Week 1: INTRODUCTION: COURSE TOPICS AND PROCEDURES (September 2)
Week 2: LOOKING AT AND SEEING AFRICAN ART (Wed., September 9)
NOTE: * = required readings in course packet from Bobs Copy Shop, 616 University
Avenue and Visona et al. textbook on reserve at College Library; ** = optional readings
available on e-reserves, located in the Academic tab of My UW.
1. Visona et. al., A HISTORY OF ART IN AFRICA (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001),
Preface (Abiodun) pp.10-13 and Introduction (Blier) pp.14-23; Aspects of African Culture, pp.
44, 196, 283, 336, 424, 458.*
2. Preble and Preble, ARTFORMS 5th ed. (NY: Harper Collins, 1994): 34-108. *
3. Vogel, African Sculpture: A Primer, in CLOSEUP (NY: Museum for African Art, 1990):
75-81. *
4. MacGaffey, The Eyes of Understanding: Kongo Nkisi, ASTONISHMENT AND POWER,
PP.21-45.**
5. Vansina, ART HISTORY IN AFRICA (NY: Longman, 1984), pp. 1-20, 78-120. [RB
AFROMER 241 34] **
6.Willett, AFRICAN ART (London: Thames and Hudson, 1993), pp. 139-160**
Week 3: INTRODUCTION TO AFRICA AND THE STUDY OF AFRICAN ART
(September 14, 16)
1. Drewal, AFRICAN ART: A BRIEF GUIDE TO THE COLLECTION (Cleveland: Cleveland
Museum of Art, 1988): 1-24.*
2. Perani and Smith, VISUAL ARTS OF AFRICA (NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998), pp.1-19. *
3. Kasfir, Sidney Littlefield, Introduction in Contemporary African Art. (NY: Thames &
Hudson, 1999), 9-17 * *
4. Vansina, ART HISTORY IN AFRICA (NY: Longman, 1984), pp. 41-55. [35] **
5. McNaughton and Pelrine, African Art, in Martin and OMeara, AFRICA (3rd Ed.,
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995), Chap. 12, pp. 223-256.**
6. Willett, AFRICAN ART (London: Thames and Hudson, 1993), pp. 8-42**
7. Oguibe, In The Heart of Darkness in THE CULTURE GAME, pp. 3-9.**
8. Kasfir, Sidney Littlefield, African Art and Authenticity: A Text with a Shadow in Reading
the Contemporary: African Art from Theory to Marketplace. Olu Oguibe & Okwui Enwezor,
eds. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999) 88-113**
Week 4: AFRICAN ARTISTS AND AESTHETICS (September 21, 23)
1. Thompson, Aesthetics in BLACK GODS AND KINGS (Los Angeles: University of
California, Museum and Laboratories of Ethnic Arts and Technology, 1971), CH3/1-7. *
2. Drewal, AFRICAN ARTISTRY (Atlanta: The High Museum of Art, 1980), pp. 9-20. [10] *
3. Walker, Roslyn. Anonymous Has a Name: Olowe of Ise, from The Yoruba Artist: New
Theoretical Perspectives on African Arts (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994): 91106.*
4. Yai, In Praise of Metonymy: The Concepts of Tradition and Creativity in the
Transmission of Yoruba Artistry over Time and Space, in THE YORUBA ARTIST
(Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994), pp. 107-115. **
5. Sieber, The Aesthetics of Traditional African Art, in ART AND AESTHETICS IN
PRIMITIVE SOCIETIES (NY: E.P. Dutton, 1971), Jopling, ed., pp. 127-131. [31] **
6. Vogel, Beauty in the Eyes of the Baule, WORKING PAPERS IN THE TRADITIONAL
ARTS (Philadelphia: Institute of the Study of Human Issues, 1977), 6, pp. 1-24. [38] **
7. Vogel, African Aesthetics, (NY: Center for African Art , 1986) pp. XI-XVI. [36] **
8. Willett, AFRICAN ART (London: Thames and Hudson, 1993), pp. 208-237**
Week 5: AFRICAN ROCK ARTSAHARAN AND SOUTHERN AFRICA (September
28, 30) [REMINDER: STYLE PAPER DUE October 5]
1. Visona et al. A HISTORY OF ART IN AFRICA, pp. 26-32; 472-478 *
2. Perani and Smith, Western and Central Sudanic Societies, pp.20-28. *
3. Gillon, A SHORT HISTORY OF AFRICAN ART (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986), pp. 3654. *
4. Mazonowicz, Prehistoric Rock Painting at Tassili,AFRICAN ARTS, 2, 1, 1968, pp. 24, 7475. *
5. Davis, The Study of Rock Art in Africa, in A HISTORY OF AFRICAN ARCHEOLOGY
(London: J. Currey/Heinemann, 1990), pp. 271-95.**
6. Lewis-Williams, Ways of Discovering Rock Art, in DISCOVERING SOUTHERN
AFRICAN ROCK ART (Cape Town: D. Phillips, 1990), pp.1-42.**
7. Willett, AFRICAN ART, pp. 43-79**.
Weeks 6 & 7: NOK and IGBO UKWU (October 5, 7, 12, 14)
1. Visona et al. A HISTORY OF ART IN AFRICA, pp. 78-80; 274-278 *
2. Perani and Smith, pp. 41-44. *
3. Eyo and Willett, TREASURES OF ANCIENT NIGERIA (NY: Knopf/Random House, 1980),
pp. 3-10, 25-32. *
4. Gillon, A SHORT HISTORY OF AFRICAN ART, pp. 75-86. [N7380 G5 1986] **
5. Shaw, NIGERIA: ITS ARCHEOLOGY AND EARLY HISTORY (London: Thames &
Hudson, 1978), pp. 69-88. [30] **
6. Willett, AFRICAN ART, pp. 65-75 **
7 Art and Life in AfricaCD-ROM (HCW-N72 S6 A781 1998 MEDIA) -- Ancient Africa:
Nok and Igbo Ukwu **
Weeks 8 & 9: IFE AND BENIN (October 19, 21, 26, 28) -- [MIDTERM EXAM -October
28] [Visit by Nigerian artist Lamidi Fakeye, week 8]
1. Visona et al. A HISTORY OF ART IN AFRICA, pp. 228-236; 310-325*
2. Perani and Smith, pp.126-135, 171-202. *
3. Drewal, Ife: Origins of Art and Civilization, in YORUBA: NINE CENTURIES OF
AFRICAN ART AND THOUGHT (NY: Center for African Art in Association with H.N.
Abrams, 1989), pp. 45-76. *
4. Ben-Amos, THE ART OF BENIN (NY: Thames and Hudson, 1980), pp. 5-43. *
5. Willett, AFRICAN ART, pp. 65-114**
6. Art and Life in AfricaCD-ROM (HCW-New Media) -- Ancient Africa: Ife and Benin **
Weeks 10 & 11 & 12: TEXTILES, DECORATIVE AND PERSONAL ARTS (November 2,
4, 9, 11, 16)
1.Visona et al. pp. 42-46; 94-95; 99-105; 194-208; 260-263; 303-310; 342- 352; 399-402; 429434; 466-469; 488-491*
2.Perani and Smith, pp.307-320. *
3. Berns, Decorated Gourds of Northeastern Nigeria,AFRICAN ARTS , 19, 1, pp.28-45, 86,
87. *
4. Cole, Vital Arts in Northern Kenya, AFRICAN ARTS, 7, 2, 1974, pp.12-23, 82.*
5. Ross, Doran H. A Beautiful Cloth Does Not Wear Itself, from Wrapped in Pride: Ghanaian
Kente and African American Identity (Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History,
1998): 38-57.*
6. Imperato, Bokolanfini, AFRICAN ARTS, 3, 4, 1970, pp. 12-19, 82-84. [21] **
7. Ferris, NUBA PERSONAL ART (London: Duckworth, 1972), pp. 73-82**
8. Adams, M. Kuba Embroidered Cloth, AFRICAN ARTS, 12, 1, pp. 24-39. [1] **
Weeks 12 & 13: AFRICAN ARCHITECTURE (November 18, 23, 25)
1. Visona, et. al. pp. 33-42; 95-99; 110-113; 137-140; 162-165; 191; 266-268; 339-342; 398-399;
441-444; 445-448; 479-483; 492-493 *
2. Prussin, An Introduction to Indigenous African Architecture, in JOURNAL OF THE
SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS (Philadelphia: Society of Architectural
Historians), 33, 3, 1974, pp. 182-205. *
3. Prussin, Oulata, in HATUMERE: ISLAMIC DESIGN IN AFRICA (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1986), pp. 134-141. *
4. Pwiti, The Origins and Development of the Stone Building Cultures of Zimbabwe, in
LEGACIES OF STONE: ZIMBABWE (Tervuren: Royal Museum for Central Africa, 1997),
pp.77-95 *
5. Schneider, Ndebele Mural Art, AFRICAN ARTS, 18, 3, pp. 60-67, 100. **
6. Allen, Swahili Architecture in the Later Middle Ages, AFRICAN ARTS , 7, 2, pp. 42-47,
66-68, 83.**
7. Willett, AFRICAN ART, pp. 115-137**
THANKSGIVING BREAK (November 26-29)
Week 14: GLOBAL AFRICAN AND AFRICAN DIASPORA ARTS OF THE 20TH and
21st CENTURIES (November 30-December 2)
1. Visona et al. pp. 46-47; 76-77; 125-128; 191-193; 225-227; 268-273; 278-282; 364-365; 408411; 435-437; 460-461; 469-471; 494-497; 500-527 *
2. Oguibe, Art, Identity, Boundaries: Postmodernism and Contemporary African Art,
READING THE CONTEMPORARY: AFRICAN ART FROM THEORY TO THE
MARKETPLACE (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999), 16-29*.
3. Oguibe, Finding a Place: Nigerian Artists in the Contemporary Art World, in ART
JOURNAL (NY: College Art Association), 58(2) 1999:30-41*
4. Okeke, Chika, The Quest for a Nigerian Art: Or a Story of Art from Zaria and Nsukka in
Reading the Contemporary: African Art from Theory to Marketplace. Olu Oguibe & Okwui
Enwezor, eds. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999) 144-165*
5. Kasfir, Sidney Littlefield, The African Artist: Shifting Identities in the Postcolonial World,
Contemporary African Art. (NY: Thames & Hudson, 1999),124-165.*
4. Perani and Smith, pp.124-5, 166-70, 202-6, 274-5, 304-6, 344-8. **
5. Beier, CONTEMPORARY ART IN AFRICA (NY: Praeger, 1968), pp. 3-14. **
6 Kasfir, Sidney Littlefield, Migration and Displacement, Contemporary African Art. (NY:
Thames & Hudson, 1999),190-213.**
7 Oguibe, Olu, Double Dutch and the Culture Game in The Culture Game. (Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota UP, 2004):33-44. **
8. 8. Magnin, CONTEMPORARY ART OF AFRICA (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996), pp.
22-175.**
Week 15: STUDENT PRESENTATIONS/CELEBRATION (Monday, December 7 and
Wed. December 9) and REVIEW SESSION (Monday, December 14)
FINAL EXAM Tuesday, December 22nd at 10:05 12:05 in Chazen room L160
