Define African American Art

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

African American art is a broad term describing the visual arts of the American black community. Influenced by various cultural traditions, including those of Africa, Europe and the Americas, traditional African American art forms include the range of plastic arts, from basketweaving, pottery and quilting to woodcarving and painting.

From its early origins in slave communities, through the end of the twentieth century, African-American art has made a vital contribution to the art of the United States.[1]

During the period between the 1600s and the early 1800s art took the form of small drums, quilts, wrought-iron figures and ceramic vessels in the southern United States these artifacts have similarities with comparable crafts in West and Central Africa. In contrast, black artisans like the New England–based engraver Scipio Moorhead and the Baltimore portrait painter Joshua Johnson created art that, was conceived in a thoroughly western European fashion.[2]

Many slaves arrived from Africa as skilled artisans, having worked in these or similar media in Africa. Others learned their trades or crafts as apprentices to African or white skilled workers. It was often the practice for slaveowners to hire out skilled artisans. With the consent of their masters, some slave artisans also were able to keep wages earned in their free time and thereby save enough money to purchase their, and their families', freedom.[3]

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