Modernism And The African American Experience

Back at thebeginning of the 20th century, artists such as Picasso, Braque andMatisse turned to African art for new ideas about how to represent theworld, creating figures with masklike faces, flattened forms andbackgrounds of vibrant patterning. They weren’t just borrowing visualideas, however. Many of them believed in a connection between what theysaw as primitive culture and the deeper wellsprings of psychologicallife, a way to reference and represent urges and emotional drives thathad