Industrial Revolution

Questions regarding the existence of a unique school or style of "African-American art " and the recognizable traits and relationships of such to African and Western art traditions are frequently addressed , yet to a great extent they are still left unanswered (Powell , 1989

Contemporary efforts by scholars and critics to define an "African American " or "black " aesthetic have resulted in no clear consensus of meaning or value . Many have completely rejected the notion of an African American aesthetic , and argue that it is impossible to distinguish common characteristics among the works of

African-American artists (Hilton 1977 , D25 . On the other hand , when preconceived notions about the art of African Americans are shattered by artists working in widely employed modes of Western modernism and postmodernism , confusion among the critical rank and sets in . Among the many false assumptions implicit in these arguments concerning "African-American " art are the misconceptions that (1 ) so-called Western modes of modern and contemporary art making are essentially European in origin , and (2 ) the term "African--American " art presupposes that all black artists would be creating in that mode . Tripped by these fallacies , those purporting to define "African-American " art offer an empty term its use as a tool of visual segregation attests to its hollowness (Honig Fine , 1991

Even when scholars have acknowledged the presence of an "African American " aesthetic , it is almost always seen as synonymous with a social realist style , or with what is described by some as nationalistic art (Gaither , 1970 . Although this emphasis on an object 's "content " and sociopolitical import--seen in the works of both black and white artists--is now receiving a much warmer reception than it did a decade ago , focusing on it alone often obscures the formal issues which concern so many African-American artists . Furthermore , when one sees the "African-American " aesthetic as limited...