African Influences in Modern Art

African Influences in Modern Art
Name:
Institution:
African Influences in Modern Art
Face Mask
The face mask (Gunye Ge) by the Dan peoples was produced between the nineteenth and mid-twentieth century, and it is made from wood, human hair, and iron, among other components. Additionally, the mask was produced by different ethnic people between Cote d'Ivoire and Liberia. Among the Dan community, the various dangerous and harmful immaterial spirits were converted and expressed in ways such as through human face masks. The people maintained and believed that whether these masks were used or not, they were spiritually charged. Ordinarily, the male performance was believed to experience dreams associated with the mask spirits and enabled them to dance it. Also, during the performance, these masks were joined and integrated into the hierarchical systems which control people's religious and political life.
The face mask by the Dan people may be categorized into the primitive art movement. Normally, the art belonging to this movement encompasses non-Western art. Additionally, primitive art examines the cultural artifacts of ethnic groups and communities with relatively low technological development. It is necessary to note that some of the art included in the primitive movement include African art, aboriginal art, tribal art, and Oceanic art (The Art Story, 2019). Primitive art mainly consists of the artwork, which is intended for the audience or members who share the same valued and are insulated from the influence and effects of foreign styles.
Some of the characteristics of the face masks by the Dan people presences of the scarification marks, and it also has lines that split the forehead. These masks have different meanings among the Dan people. For example, they are used for protection purposes, and they also act as a medium for communicating with the spirit world (Artyfactory, 2010). The people believed that the world is divided into the human and spiritual domain and that by wearing the mask, one becomes the spirit associated with that mask; people wearing the masks were believed to wise men who used the language of the spirits.
Bust of a man
Bust of a man artwork was produced by Pablo Picasso in 1908. In this art, Picasso utilized and incorporated pictorial elements that were not common among Western art. It is necessary to note that the artist incorporated Iberian as well as African sculpture, which he has seen an ethnogr...