Diss.--Erlangung. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Taking Paris as its geographical nexus, this dissertation tracks European and African modernist appropriations of African sculpture across a three-tiered historical trajectory spanning from 1905 to 1980. Part I charts engagements with West and Central African masks and statues by the Fauves and Pablo Picasso; Part II assesses the work of pioneering black South African artists Ernest Mancoba and Gerard Sekoto; and Part III chronicles the nationalization of modern art in Senegal under President Léopold Sédar Senghor. Through examinations of the cross-cultural, formal, and politicized dynamics of African sculpture--or so-called art nègre--in modern art discourse and practice on two continents, the dissertation argues that European and African artists shared certain form-based approaches to African objects, coupled with tactical understandings of those objects' cultural origins. The artists diverged--both individually and by movement--insofar as they appropriated African art to different ends reflective of historical period, social context, and personal approach. More broadly, the dissertation argues that the early-20th-century European avant-garde "discovery" of African sculpture became globally significant through its eventual catalytic role for modern art movements in Africa. It argues that some of the most important modernist appropriators of African sculptural forms were African painters who both studied and subverted their European precursors in that practice.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Santa Barbara, 1983. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 222-240).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1969. / Title from title screen (viewed Nov. 8, 2007). Includes bibliographical references. Online version of the print original.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1969. / Includes bibliographical references.

M. Tech. (Fine Art, Department of Visual Arts and Design, Faculty of Human Sciences), Vaal University of Technology| / My Masters of Fine Arts degree consists of two components: the dissertation and practical works in the form of sculptures displayed as an exhibition. This body of work explores myth, belief and ritual practices relating to birth, life and death of twins in Xhosa culture. The purpose of the dissertation is to enrich and reflect on both the understanding of Xhosa ritual practices and that of my own work. The study will hopefully add significantly to the body of knowledge about Xhosa Indigenous Knowledge Systems as relating to twins. UNESCO emphasizes that Indigenous Knowledge Systems are part of immaterial cultural heritage such as languages, music and dance, festivities, rituals and traditional craftsmanship, and this cultural heritage is important for the identity of a society (Kaya & Masoga 2008:2). The choice of employing autoethnography in this qualitative study is derived from lived experience. Born as a twin in a rural Xhosa community, I experienced some unusual practices during my upbringing and thus a qualitative research method is used, involving auto-ethnography. This methodological approach aims at exploration of personal experience as a focus of investigation. The study also looks briefly at Yoruba twins as a means of finding similarities and commonalties with those of Xhosa culture. / National Arts Council