Apocalypse Now draws attention
on how jaded American views are during periods of conflict. We are painted this
image of uncultured natives that we must conquer.
One
could strongly argue that throughout history, Americans have failed to
acknowledge the rich culture that flourishes within the certain cultures, where
they be Vietnamese or African. As Achebe states in his An Image of Africa article, one of the most prominent cases of
cultures proud heritage are with the skilled sculptors that influences and gave
rise to the very important Western/European Cubism art movement. Achebe
mentions the Fang mask, which I couldn’t help but relate to the very famous Noire et Blance photograph taken by Man
Ray, which features Man Ray’s lover with an West African Baoule mask.
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| Noire et Blance 1926, Man Ray silver gelatin print |
This VERY important photograph raised the interest in African culture among many well
known artist of the time, including Picasso and Gauguin.
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| LEFT: Head of a Woman, 1907 Picasso (oil on canvas) RIGHT: Dan Mask from West Africa |
Though it is true
these objects may have not been valued for their true religious and social
symbolistic values of these objects, they, nevertheless, still were still
superficially valued for their powerful and expressive style. These touches of
African culture refreshed the tired traditions that the Western art scene was
getting quite stale. How can one argue against culture when we have clear
examples of us taking/borrowing from others to give rise to one of the most
influential periods of art?
you make a good point about cultural appropriation, but one of the objections Achebe makes in his article on Heart of Darkness is that Conrad portrays the Africans as primitive and lacking any kind of civilisation or culture, comparing the animalistacally in several places
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