Paper short abstract:

The purpose of the paper is to discuss the apparently contradictory relationship between the academic area of African Studies and African contemporary art (read plastic arts). The discussion will give special attention to the experience of painters from Portuguese-speaking countries.

Paper long abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the apparently contradictory relationship between African Studies and African contemporary art (read plastic arts). African Studies emerged after World War II as an integrated approach to a regional reality, indexed to some social sciences and humanities, such as Anthropology, History, Sociology and Linguistics. One of the subjects analyzed and studied under this epistemological perspective was the so-called traditional art, a domain that continues to be studied mainly by Anthropology. This purpose, however, collides with the practices and expectations of the African contemporary artists. Although under the influence of nationalism, Pan-Africanism, Negritude and other ideas and movements fighting for the decolonizing of African art contemporary African artists and writers strive to revitalize aspects and dimensions of the traditional world, they wish to be recognized as contemporary artists by the various players in the international art and book markets and to sell their works on an equal footing with their counterparts of the Western world, that is, they do not want their works to be valued for some kind of exotism resulting from an approach still influenced by colonialism.

Does this apparent rupture further accentuate the position of African studies (in Europe and North America) as a "ghetto", as some critics point out, or will this discipline be open enough so as to embrace the tendencies of contemporary Africa? These are some of the issues to be addressed in this paper.