African Art and Influence

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            These two pieces work within the same realm of ideas and principles. the underlying concepts of the pieces was slavery and this came about after reading books and news articles on cultural masks showing tribal identities and inter brotherhood between tribal members of African tribal members. “These masks would describe peoples ways of life, ranging from the food they ate, to the wars they fought, to the gods they believed in “(The). “The masks are dramatic portraits of spirit beings, departed ancestors, and invisible powers of social control” (Art). As these people were slowly stolen from their land to be turned into slaves, the land changed and stayed the same. it stayed the same in that it still believed in its culture, but changed in that the peoples way of life changed. They were taken from their homes, oppressively, and virtually forced upon their new lives as slaves with the discontinuation of their previous life and rich culture. These principles can be summed up into the second piece. This piece describes the native oppression and their struggle as an identity. The repeated image represents the lasting impact it had on our modern world and how slavery destroyed cultures and lives of millions of Africans. The first piece is a mask and it was made to correspond with the second painting. This mask (the first painting) depicts a depressed face with dark square tears dripping from the eyes of the face pictured. This pace mainly includes red as red can symbolize blood for pain- so do the teardrops pictured within the piece, as well. 

Ray, Benjamin Caleb. "The Art of the African Mask." The Art of the African Mask. Bayly Art Museum, n.d. Web. 5 Aug. 1994. <http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/~bcr/African_Mask.html>.