Glossary
{needs to be put in Alphabetical order, with definitions added)
Abiku children: Abiku children are children who are destined for death. The Nigerian artist, Twins Seven Seven was particularly interested in the idea of Abiku children, and works such as his Spirits of My Reincarnation Brothers and Sisters from 1968, are examples of his fascination with this feature of Nigerian culture.
African Modern Art--
Afrikaaners-- White South Africans, speak Afrikaans.
Akan people
Apartheid-the system of racial discrimination in South Africa which operated through the privileging of white Afrikaaners and the segregation and political suppression of Black, Coloured, and Indian people from 1948 to 1994
art photography
Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act (1970)- an Apartheid-era denaturalization law which assigned black South Africans citizenship in newly-designated homelands based on their tribal groups, rather than in the greater South African nation; intended to secure the power of the white Afrikaaner minority over the Black majority. Implemented in 1970, repealed in 1994
Biafran war-- 1967-70
Celebration of Roots: A period of time in the 1960s when Africans looked to their cultural pasts, celebrating pre-colonial traditions. This brought about the first phase of modern Africa and coincided with decolonization of the continent.
coloureds-- a term for people in South Africa of mixed race, or a race outside of
being white or black.
Decolonization: The throwing out of foreign powers and establishing of native rule. Occurred in individual countries of Africa throughout the 1960s.
Direct rule:
Dutch Wax Fabric
École Dakkar
Embroidery - A way of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread. Embroidery is traditionally considered a domestic, female craft. (See Ghada Amer)
Flour Sack painting: a method of painting that entails stretching a flour sack over
a canvas frame; usually involved in scenes of everyday life. Cheri Samba is an example of an artist that utilized flour sack painting.
Group areas act
Hottentot Venus- Portrait of a woman brought back to Europe and put on display, had very exaggerated features; when she died, her remains were also put on display.
Hijab- Veil that covers the head, chest and neck of some Muslim women after the age of puberty. It also has to do with the seclusion of women from men in public.
Feminism- Movements and ideologies that aim to establish and achieve equality for women within the realms of social, political, cultural, and personal in relation to men.
Orientalism- The term used in Art History that refers to the imitation, depiction and representation of Middle Eastern, South Asian and East Asian cultures within art practices.
Popular Art: characterized as art produced by the people for the people as contrasted to fine art in a museum or gallery setting. Some examples of popular art include works by Cheri Samba, Tshibumba Kanda-Matulu, Sunday Jack Akpan, and Samuel Kane Kwei.
Indirect rule: a ruling system where natives of the colonized entity were put in charge to act as liasions between the ruling country and the ruled people. The British used this system.
Léopold Sédar Senghor: Léopold Sédar Senghor was the first president of Senegal after the country was granted independence in 1960. He served as President from 1960 to 1980. With a background as a poet, Senghor was best known for his interest in using the creative arts to build Senegal's new national identity. His name is synonymous with the celebration of negritude, an ideology that he promoted through his establishment of the École Dakkar.
Makere Art school: The Markere Art School was founded by expatriate, Margaret Trowel in Kampala, Uganda in 1937. In her teachings, Trowel encouraged African artists to depict western religious subject matter while deriving inspiration from their indigenous surroundings. Rather than using a western model of art education, Trowel believed in celebrating her students' unique perspectives. Her ultimate goal was to promote what she referred to as "African naivety" and to produce "authentic" African art.
Mashrabiya - Mashrabiya screens are lattices used in Islamic Architecture. Traditionally, their purpose is to protect the privacy of women. (See Zoulikha Bouabdekah's Wheel of Fortune)
Modern Art--
Modernism--
Natural Synthesis
Negretude: Promotion of a common black heritage, celebrating blackness. The concept was championed by Senghor, beginning in the 1940s and continuing through his time as the first President of Senegal.
Nsukka
Pass laws- in South Africa, an Apartheid-era travel management system designed to maintain segregation and constrain the movement of Blacks; required Blacks to carry passports whenever they were outside of their designated neighborhoods and later homelands. First widely used in the 1880s, repealed in 1986.
Patronage
Photojournalism
Polly Street Art Center
primitivism
Resistance Art--
Transnational Artist-- Artist that has moved between nations.
Mashribya-- Lattices used in traditional Arabic architecture to protect the privacy of women.
Metissage-- French word for mixed race.
Saltcellar
Senegalese reverse glass painting: a method of painting where the image is drawn and painted on the backside of a windowpane, windshield, or some other used glass pane; calls for the viewer to look through the glass to the image; used in Senegal by Muslims as a form of resistance against colonial rule
Sharpeville Massacre, March 21 1960- in Apartheid-era South Africa, a violent police response to Black South African protesters who approached the station in a demonstration against the Pass Laws. The massacre resulted in 69 civilian deaths.
Shona sculpture: Shona sculpture was developed by Frank McEwan and is emblematic of Zimbabwe art traditions. Though they are incredibly time-consuming to make, shona sculpture is a highly practical medium as it relies on soapstone, a particularly ubiquitous local material. Lemon Moses is renowned for his shona sculptures.
Social realism: Scenes of everyday life from the townships in Apartheid-era South Africa.
street photography
studio photography
TEnq (sp?)
The Academy of Indigenous Art 1946--
Tourist Art: characterized as "airport" or souvenir art made for tourists. Some examples of tourist art include sun masks made by the Winiama peoples. Tourist art can evolve from "authentic" traditional art or can be created to fit the needs of the art market.
Transitional Art: A genre of South African art that emerged during the 1980s in the South African gallery scene. Transitional art is art that is produced in rural African communities and then displayed in art galleries.
Visual Activism- Using visual methods to convey messages, express opinions, and bring about social or political change.
Uli drawing- traditional art form of the Igbo people of Nigeria, usually drawn by women. Drawings are mostly linear and include many traditional shapes and motifs that appear repetitively
Village des Arts: Artist cooperative in army barracks in Senegal. The birth place of Laboratoire AGIT-ART in 1974. Continued until they were evicted in 1983.
Zaria Art Society--
Abiku children: Abiku children are children who are destined for death. The Nigerian artist, Twins Seven Seven was particularly interested in the idea of Abiku children, and works such as his Spirits of My Reincarnation Brothers and Sisters from 1968, are examples of his fascination with this feature of Nigerian culture.
African Modern Art--
Afrikaaners-- White South Africans, speak Afrikaans.
Akan people
Apartheid-the system of racial discrimination in South Africa which operated through the privileging of white Afrikaaners and the segregation and political suppression of Black, Coloured, and Indian people from 1948 to 1994
art photography
Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act (1970)- an Apartheid-era denaturalization law which assigned black South Africans citizenship in newly-designated homelands based on their tribal groups, rather than in the greater South African nation; intended to secure the power of the white Afrikaaner minority over the Black majority. Implemented in 1970, repealed in 1994
Biafran war-- 1967-70
Celebration of Roots: A period of time in the 1960s when Africans looked to their cultural pasts, celebrating pre-colonial traditions. This brought about the first phase of modern Africa and coincided with decolonization of the continent.
coloureds-- a term for people in South Africa of mixed race, or a race outside of
being white or black.
Decolonization: The throwing out of foreign powers and establishing of native rule. Occurred in individual countries of Africa throughout the 1960s.
Direct rule:
Dutch Wax Fabric
École Dakkar
Embroidery - A way of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread. Embroidery is traditionally considered a domestic, female craft. (See Ghada Amer)
Flour Sack painting: a method of painting that entails stretching a flour sack over
a canvas frame; usually involved in scenes of everyday life. Cheri Samba is an example of an artist that utilized flour sack painting.
Group areas act
Hottentot Venus- Portrait of a woman brought back to Europe and put on display, had very exaggerated features; when she died, her remains were also put on display.
Hijab- Veil that covers the head, chest and neck of some Muslim women after the age of puberty. It also has to do with the seclusion of women from men in public.
Feminism- Movements and ideologies that aim to establish and achieve equality for women within the realms of social, political, cultural, and personal in relation to men.
Orientalism- The term used in Art History that refers to the imitation, depiction and representation of Middle Eastern, South Asian and East Asian cultures within art practices.
Popular Art: characterized as art produced by the people for the people as contrasted to fine art in a museum or gallery setting. Some examples of popular art include works by Cheri Samba, Tshibumba Kanda-Matulu, Sunday Jack Akpan, and Samuel Kane Kwei.
Indirect rule: a ruling system where natives of the colonized entity were put in charge to act as liasions between the ruling country and the ruled people. The British used this system.
Léopold Sédar Senghor: Léopold Sédar Senghor was the first president of Senegal after the country was granted independence in 1960. He served as President from 1960 to 1980. With a background as a poet, Senghor was best known for his interest in using the creative arts to build Senegal's new national identity. His name is synonymous with the celebration of negritude, an ideology that he promoted through his establishment of the École Dakkar.
Makere Art school: The Markere Art School was founded by expatriate, Margaret Trowel in Kampala, Uganda in 1937. In her teachings, Trowel encouraged African artists to depict western religious subject matter while deriving inspiration from their indigenous surroundings. Rather than using a western model of art education, Trowel believed in celebrating her students' unique perspectives. Her ultimate goal was to promote what she referred to as "African naivety" and to produce "authentic" African art.
Mashrabiya - Mashrabiya screens are lattices used in Islamic Architecture. Traditionally, their purpose is to protect the privacy of women. (See Zoulikha Bouabdekah's Wheel of Fortune)
Modern Art--
Modernism--
Natural Synthesis
Negretude: Promotion of a common black heritage, celebrating blackness. The concept was championed by Senghor, beginning in the 1940s and continuing through his time as the first President of Senegal.
Nsukka
Pass laws- in South Africa, an Apartheid-era travel management system designed to maintain segregation and constrain the movement of Blacks; required Blacks to carry passports whenever they were outside of their designated neighborhoods and later homelands. First widely used in the 1880s, repealed in 1986.
Patronage
Photojournalism
Polly Street Art Center
primitivism
Resistance Art--
Transnational Artist-- Artist that has moved between nations.
Mashribya-- Lattices used in traditional Arabic architecture to protect the privacy of women.
Metissage-- French word for mixed race.
Saltcellar
Senegalese reverse glass painting: a method of painting where the image is drawn and painted on the backside of a windowpane, windshield, or some other used glass pane; calls for the viewer to look through the glass to the image; used in Senegal by Muslims as a form of resistance against colonial rule
Sharpeville Massacre, March 21 1960- in Apartheid-era South Africa, a violent police response to Black South African protesters who approached the station in a demonstration against the Pass Laws. The massacre resulted in 69 civilian deaths.
Shona sculpture: Shona sculpture was developed by Frank McEwan and is emblematic of Zimbabwe art traditions. Though they are incredibly time-consuming to make, shona sculpture is a highly practical medium as it relies on soapstone, a particularly ubiquitous local material. Lemon Moses is renowned for his shona sculptures.
Social realism: Scenes of everyday life from the townships in Apartheid-era South Africa.
street photography
studio photography
TEnq (sp?)
The Academy of Indigenous Art 1946--
Tourist Art: characterized as "airport" or souvenir art made for tourists. Some examples of tourist art include sun masks made by the Winiama peoples. Tourist art can evolve from "authentic" traditional art or can be created to fit the needs of the art market.
Transitional Art: A genre of South African art that emerged during the 1980s in the South African gallery scene. Transitional art is art that is produced in rural African communities and then displayed in art galleries.
Visual Activism- Using visual methods to convey messages, express opinions, and bring about social or political change.
Uli drawing- traditional art form of the Igbo people of Nigeria, usually drawn by women. Drawings are mostly linear and include many traditional shapes and motifs that appear repetitively
Village des Arts: Artist cooperative in army barracks in Senegal. The birth place of Laboratoire AGIT-ART in 1974. Continued until they were evicted in 1983.
Zaria Art Society--