Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art

Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art presents the remarkable beauty of coiled basketry and demonstrates how the utilitarian rice fanner and market basket can be viewed simultaneously as objects of use, containers of memory, and works of art. Grass Roots features approximately 225 objects including baskets from the Lowcountry of South Carolina and Georgia and from diverse regions of Africa, as well as African sculpture from the rice-growing societies which, through the agency of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, exported their cultures to America.

In this exhibition, running from June 23, 2010 - November 28, 2010 at the Museum for African Art, the humble but beautifully crafted coiled basket becomes a prism through which audiences will learn about the creativity and artistry characteristic of Africans in America from the 17th century to the present. Grass Roots traces the parallel histories of coiled baskets in Africa and America starting from the domestication of rice in Africa two millennia ago, through the history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the Carolina rice plantation, to the present. Early examples of basketry from both Africa and the Americas show the striking similarity between the coiled baskets used to winnow and transport rice on both sides of the Atlantic. By following the trajectories of African and African-American baskets and their makers, the exhibition illuminates the origins and evolution of an ancient art in the global economy and interprets under-explored areas of American and African history. Paintings from the early 20th century, archival and contemporary photographs, and interpretive texts, show visitors how the coiled basket is a repository of history as well as an aesthetic object of beauty.



On both continents, as the original agrarian context for baskets disappeared, changing definitions of art and craft created new audiences for baskets; what was once a utilitarian object became a valued commodity and, in some cases, a magnificent work of art. In Georgia and South Carolina, as in south and western Africa, virtuoso basket makers now prize form over function; craftsmanship, sensitivity to materials, ingenuity of design, and seriousness of artistic intention have become important arbiters of value. Once fabricated to winnow rice and hold food, tools, and valuables, the coiled basket is admired today for containing and shaping space itself. There will be five short films that feature basket makers demonstrating their techniques and telling their stories. "The local community of basket makers, many of whom have made baskets that are in the exhibition, is proud to be involved with this project," said Thomasena Stokes-Marshall, Project director for the annual Sweetgrass Cultural Arts Festival held in Mount Pleasant, home of the original sweetgrass basket makers.



Grass Roots, organized by the Museum for African Art in New York in collaboration with the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture at the College of Charleston and the McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina, is curated by Enid Schildkrout and Dale Rosengarten with input from an advisory board of eminent social historians, art historians, anthropologists, and contemporary basket makers. A 272-page catalogue will accompany the exhibition, as well as a 30-minute film.

“Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art” at National Museum of African Art

“Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art,” a traveling exhibition that tells the story of the beautiful coiled basket, will be on view at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art from June 23 through Nov. 28. “Grass Roots” demonstrates the enduring contribution of African people and culture to American life in the southeastern United States.

The exhibit features about 200 objects, including baskets made in Africa and the American South, African sculptures, paintings from the Charleston Renaissance, historic photography and videos. It traces the history of the coiled basket on two continents and shows how a simple farm tool once used for processing rice has become a work of art and an important symbol of African American identity.

“Visitors will be stopped in their tracks by the exceptional beauty and artistry evident in baskets from Africa and the American South,” said Johnnetta Betsch Cole, director of the museum.

“In addition, they will learn about the important and enduring connections between Africa and the African diaspora, and how the cultivation of rice and the horrors of enslavement played a role in transmitting the knowledge of particular basket-making traditions from the African continent to the American South. Finally, it is my fervent hope that visitors will come away from this exhibition with a deeper awareness of Africa’s global reach and with a genuine appreciation of the cultural contributions of Africans and people of African descent.”

“Grass Roots” traces the parallel histories of coiled basketry in Africa and the United States, starting from the domestication of rice in West Africa, through the transatlantic slave trade, to the migration of African rice culture to America. The exhibition, which addresses the history of the Carolina rice plantations and highlights technological innovations brought to American agriculture by people from Africa, tells the compelling story of the survival of African-American basketry over 300 years. While the need for agricultural forms has declined, coiled baskets continue to be made as objects of beauty. The exhibition focuses on the coastal town of Mt. Pleasant, S.C., across the Cooper River from Charleston, where basket makers have taken control of their craft as independent entrepreneurs.

On both sides of the Atlantic, the art of basketry continues to be passed down from generation to generation. In South Carolina and Georgia, as in many parts of Africa, virtuoso basket makers invent forms, experiment with new materials and perfect the techniques they have learned from their parents and grandparents. The exhibition features baskets made by contemporary American and African basket makers as well as historic examples, some dating to the early 19th century from Low Country rice plantations and African villages.

“Grass Roots” includes five short films that feature basket makers demonstrating their techniques and telling their stories. Botanists describe experiments in the cultivation of sweet grass and archival footage shows rice processing and basket making in Africa.

South African Art, Its Masters And The Politics Of Social Change


By Deri Jenkins, from blackafrica.net



South African art, its masters, world renowned paintings and grass roots artists alike have all been shaped to some extent by the politics of social change over the past century. Artistic practice in much of South Africa has been affected by official policies of racial segregation, wars, economic and political migration, and an infinite number of marginal influences that combine to form the creative identity of the artist and their choice of subject. In the early years of British colonial rule great masters such as Jacob Hendrik Pierneef (1886 -1957) were exiled in Holland due to the Anglo-Boer Wars. Undoubtedly artists such as him evolved their creative genius through painting and education abroad. These skills and influences were then adopted by other South African painters when these old masters returned from their exile.


The exchange of ideas between European colonial artists and their native black counterparts was not just a one-way process. Although missionaries, patrons and educators exposed African artists to western artistic practices, so too did many white South African modernists adopt African aesthetic elements and collaborate with like minded black South African artists. Walter Battiss (1906 -1982), Alexis Preller (1911-1975), and many other South African artists united to form The New Group. These artists explored an unconventional modern art whose foundation was centred about the integration of African and European aesthetics. They also organised exhibitions celebrating the paintings of black South African artists such as Gerard Sekoto (1913 – 1993). This social trend continued throughout the early 1900s, until the Era of apartheid that began in 1948.


During apartheid, artistic practice and the subject matter of paintings in South Africa took a radical shift. African art in general could be considered as activist art, always provoking reactionary attitudes in those that view it. Much of the artwork produced in this era is anything but passive in its visual impact or political message, its purpose was social change! Although artists played a prominent role in the resistance movement, politically minded artists such as Michael Maapola (1964 – present) were persecuted, and black artists work was rarely exhibited. Much township art was destroyed by security forces, leaving a significant gap in the nation’s cultural legacy. Louis Khela Maqhubela (1939 – present) whose paintings are a combination of abstract figures, symbolism, and genre scenes of everyday life, continued to exhibit his work during apartheid. Artistic protest took the global stage at the height of sanctions and the cultural boycott. A French based association called Artists of the World against Apartheid launched a global appeal for artists to contribute to a collection of anti-apartheid paintings. This significant fusion of works is perhaps South Africa’s single most valuable international art collection once estimated at over 13 Million Rand. The end of apartheid in 1990 saw the home-coming of the collection, and the full integration of South African artists into international artistic community following elimination of the United Nations cultural boycott.


South African Paintings Achieve Records For Established Art Masters


Apartheid undoubtedly inspired a lot of influential art in South Africa. The liberating voices of artists did much to capture the attitudes and opinions of people during this time. The cultural value of these works is indisputably priceless, however what of the monetary value? Has South African art seen a progressive increase in value since the end of apartheid? Can South African Masters set records at auction like their European counterparts have been doing in recent years?


The South African art market would indeed seem to be following world trends, South African paintings have been realising fabulous prices. The art market is booming on a global level and South Africa is no exception. In 2007, Bonhams of London established their first-ever auction solely devoted to South African art. It saw over $2,000,000 worth of art being auctioned, the sale included works by major South African masters. It is a valuable indication therefore about the position of modern South African art internationally, and that these paintings are no longer of interest only to the domestic art market.


Irma Stern’s The Tomato Picker was knocked down for $310,000 against the catalogue pre-sale estimate of $160,000-$240,000. Sekoto’s Wash Day achieved a hammer price of $140,000, and Alexis Preller’s Portrait of a Girl fetched $64,000, more than double the upper pre-sale estimate of $30,000. Walter Battiss’ portrait of his wife, artist Grace Anderson, was bid at four times the higher estimate, fetching $20,000. Jentsch also sold well with a top hammer price of $64,000 for The Namib Desert.


Gerard Sekoto’s works seem to be at the crest of the wave that has propelled contemporary South African art into the leading edge of the global art market, seeing a 300% rise in recent years. Sekoto’s self portrait shattered previous world auction records for the artist and fetched an amazing $246,900. Given this current trend 2008 should be an exciting year for contemporary South African art. Private buyers, collectors and museum and gallery curators from the USA, Europe and beyond have all registered serious interest in Bonhams’ forthcoming sales in 2008.


The Evolution – Nurturing The New South African Art Masters


Who will be the masters of tomorrow?


It is evident that artistic practice in South Africa has been affected by racial segregation, wars, and political migration, but what of the artists themselves? Apart from rendering future influences in creative style and expression through their paintings, what else have they done to nurture the next promising generations of South African masters?


Gerard Sekoto has been described as: “South Africa’s pioneer of urban black art and social realism”. Following his death in 1993, The Gerard Sekoto Foundation was formed. It was Sekoto’s expressed wish that his Estate should be used to uplift art education for young South African children. He knew that formal art education was not offered in schools during the apartheid era, and The Foundation goes some way to rectify the wrongs of the past. South Africa will someday celebrate its new masters, due to the efforts of institutions such as The Foundation, The National Arts Council and workshops run by Thupelo. However let’s not just dream of the future, what of the present day?


Contemporary art emerging from South Africa is exciting in its breadth and expression. Any creative works to come from a nation with such a unique and varied history deserves unrestrained attention. One should not just think in terms of safari and wildlife paintings.

Although a commercially popular genre this does not come close to characterising the depth and variety of works currently been created by educated and professional artists in South Africa. Browse through our galleries and you may just stumble upon the next South African Master!