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African Art: Art in Cultural Context on Zoom

Spend an afternoon learning about the wonders of African Art! Jean Borgatti, Consulting Curator at the Fitchburg Art Museum, will delve in to a different aspect of African Art each month.

This talk looks contrasting cultures and styles, using case studies of the Dogon of Mali and the Yoruba of Nigeria.

The Dogon, living in the harsher world of the Western Sudan, create multi-functional sculpture in a style based on cubes and angles; the Yoruba, with a very large and diverse population live in more tropical zones in Southern Nigeria and the Benin Republic. Their art tends to be more purpose-created and based on lush oval forms.

Register for one or all of the talks in this series:

• Sept. 8 - 21st Century African Photography
• Oct. 13 - African Art in the medieval world--1000-1600 CE: The Trans-Saharan trade, Igbo-Ukwu, Ife, Benin, Djenné, Lalibela, Great Zimbabwe
• Nov. 10 - African Art and the West –From Curiosity Cabinet to the Museum and the Development of Modernism (e.g. Picasso and African art)
• Dec. 8 - Learning to Look: Forms and Materials
• Jan. 12 - Case Studies: Art in Cultural Context: Contrasting Cultures – Contrasting Styles -The Dogon of Mali and the Yoruba of Nigeria.
• Feb. 9 - Masquerade – Not Just a Mask On a Wall
• Mar. 9 - Anonymous Doesn't Live Here Anymore--African Artists Traditional and Modern
• Apr. 13 - Likeness and Beyond: Portraiture in Iconic African Art
• May 3  - Shango to Shonibare: African Art in the Black Atlantic World--with a focus on the form, meaning and movement of the Thunder Deity Shango from Africa through the Diaspora (Cuba, Brazil, Haiti), and into the art of the Harlem Renaissance and Civil Rights movement in the United States

This series is co-sponsored by the Friends of Memorial Hall Library and is in collaboration with the Groton Public Library. 

Events in this series will be recorded. A link to the recording will be shared with everyone who registers. 

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