$seem to do (Koloss 1990:30).

9. For an extended discussion of traditional an ·s emphasis on sculptural volume o-..-er all other artis tic devices. see Vogel 1990:76-77.

10. The change from building in mud to cement bas been offered as !he explanation for this change. but gi\.oea similar shifts all across lhc continent . a change in taste seems a more likely explanation. The mud decorations were made with a reed armature~ which was then plastered over with clay: cement buildings could be provided ,vith a similar armature, perhaps of metal attached with nails. to preserve the clement of relief if that were a priority.

II, Personal oommunication from Bogumil Jewsiewicki. December 1990.

12. I have argued thac most traditional masks and figures are carved to bring into the world a new. named being in much the way that a birth brings a new person into the world (Vogel 1990:80-81).

13. There are rare exceptions. Baule artists carved wooden replicas ofgongs and beaters. bottles. knives. kerosene lamps, hats. and shoes. and covered them with gold leaf for display a t funerals with other gold . Seep. 236. 6g. 6a.

14. For further examples. see Bogumil Jewsiewicki's essay below. "Painting in Zaire."

15. Ivory carvers and gourd engrave.rs in the Mangbetu area signed their works almost as soon as they began selling 10 Europeans: the Azande porter Mbitim. who worked in 1he L930s. assiduously signed many of his distinctive figurative pots (Schildkrout an·d

Keim 1990:230-231).

16. Sec Borgan i 1990 for a discussion of traditional African portraiture.

17. Graves were not necessarily clustered to rorm cemeteries. The dead were some. times buried in the courtyard or under the house. or in isolated plac,es in the

wilderness.

18. Ivan Karp points,out tha t contemporary Africans have not abandoned collee1ivc fonns. but ··the change is that they arc using new collective forms such as the oation•state. as well as using old forms. such as <:,fans~ in new ways.. {personal communication. January 1991).

19. Though they are beyond the scope otthls book, these pandh:Js an: vruvocativc. TI,c 1988 exhibition and book ..Art from Another World." at the Rotterdam Museum o (

Ethnology is a first synthesis.

20. Robert Goldwater em phasizes 1hat 0 primitivism is not an immanent artistic movement. self-born and self-borne. but. .. grows from the general social and cultural setting of modem an•· (1967:265).

I N T R O D U C TI O N 3 /