Influence of African Art on European and American Art since 19th Research Paper

Influence of African Art on European and American Art since 19th century - Research Paper Example The main factor that makes the African art to be influential is the fact that most of the African artwork were designed during the colonial times and hence had direct impact on the European and American who were the major colonialist. Most of the African art were designed to expose the limitations imposed on the Africans by the colonialist. A study that was conducted by Salah that explored the twentieth century history and sociology of the western countries reveals that most of famous and creative artist comes from previously colonized territories, including Africa, London and Rome. This signifies the fact that Africans played a significant role in shaping the art industry both in Africa and western communities. The study states that the intellectual employed by African during production of its art is essential to understanding the global modernity. This is because most of the African art overlaps with that of the European counterparts. African artist employed different styles in the ir artwork. These include the Masquerade and masking traditions have a role of underlining the historical continuities with a pre-colonial past. The use of these forms of tradition compounded by creativity employed has made most of the African art to be among the most admired. It has encouraged the modernist from the entire continent to continually engage in African masking traditions. They masking and masquerade constitute the major forms of art of presenting a person. In order to fully discuss the reasons behind the superiority of African art, it is important to first explore the meaning of the term Africa (Sey 459). From artistic point of view, Africa is described as a complex intellectual construct that signify different opinions. Africa integrates certain cultural values, cultural features and values meant to depict Africa as a continent (Salah 472). One unique thing about Africa and art is that Africa went through a myriad of political and social changes. Africa is a continent with a lot of experiences in aspects such as slavery, colonialism and diasporization of African people and cultures. Because of all these experience, Africa is a complex continent. This is why most of the artistic activities made in Africa are outstandingly unique. They are normally carved out based on the cultures, experiences and the day to day encounters. This means that artwork is just a representation of social or political phenomena. In this context the African art are products of the historically complex encounters. One thing that should be notes as far as African art concerns the dynamic nature of the artwork (Salah 452). Social changes that are