Africa has produced some of the world’s oldest and most diverse art. Africa has also produced some of the most important masterpieces, which in addition to the function they served within the societies that produced them, are known to have exerted significant influence in the making of the 20th century European modern art. Yet, to this day the study of African art and its history are non-existent within the curricula of African schools, universities and even African art academies. African art textbooks designed and produced to address such needs are virtually non-existent. To this day, the study of African art remains largely a Western discipline. The scholarship of African art has been the product of western sensibility and an expression of western aesthetic responses to African visual culture. This book, initiated in Africa, is the first in a series to address this gap. Bringing together leading scholars and artists from the East Africa region, it illustrates how visually creative people in East Africa expressed themselves in the past through art and artefacts, and how some contemporary artists respond to the world within and beyond Africa. A major art education initiative, the book is edited by Marion Arnold, a leading South African art historian, with extensive university-level teaching experience.
Art in Eastern Africa
Africa has produced some of the world’s oldest and most diverse art. Africa has also produced some of the most important masterpieces, which in addition to the function they served within the societies that produced them, are known to have exerted significant influence in the making of the 20th century European modern art. Yet, to this day the study of African art and its history are non-existent within the curricula of African schools, universities and even African art academies. African art textbooks designed and produced to address such needs are virtually non-existent. To this day, the study of African art remains largely a Western discipline. The scholarship of African art has been the product of western sensibility and an expression of western aesthetic responses to African visual culture. This book, initiated in Africa, is the first in a series to address this gap. Bringing together leading scholars and artists from the East Africa region, it illustrates how visually creative people in East Africa expressed themselves in the past through art and artefacts, and how some contemporary artists respond to the world within and beyond Africa. A major art education initiative, the book is edited by Marion Arnold, a leading South African art historian, with extensive university-level teaching experience.
