VMFA African Art History Response

In this lunchtime lecture I learned a lot of valuable information not only about African Art History but also about the curating process and the steps involved. For example, I learned that many African cultures believe in a life cycle that is associated with times of day, such as sunrise and birth. sunset and death, and midnight, or the time of the ancestors. I also saw how the curator of the VMFA African show chose to depict this cycle in the exhibit, by laying out the show in the form of this life cycle.

One interesting topic that stood out to me was how the matrilineal nature of many African cultures manifested in work. Many sculptures shown depicted women, rather than men, differing from the Western art of the time. I also found it interesting how rather than the realism Western art focused on, African Art was concerned with ideas and functionality in their art, as can be seen in masks and ritual objects.