Connecting-Africa | Find publications

Advanced search

Find:


Title WHY EUROPE ACKNOWLEDGED TRADITIONAL AFFRICAN WOOD SCULPTURES AFTER FIVE HUNDRED YEARS OF THEIR CONDEMNATION
Full text http://dspace.knust.edu.gh/dspace/handle/123456789/799
Date 1996
Author(s) Agyemang, Opamshen Osei
Abstract Europe, having condemned traditional African wood carvings for five centuries, turned back and acknowledged the same objects as ingenious works of art. The carvings were acknowledged because the conditions which influenced their condemnation had largely changed: slavery had been abolished and Africans and their carvings had gained respect; traditions, conservatism, complacency and ethnocentrism had relaxed; Europe had understood the symbolic nature of the carvings and had recognized their aesthetic qualities. Encouraged by anthropological writings, aesthetic, art and scholastic revolutions, and as a testimony of her acknowledgement, Europe acquired myriads of the sculptures for study, pleasure and exhibition; and demonstratingtheir acknowledgement, many European artists adopted the style of the carvings and copied samples of the figures into their art works.
Publisher KNUST
Identifier 0855-0395
Repository Kumasi - Kwame Nkrumah University
Added to C-A: 2010-02-23;08:57:24