Professor Amy B. Werbel

e-mail is my preferred mode of communication:  awerbel@smcvt.edu

meeting times:  by appointment, almost every day, please arrange through e-mail

 

Art 391:  West African and African-American Art

Spring, 2009

Tuesdays, Thursdays 10-11:15

Jeanmarie, room 375

 

Description:

 

Art 391 is a seminar intended for students who wish to learn about religious philosophies, royal arts, empowered and empowering objects, gender relations, sacred ritual objects, performance, architecture, and curatorial practice in the display of West African and African-American art.   

 

Students are expected to critically analyze, interpret, and discuss course materials throughout the semester.  Reading, discussion, writing, and speaking are the essential components of this class.  In addition, you will make a “virtual exhibition” on the web.    

 

Required Texts:  (available in the bookstore)

 

Visona, Cole, Poynor, et al, A History of Art in Africa (2nd edition, New York: Prentice Hall, 2001)

 

Blier, Suzanne Preston. Royal Arts of Africa (various editions)

 

Lisa E. Farrington, Creating their own Image: The History of African-American Women Artists (Oxford University Press, 2005)

 

All other readings are posted in “doc sharing” on E-College.

 

Course Plan:

 

Unit 1: Introduction to West African Culture

 

Jan. 13             Introduction

 

Jan. 15             Traditional West African Art and Religion

Reading:  Art in Africa, 14-19, Kofi Asare Opoku, West African Traditional Religion; (on E-College)

Assignment: QQC due in dropbox by 9 p.m. Wed., Jan. 14

 


 

Unit 2:  West Atlantic Forests and Akan Worlds

 

Jan. 20             West Atlantic Forests: Masking and Transformation

Reading:  Art in Africa, 167-183. Phillips, “Masking in Mende Sande Society Initiation Rituals,” in The Performance Arts in Africa, 138-148 (on E-College)

 

Jan. 22             Mende Concepts of Female Beauty

                        Reading: Sylvia Ardyn Boone, Radiance from the Waters, 81-144 (on E-College)

 

Jan. 27             Akan Worlds: Leadership and Power

Reading: Art in Africa, 196-217

 

Jan. 29             Akan Festivals

Reading: Art in Africa, 217-227.  Cole, “The Art of Festival in Ghana,” in The Performance Arts in Africa, 339-357 (on E-College)

 

Unit 3:  Yoruba, Fon and Battamaliba:  Power, Healing, and Performance

 

Feb. 3              Yoruba and Fon: Overview

Reading: Art in Africa, 228-264

 

Feb. 5              Introduction to FrontPage I

 

Feb.  10           Yoruba and Dahomey: Divine Authority and Royal History

Reading: Blier, Royal Arts, 79-123

 

Feb. 12                        Divination:  An African Way of Knowing

Reading: Peek and Blier, in African Divination Systems, 1-14, 73-90 (on E-College)

 

Feb. 17                        No Class – Break

 

Feb. 19                        Yoruba Ritual: Performers, Play, Agency

Reading: Margaret Thompson Drewal, Yoruba Ritual: Performers, Play, Agency: xiii--62, (on E-College)

 

Unit 4:  The Lower Niger: Benin, Mami Wata

 

Feb. 24                        Benin: Overview and Mami Wata Shrines

Reading: Art in Africa, 272-297, Henry John Drewal, “Mami Wata Shrines: Exotica and the Construction of Self” 308-330 (on E-College doc sharing)

 

Feb. 26                        Benin Kingdom: Politics and Religion

Reading: Blier, Royal Arts, 42-77 Suzanne Preston Blier, “Imaging Otherness in Ivory:  African Portrayals of the Portuguese, ca. 1492” (on E-College)

Unit 5: The Diaspora:  Caribbean

 

Mar. 3             African Diaspora: Overview

Reading: Art in Africa, 516-541

 

Mar. 5                         Bocio and Bo

                        Reading: Suzanne Preston Blier, African Vodun: Art, Psychology and Power, 1-54

                        (on E-College)

 

Mar. 10           Vodun in Haiti

                        Reading: Robert Farris Thompson, “The Rara of the Universe: Vodun Religion and Art in Haiti,” 163-191 (on E-College)

 

Mar. 12           Frontpage II and Photoshop

 

Mar. 17 and 19 No Class - Break

 

Unit 6: The Diaspora – United States

 

Mar. 24           Early African Influences in the U.S.

Reading: Samella Lewis, African American Art and Artists, 7-21; John Michael Vlach, “The Shotgun House: An African Architectural Legacy”; Livingston and Beardsley, Black Folk Art in America, (all on E-College)

 

Mar. 26           The Harlem Renaissance

                        Reading:  Farrington, Creating Their Own Image, 76-95; “The Negro in Art: How Shall He Be Portrayed?” (1926): 190-204; Alain Locke, “A Note on African At” (1924): 537-541 (both on E-College)

 

Mar. 29           Advising on Exhibition Topics – Library Reference Area, 7-10 p.m.

 

Mar. 30           Advising on Exhibition Topics – Library Reference Area, 8:30-11:30 a.m.

 

Mar. 31           Contemporary Female African-American Artists I

                        Reading:  Farrington, Creating Their Own Image, 146-171

Assignment:  Exhibition topics due with annotated bibliography

 

April 2 and 7   No Class

 

April 9            Contemporary Female African-American Artists II

Reading: Farrington, Creating Their Own Image, 250-295

 

Unit 7: Exhibition Practices and Presentations

 

Apr. 14            Exhibiting Cultures

Reading: Steven Levine and Ivan Karp, “Museums and Multiculturalism” 1-10; Michael Baxandall, “Exhibiting Intention: Some Preconditions of the Visual Display of Culturally Purposeful Objects,” 33-41; and Susan Vogel, “Always True to the Object, in our Fashion,” 191-204 (all on E-College)

 

Apr. 16            Exhibition Design I

Reading: Pamela McCluskey, Art from Africa: Long Steps Never Broke a Back, 13-60; Susan Mullin Vogel, Baule: African Art/Western Eyes, 12-37 (both on E-College)

 

Apr. 17 or 18  Dinner and Movie at my House:  Basquiat

Reading:  Jonathan Weinberg, “The Bombing of Basquiat,” 211-241; bell hooks. “Altars of Sacrifice: Re-membering Basquiat” (you can find more examples of his work on google images). 

 

Apr. 19            Work on your websites with Professor guidance, JEM 288, 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

 

Apr. 21            Exhibition Design II

Assignment:  Bring in the url of a website discussing African art that you find to be a good model for your final project.  Be prepared to explain the elements you like and will copy in a 3-minute presentation.

 

Apr. 22            Work on your websites with Professor guidance, JEM 288, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

 

Apr. 23            Presentations of Virtual Exhibitions

                        *If you are presenting today, please bring a print out of all your pages*

 

Apr. 26            Work on your websites with Professor guidance, JEM 288, 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

 

Apr. 28            Presentations of Virtual Exhibitions

                        *If you are presenting today, please bring a print out of all your pages*

 

Apr. 30            Presentations of Virtual Exhibitions

                        *If you are presenting today, please bring a print out of all your pages*

 

May 5              Virtual Exhibitions must be finished by noon.

 

Course Requirements and Grading:

 

1.  Daily assignments – 50 points – as decided upon by the class

2.  Class Participation – 20 points

3.  Virtual Exhibition - 25 points

4.   10 minute presentation of virtual exhibition – 5 points

 

Virtual Exhibitions are graded holistically, taking into account the amount and quality of research presented, the thoughtfulness exhibited in the theme and organization of the exhibition, design qualities, and use of technology.