Module 10: Africa

 

Seated Figure (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/314362)

    

    This art piece was the main topic in one of our videos, I used it because I think it shows how under valued African art is. There are so many interpretations for this art piece and ones that look like it, it has not been studied enough or given enough attention to have exact meaning or use. Egyptian art is depicted more than the rest of African art because it is found that Greek art is influenced heavily from Egyptian art. There were also multiple places in Africa that were christian dominant, we have learned about christian and art and about how much there is so it's surprising that not all of African christian art is included in that conversation. A lot of the art sculptures from this time period had smaller bottom halves and larger upper halves. The narrator in the video used the word "shriveled" to describe the lower halves of the sculptures. Some of the art sculptures even had jelly like legs where they are depicted being thrown over ones shoulder. This is where the interpretations became larger in number, because there were many ideas about what legs being depicted like that, so lifeless, could mean. African art is super underrepresented so it was really hard to find differing perspectives on the African art. Personally based off of the art works I saw, African art sculptures mostly were just the head of a body, so my theory is that to them the head and upper body was more important than the lower body.