Alafia

On December 1, 2009 the Fine Arts Library hosted Alafia, a performance and installation in honor of World Aids Day. The performance and installation of African art was presented by Issa Nyaphaga and UT Art History professor Moyo Okediji. Alafia – which means “health” in Yoruba – focused on health matters (art and healing go hand-in-hand in African and African diasporic arts), in particular the scourge of epidemic and pandemic ailments such as AIDS, swine flu, tuberculosis and Ebola. A procession of masks was to start from the “Igbale” (or shrine) at the Warfield Center for African and African American Studies and lead to the Fine Arts Library, where the grand performance and installation took place. Although the procession did not take place due to rain, the masks were on display on the third floor of the FAL through December 8. Photos by Travis Willman. Design by Mark Doroba.UT Librarie

African Renaissance: new forms, old images in Yoruba art

Includes bibliographical references and index.Originally published in 2002.This book describes, analyses, and interprets the historical and cultural contexts of an African art renaissance using the twentieth-and twenty-first century transformation of ancient Yoruba artistic heritage. Juxtaposing ancient and contemporary Yoruba art, Okediji defines this art history through the lens of colonialism, an experience that served to both destroy ancient art traditions and revive Yoruba art in the twentieth century. With vivid reproductions of paintings, prints, and drawings, Okediji describes how Yoruba art has replenished and redefined itself. Okediji groups the text into several broadly overlapping periods that intricately detail the journey of Yoruba art and artists: first through oppression by European colonialism, then the attainment of Nigeria's independence and the new nation's subsequent military coup, and ending with present-day native Yoruban artists fleeing their homeland. Based upon extensive interviews with the artists and critical readings of the existing literature on contemporary Yoruba art, the book will appeal to the art historian and art collector and serve as a wonderful introduction to the canon of Yoruba art for the general reader.Lost and found: excavation of ancient Yoruba artistic traditions -- Imposition period: suppression of ancient artistic traditions (1900-1945) -- Opposition period: revival of ancient customs and traditions (1945-1960) -- Exposition period: revision of ancient artistic traditions (1960-1990) -- Emigration period: relocation of African artists (since 1990) -- Transatlantic Renaissance: reclamation, retention and returning from diaspora