A Brief History of Western Art

This book argues that the creativity and the intellectual history of the West is for the most part non-Western. That it was during the 18th and 19th centuries with the help of key personalities from the Caribbean that the intellectual, political and economic directions of the West were secured. This claim is particularly true of France and America. This book makes the presumptuous attempts to extend or relocate the geo-political and aesthetico- historical landscape of the West, significantly to include the Caribbean with several regional events and artists at its epicenter. Exploring major aesthetics formulations in the Caribbean, the paper also argues that it is only on conditions of geopolitics and an art-historiography conditioned by prevailing racist practices that the vibrant and profound creative inventions and aesthetic explorations of Caribbean people are significantly excluded or otherwise foot-noted in the many voluminous tomes on the History of Western Art.

Autorentext

Omari Sediki Ra was born in Kingston. He studied at the Edna Manley College and the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth where he completed his MFA. He exhibits extensivly, both locally and internationally. Among the many awards received is the prestigious Marcus Garvey Award. He heads the Painting Department at the Edna Manley College.