13652
Seminar
WiSe 24/25: African Art and Spirituality
Ferdinand de Jong
Comments
Art and material culture play important roles in African religions. From the beginning of the study of African art, this spiritual dimension of African art has been recognized, for instance in the European fascination with “fetishes”. Even though the term “fetish” has now been abandoned for its colonial connotations, the intriguing questions raised by the “fetish” remain. Historically, Europeans thought that Africans attributed power to objects. This is an interesting “problem” for students of African art because it problematizes the distinction Europeans have always made between “objects” (without “spirit” or “agency”) and “subjects” (people endowed with “subjectivity”). In this seminar, we will study African arts and material culture to examine how the “agency” of African art works.
The second aim of this seminar is to provide a general overview of the religious arts of Africa. We will study the royal arts of the Benin and Kuba kingdoms, in which art conveyed the spiritual authority of kings. We look at the so-called “fetishes”, particularly the “Nkisi” figures. Acknowledging the forced migration of African people, concepts and practices crossed the Atlantic and inspired Black spiritual arts in the New World: Candomblé and Santeria. Following the introduction of Islam to Africa, we study the vibrant visual culture of behind-glass paintings in Senegal. In terms of postcolonial arts, we look at the continuous presence of spirituality in African Modernism. Finally, with the rise of Pentecostalism in many African countries, we examine forms of religious mediation in film and video. This will also provide an opportunity to discuss the latest theory on spiritual mediation in art. close
Suggested reading
Blier, Suzanne Preston. African vodun: Art, psychology, and power. University of Chicago Press, 1995.
Fromont, Cécile. The art of conversion: Christian visual culture in the Kingdom of Kongo. UNC Press Books, 2014.
LaGamma, Alisa, and John Pemberton. Art and oracle: African art and rituals of divination. Metropolitan museum of art, 2000.
Meyer, Birgit. "Picturing the invisible: visual culture and the study of religion." Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 27, no. 4-5 (2015): 333-360.
Roberts, Allen F, and Mary Nooter Roberts. A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal, UCLA, 2003.
Thompson, Robert Farris. Flash of the spirit: African & Afro-American art & philosophy. Vintage, 2010. close
16 Class schedule
Regular appointments
Wed, 2024-10-16 16:00 - 18:00
Wed, 2024-10-23 16:00 - 18:00
Wed, 2024-10-30 16:00 - 18:00
Wed, 2024-11-06 16:00 - 18:00
Wed, 2024-11-13 16:00 - 18:00
Wed, 2024-11-20 16:00 - 18:00
Wed, 2024-11-27 16:00 - 18:00
Wed, 2024-12-04 16:00 - 18:00
Wed, 2024-12-11 16:00 - 18:00
Wed, 2024-12-18 16:00 - 18:00
Wed, 2025-01-08 16:00 - 18:00
Wed, 2025-01-15 16:00 - 18:00
Wed, 2025-01-22 16:00 - 18:00
Wed, 2025-01-29 16:00 - 18:00
Wed, 2025-02-05 16:00 - 18:00
Wed, 2025-02-12 16:00 - 18:00