Response by Mikelle Smith Omari

Object Details

Notes: Commentary on two papers published in the same volume: (1) by Rowland Abiodun ("The future of African art studies: an African perspective," p. 63-89) and (2) by Suzanne Preston Blier ("African art studies at the crossroads: an American perspective," p. 91-107), in which Omari suggests that the two perspectives offered-the insider and the outsider-are both essential and valid. Omari agrees with Blier that the debilitating effect of the notion of "primitive" remains a drag on the discipline, but takes issue with her contention that African art may have more in common with European art than with other non-Western arts with which it is frequently linked. The question of Egypt in Africa remains a thorny one, and African art in the Diaspora remains unexplored.

Author: Omari-Tunkara, Mikelle Smith; Smithsonian Libraries African Art Index Project DSI
Subject: Blier, Suzanne Preston; Abiodun, Rowland

Topic: Art, African--Study and teaching; Art, African--Research--Methodology