Diaspora
What does the word diaspora mean?
The dispersion or spread of a people of common origin, background, or belief from their original homeland
What is the slave ship icon and who commissioned it?
It is a diagrammatic image of the cargo hold of a slave ship commissioned in 1789 by the Plymouth Committee of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade
What was the name of the art movement that inspired Robert Duncanson?
The Hudson River School
What does photography mean?
Photography comes from the Greek words ”light” and “drawing” so it literally means “drawing with light”
What countries are we primarily referring to when we discuss the African diaspora in this class?
What was the Middle Passage and how long did it take?
The Middle Passage was the portion of the Atlantic slave trade that transported people from Africa to North America, South America, and the Caribbean (ie across the Atlantic Ocean). It lasted roughly 80 days (2-3 months)
What are some hallmarks of Joshua Johnson's paintings?
- portraits, especially of children
- details in dress fabrics
- details in accessories
- flatness to the figures
- not a ton of individuality in the faces of the individuals
- paintings were glazes so they looked luminous in person
Where was the invention of photography formally announced and why was that significant?
Announced in 1839 at a joint meeting the Academy of Science and the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris
This is significant because people didn't really know how to classify photography -- it certainly used chemistry and other scientific means to make the images that recorded nature, but was it art? Where was the artistic gesture in photography? Therefore, photography was often classified as an art-science
What are some important things to keep in mind when studying art of the African Diaspora?
- the diaspora is NOT a monolith; not everyone within a diasporic community has the same experience
- for each artist we encounter, we should be asking ourselves how does that artist interrogate what it means to belong in a new geographic and cultural situation through their artmaking and also how might they be referencing their home country in their artworks?
Who was Olaudah Equiano?
Olaudah Equiano was from what is present day Nigeria and he was sold into slavery as a child. He eventually lived free in London. He was a vocal opponent of the slave trade and frequently wrote and spoke about his experience of enslavement. He published his memoirs in 1789, which offered a significant first-person account of the conditions of the Middle Passage.
Why were enslaved blacksmiths considered especially valuable to white slave owners?
- it was a highly skilled, technical craft.
- Blacksmiths could make all kinds of decorative objects (silverware, pipes, kettles, even wrought iron balconies) as well as agricultural tools
- The slave owners therefore wouldn't have to go out and purchase those objects themselves, would have people on-hand to repair them, and could even rent out the services of the blacksmiths to make a profit
Why did Augustus Washington leave America? And why, specifically, did he move to Liberia?
- He was disillusioned with America’s treatment of its black citizens
- Liberia essentially became a colony for Black Americans. Between 1820 and 1843, there were over 4500 people who emigrated there.
- This was a divisive idea -- some Americans (and the American Colonization Society) encouraged Black people to move there because they thought that they could never integrate into US Society. Many abolitionists disagreed -- saying that encouraging free Black Americans to move to Liberia perpetuated racism. Some Black Americans, like Washington, were eager to try a new life in Liberia
What does Krista Thompson mean by a “sidelong glance” as an approach to art history of the African diaspora?
In its simplest terms, she calls for a reoriented perspective that would subsequently allow us to learn about the stories about art and artists that are otherwise overlooked and understudied.
How does Kerry James Marshall interpret the topic of the transatlantic slave trade in his works, such as Great America (1994)
- large-scale, colorful painting; layered imagery (ie there's a lot to look at)
- the slave ship has been reimagined as an amusement park boat ride into a haunted house with white ghosts. Significantly, we can't see the end of the tunnel -- we don't know the fate of these people on the boat or what other horrors might await them. We might ask ourselves, does the tunnel ever end?
- in the words of Kerry James Marshall, he is "trying to make arresting images that compel looking and thinking.” The viewer is therefore an active participant in the artwork.
What is significant about the ceramics of David Drake and why might they be described as "quiet activism"?
- Drake inscribed his jars with his name (and sometimes his enslaver's name), the date, and sometimes with a two-line poem
- This was a powerful move on Drake's part because he is demonstrating that he can read and write at a time when it was illegal for enslaved people to read or write. Drake's words and his determination to proclaim his literacy, therefore, can be interpretd as acts of defiance
Why was photography an important part of the colonial project and why do we have many more surviving examples of colonial photography than we do portraits taken in West African photography studios?
Colonial photographs = photographs taken by Europeans to document people and cultures of Africa -- they used these images to justify white racial superiority and the "need" to colonize. Today, we see these images as racist and dehumanizing.
However, there were also many West African photography studios that flourished, which is where people could go to have their portraits taken.
The colonial photographs circulated widely in the Euro-American context and many of them ended up in government archives, where they were preserved. West African studio photographs, in contrast, were personal photographs that would be considered family heirlooms. It is harder to trace those personal histories; however, there are art historians working on locating surviving images by speaking with families.
Describe how Glenn Ligon's sculpture Rükenfigur (2009) epitomizes Krista Thompson's notion of the "sidelong glance"
Rukenfigur refers to the art historical trope of a lone figure depicted from behind, often staring out into the landscape. In this work, the letters that spell "America" have been reversed to face the wall. We, as the viewers, are placed in the symbolic position of the Rukenfigur.
What does "the medium is the message" mean and how could that map onto our understanding of the variety of images we discussed about the transatlantic slave trade (the slave ship icon, George Moreland's painting, Turner's The Slave Ship, the works of Kerry James Marshall)
Simply, "the medium is the message" means that how you are deciding to portray a subject matter is deeply significant because it can communicate a great deal about that subject matter.
(In this case, you might think about how the slave ship icon is a very informative, data-focused depiction where as Turner's painting was criticized for aestheticizing the topic of slavery)
What is the significance of Edmonia Lewis's sculpture Forever Free -- in terms of both style and subject matter?
- medium is marble; working in style of neoclassical sculpture (looking to antiquity and discoveries from archaeological ruins in Pompeii, Naples, and Athens for inspiration)
- depicting two formerly enslaved people (a couple) who are now free.
- work was previously called "Morning of Liberty" -- thi is the moment they are breaking free from the literal and metaphoric shackles of enslavement.
- significant that there is no "white savior" depicted in the sculpture, which underscores the idea that emancipation was not just something that happened to enslaved people, but it was an active reassertion of dignity
- this sculpture ties into themes of citizenship and futurity -- the prevailing thought among abolitionists is that enslavement had destroyed the Black family unit, so it was important to continue Black families now and into the future
- significant that she is portraying Black people in this neoclassical style
How did Augustus Washington's photographs of Liberia's governmental leaders realize, rather than memorialize the government of the young republic?
- his sitters, each of whom is positioned in front of a desk as if they are at work, is performing citizenship
- the "proof" of these photographs helped legitimize the new government of Liberia both in the eyes of Liberians and Euro-Americans who might eventually see these portraits.
- these photographs demonstrate their capacity for self-government, thereby challenging the racist assumptions of the nation they left behind, which deemed them incapable of self-governance
- It is important that these are photographs rather than painted portraits -- documenting reality