What Is Black Art - 1733 Words

Black Art What is Black art? Black Art is â€Å"cultural production informed by standards of creativity and beauty and aspired by and reflective of people s life experiences and life aspirations† (Karenga, 1980:80). According to Evans (1979:37), Why is it called Black art? â€Å"...It is called Black art because it is saturated with the experience and behavior patterns of the people for whom it is created and because its substance is functional.† So, according to Karenga and Evans Black art is an art and any art if it is made based a Black person s life. Africa artist was carvers of wood, ivory and bone, sculptors in stone, clay, bronze, gold and iron. Slaves struggled for their freedom and all they had was their art. Even thought Whites most†¦show more content†¦I like to believe that art was a way for Blacks to express their pain, hopefulness, and love that everything Black wanted and could just outright say was put into art; therefore, art was a happy place even tho ugh it expressed pain but in pain there is its own beauty. DuBois (1925:53) stated that even though Black art has both personal and universal aspects, that those two things are â€Å"combined with certain groups compulsion.† meaning that there was a Black person that spoke for the group through art. His thoughts would lead to black Aesthetic. Slavery lasted for many years and when the time came for to Blacks became free physically it seems that Blacks minds were free as well. By the 1960s, Blacks wanted self-determination and a separate status and independence. This was called Black Aesthetic. Black Aesthetic had two meanings. First, it was used to mean that the inspirations and influences of Black art could be identified. Secondly, it meant that Black art could not only be judged in terms of its creativity and beauty, but also for its social relevance. This concept is argued over this today by two schools: the detached-art school and the committed art school. The detached-a rt school, Ellison (1966) and Redding (1966) believes that art is just what it is about the art, not race and politics, that yes art is universal and personal but not black. Then you have the committed art school that believes the opposite. Langston Hughes and Richard