This introduction has two aims: It provides an overview of this special issue's explorations of art produced in and emerging from colonial contexts, and it offers a case study in miniature on the issue's theme. I locate these articles within an expanding field of African art historical scholarship on colonial structures and their appendages (military, academic, commercial, or otherwise) as sources of pressures that impose, coerce, restrict, or provide opportunities for innovations by African artists. Africa's colonial histories span millennia and the breadth of the continent, from ancient Carthage in the continent's northern reaches and Omani imperialism in East Africa, to regional empires whose memories are preserved through the names of nations (Mali, Ghana, Zimbabwe), as well as empires now contained by nation-states (Benin, Ashanti, Bamum). The continent's imperial history also encompasses the apartheid system's colonization and resistance from within in South Africa; one of this issue's articles addresses artistry...
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Winter 2019
October 01 2019
African Visual Cultures and Colonial Histories: An Expanding Field
Victoria L. Rovine
Victoria L. Rovine
Victoria L. Rovine is Professor of Art History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the author of two books and numerous publications on African textiles and dress practices, with a focus on Mali. Her current book project is Cloth Colonialism: Cultures of Cotton in France and French West Africa. vrovine@email.unc.edu
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Victoria L. Rovine
Victoria L. Rovine is Professor of Art History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the author of two books and numerous publications on African textiles and dress practices, with a focus on Mali. Her current book project is Cloth Colonialism: Cultures of Cotton in France and French West Africa. vrovine@email.unc.edu
Online ISSN: 1937-2108
Print ISSN: 0001-9933
© 2019 by the Regents of the University of California.
2019
The Regents of the University of California
African Arts (2019) 52 (4): 12–17.
Citation
Victoria L. Rovine; African Visual Cultures and Colonial Histories: An Expanding Field. African Arts 2019; 52 (4): 12–17. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/afar_a_00499
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