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Type:
Articles
Place:
United States
Date:
2017
Notes:
Illustrations (some color)
In this essay on the history of African art studies in the United States, Robin Poynor sets the scene of the Cold War environment that led the federal government to fund African studies programs--which blossomed at several key universities across the country as they received 'Title VI' financial support. The major centers of African art history, highlighted by Poynor, are Indiana University, Yale University, Howard University, Columbia University, Northwestern University, Boston University, UCLA, University of Wisconsin, Michigan State University, University of Florida, and University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Well-known names in the field of African art are affiliated with this core group of higher education institutions. The network of African art graduates spread like a rhizome across the country. In each generation--the elders and the subsequent generations of scholars--Poynor names key players. This overview is more of who did what, when and where, rather than an intellectual analysis of approaches, ideologies, philosophies. But it an essential introduction to this history of African art studies.
