Essay Sample on African & Asian Art: Impact on Modern Art Development

Introduction

The artistic work strongly impacts the development of modern art in the past. Likewise, it is essential to note that African and Asian creative work did have a lot of influence on modern art. Citing evidence as outlined by Murrell in his work on how various African sculptures had a significant impact on the contemporary art today (Murrell, 2008). It gets noted that modern art did not just come to existence, but multiple factors were considered before the contemporary came to existence. One of the most significant factors is the influence of the African or non-western art, which, as per the records, provides a foundation for modern art. Based on this background information, this paper discusses some of the ways that modern art are influenced by non-western art on modern art. The essay will cover the specific works and how they affect modern art, artists who played a significant role in modern art and movements that helped modern art to find its roots.

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Several African arts can be said to have many effects on modern art. In early 1900, for instance, traditional African arts consisting of aesthetics has a significant influence on European artistic work. Likewise, in France, several artworks were inspired by the African arts. For instance, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso improved African sculptures and painting in their work. The mentioned are some of the ways through which African art impacted on modern art, and there are more artworks which find their roots in African art as will be discussed in the subsequent paragraphs.

Despite the fact that the artists were not able to comprehend the connection between the West and the Central African sculptures, it gets vital to note that they consistently recognized the spiritual encounters. Thus, they adapted the mentioned qualities to go beyond the naturalism, which can be traced to have a root on modern art (Murrell, 2008). The German Expressionists painters such as the Ernst Ludwig of Die Brucke group in Berlin is another evidence that can be used to point out the African art influence on the current or the western art . The group included the African feel with the enthusiastic force of offensive shading tones as well as figural contortion, to delineate the nerves of present-day life (Murrell, 2008). Then again, Paul Klee belonging to the Blaue Reiter in Munich, created otherworldly emblematic symbolism. The Expressionists' enthusiasm for non-Western artistry strengthened after a 1910 Gauguin display in Dresden, while pioneer developments in, England, Italy as well as in the United States at first drew in with African artistry through contacts with School of Paris artisans.

During the scramble and partitioning of Africa nations, it gets vital to note that several interactions took place between the Europeans and the Africans. It can be traced that the interaction of this kind as well led to the influence of modern era art. For instance, the event-garde artists, as well as their dealers, are considered to be among the first Europeans who used the African sculptures for their artworks. The interaction as well enabled many African sculptures to enter Europe and by 1870s there were a large number of African sculptures in the country thus, affected the modern art as most artists today only improve on the existing art. The African artwork during this time was treated as artefacts of the colonized cultures, instead of being viewed as artworks, thus fetched the meagre economic value.

On the contrary, this made more and more of the African artefacts to enter the European museums continuously. As a result, most of the upcoming artists in Europe today, get some ideas on these African sculptures, which were treated as low value and ended up flooding Europe. Unlike the American artefacts, despite was treated of high economic value; they never had much influence on modern art as it was by the African artworks (Murrell, 2008).

When it comes to the stylistic influence of the African sculpture on modern art, it is pointed out that various designs are used in the modern world today that significantly resemble African art. Most of the contemporary artists are considered to have copied styles that were used by African artists, making them come up with more sophisticated arts. An excellent example of such artist who used African techniques in their work includes the sculpted head by Fang (1979.206.229) and the one that was done by Mbete artists registered as (2002.456.17) (Murrell, 2008). Fang Work is considered to have been provoked by the work of Jacob Epstein, who was a London based artists and an associate to Picasso and Matisse. Picasso and Matisse, are considered to be the pioneers of African artwork concerning the development of modern art.

From the analysis of Fang sculptures, it can be deduced that the sculptures resembled the integration form of tradition of African art before the colonial period. The representation style is considered abstract rather than the naturalistic. These arts typifies the elements of African artworks that are frequently evoked in the modernist painting.

The materials that were used by the African and Asian artists were more natural to get and were less expensive thus, making many painters in the modern world today to move to seek the African ways of creating this art. For instance, most work that was displayed in the European museums were made from wood. The purpose of making the artefact from wood according to one African artistic pioneers is that the wood is more natural to make into any shape and it can be found easily unlike silk with canvas oil, which is used by many modern painters. Up to this point, it can easily be noted that African paints, painters and some of the artefacts that were found attractive by the contemporary Painters influence many modern paintings.

During the period of American Modernism, which was a crucial influence in the art world and a critical step that was made in the world of painting, it can be depicted that there are major critical personnel who played a significant role in promoting the African art in the world. Weber, an American Artists, was one of the greatest modern painters that were influenced by African paints via Picasso when he visited Picasso in his studio, where he had a magnificent view of African art that was collected By Picasso during his exploration. Through the writings that were put down by Weber after Picasso visit can be said to have contributed significantly to the influence. It was as if he was campaigning for African art to be used in the modernism period. This can as well be depicted in his work when he as well featured the African paintings in his work in for of mask, thus, increasing the exhibition of the abstract style.

Weber is one of the known painters who is published to have seen the African collection via Picasso and was influenced, the question is, what about other people who are not published but were affected by the large African paintings. Moreover, this must as well ring a bell that Picasso and Matisse's work was influenced by African art, and this continued to influence many modern artists.

The many museums in the Europe, America, France and Germany as that depicted African work as well played a considerable role in ensuring that the African paints and artworks reach many people; thus, the influence. In Germany, for instance, the expressionists, during the world wars were continually working with Africans, their tools and their compositional devices. They dropped the naturalism and adopted the abstract style that was being used by the Africans.

On personal weigh, I believe that there are significant influences that African and Asian art has on the modern arts today (Michael, 2010). One some of the factors that prompted the influences is the fact that most African artists were creative in the way in which they were bringing out their artworks. Moreover, they were able to use the readily available materials in the environment to make their artists, which many modern painters find amazing. Furthermore, in Africa and Asia is considered as the origin of the artworks, as was indicated by Picasso and Matisse. This gives them the upper hand in ideas concerning the artworks (Michael, 2010). Even though their work got termed as primitive and was of low economic value, they were one of the best depiction of creativity that even the American and Oceania art could not match. Through interaction with African artists, though, selling of African art to Europe and in various countries, the African/ Asian arts have significant impacts on modern art.

Conclusion

Conclusively, the paper addresses, some of the key ways through which the power of African/Asian arts have been seen in modern art. The paper handles various ways through which the influence was surfaced. This was through interaction between the African artists and European artists giving rise to a blend of thoughts (Michael, 2010). There were also great artists like Picasso and Matisse not forgetting the American artist Weber who published concerning the African sculptures making the effects to be more intensive. Modern artists as well found that the materials that were used by African artists were more natural to find than the once today making them lean more to their work among many more factors that have been outlined in the essay.

References

Ives, C. (2004). Japonisme. Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved from https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/jpon/hd_jpon.htm

Michael, C. (2010). Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved from https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/laut/hd_laut.htm

Murrell, D. (2008). African Influences on Modern Art. Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved from https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/aima/hd_aima.htm.