Visit this display near the south elevators on the 3rd floor.
The contemporary art of Africa eludes generalized description. Artists have utilized various mediums, from oils to silk screening, and methods varying from brass casting by the ancient lost wax process to welding tin cans and other metals into sculpture. Traditionalists like Lamidi Fakeye produce sculpture and wood carvings based on classical African designs. A larger group works in the more modern styles of cubism, expressionism, and surrealism, while others seek a purely personal style. Many African artists were trained at European and American schools; others feel that they can achieve truly African expression only in their native surroundings. In Nigeria, for example, the national artistic tradition is strong and pervasive, even though obscured by the effects of European colonialism and Christian and Moslem religious zeal. In many other countries, traditional art very nearly succumbed under these forces. Thus a contemporary artwork is classified as African purely on the basis of the artist's nationality, rather than according to a peculiar style, subject, purpose, or medium.*
Art of the Harlem Renaissance and Contemporary African Art
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement among African Americans which began around New York's Harlem.
Key figures include:
- Jacob Lawrence
- Charles Alston
- Henry Bannarn
- Augusta Savage
- Aaron Douglas
- Archibald Motley
- Lois Mailou Jones
- Palmer Hayden
- Romare Bearden
- Sargent Johnson
- William H. Johnson
- Beauford Delaney
- Norman Lewis