From African Abstraction to Modern Art — Huntington Arts Council Workshop

I’ll be presenting a workshop on the journey from masks to modern art  — #modernprimitive — for the Huntington Arts Council on October 2.  I am re-posting here the notice from the Long Island Arts Alliance that this workshop will be a signature series event of this October’s Arts Alive Festival:

Cultural Arts Workshops:
African Abstraction &
Modern Art Intertwined

PIFA-21

Wednesday, October 2, 2013 4:30 – 7:30 PM 

Huntington Arts Council 
213 Main Street
Huntington NY 11743  

Christopher Agostino – visual and performing artist is the author of Transformations! The Story Behind the Painted Faces and his work has appeared on TV and on magazine covers.  He will display examples of mask and makeup art traditions of different cultures in Africa.  The social function of masks and body arts will be examined and how these “primitive” arts influenced the revolutionary approach of Picasso, Matisse and the other early “modern” artists.  Participants will design a mask and observe Christopher’s face painting technique.    FREE for participating JOURNEY district teachers, $20 for general public and other teachers.

To register online: huntingtonartscouncil.org or email: artsined@huntingtonarts.org  or call (631) 271-8423 X14. Learn about the full line up of workshops at: Huntington Arts Council

This is an Arts Alive LI Classic Signature Series event.

– See more at Arts Alive LI: http://www.artsaliveli.org/cultural-arts-workshopsafrican-abstraction-modern-art-intertwined/#sthash.Kmv3BXRn.dpuf

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Painted Bodies: Africa — Video of Carol Beckwith & Angela Fisher

Wodaabe men decorated for the Geerewol celebration, making themselves attractive so that a woman might select them for courtship

Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher have been learning about and photographing the traditional cultures of Africa for 30 years, and have published several books of their work, including a seminal text on the subject: African Ceremonies (Abrams, 1999).

In September 2012 they came out with a book focusing more specifically on bodyart traditions:  Painted Bodies: African Body Painting, Tattoos and Scarification  (find it on amazon) and I received a link (via Craig Tracy) to a National Geographic Live! video of these two remarkable ethnologists talking about this new book and their journeys to these remote African cultures to create such a record of vanishing traditions.

VIDEO:   National Geographic Live! – Carol Beckwith & Angela Fisher: Painted Bodies of Africa

 

Girls of the Surma people, Ethiopia. In the video, Carol and Angela discuss how fragile such traditions are. Omo River cultures such as the Surma and Karo are going through drastic changes this year, as a new dam on the river will do away with the annual flooding that their way of life has depended on.

 

To learn more about our programs and performances:  http://www.agostinoarts.com

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Modern Primitive Art


••••   The Modern Primitive Art Series   ••••

Photographic prints of fine art bodypainting.

Beginning in 2008, I did a series of painted bodies to be shown in life-sized photographs, as if they were paintings on canvas.

13 paintings are completed.

In the writings from and about the early 20th century—when European Art re-invented itself as Modern Art—we can see that the influence of “primitive” art ran deeper than the identifiable visual elements from cultural sources such as African and tribal art in the works of many influential artists.  The role of art as an integral component within the social and spiritual life of traditional communities was an inspiration for these artists in their effort to reinvigorate the transformative power of art. Picasso, amongst others, discussed a desire to make a new powerful type of art that would effect the viewer and society, an art that could no longer be experienced solely as an aesthetic act but which provoked a powerful response in the viewer. I see a parallel in the presentation of fine art painted bodies in American culture today—an act that can be seen as shocking even though it is based in truly ancient human tradition.

African Demoseille

Bodyart is a fundamental human art in all cultures—and quite probably the original act of art itself—and as such it is the initiating source of many visual art concepts. By combining the images of modern 20th century artists such as Picasso, Matisse, Derain and Klee with the body designs of traditional cultures that influenced them, I am returning this art to its source. By painting these works of art on a living, naked human to be seen in public I am striving, as did those early modern artists, to create an art that draws attention and demands a personal, emotional response from the viewer.

As I bring the images and concepts of modern artists back onto the body within the context of traditional bodyart designs I am experiencing a re-creation of this seminal moment in art history through my personal art tradition as a bodypainter. In the actual painting process I feel I am struggling to discover, understand and achieve a new way to paint on my chosen canvas just as I imagine that the modern masters felt.

Presented in exhibit as life-sized photographs in the manner of paintings, how will the viewer respond to these works?  Will they see these works as “paintings” or as “body paintings”? Is this within the tradition of the contemporary artist—the tradition I am part of by birth and culture—or is this confined by the medium to be an imitation of cultural folk art?  Is this art? Is this fine art?

          

to return to our website: www.agostinoarts.com