Denver Museum Culture and Visual Identity: The

Denver Museum Culture and Visual Identity: The art piece chosen is "Soliloquy: Life's Fragile Fictions" painted by Moyo Ogundipe in 1997. Ogundipe is from Nigeria and belongs to the Yoruba culture. Many of the elements within the painting express the ideas and customs of the Yoruba people. The Yoruba people founded their particular part of Nigeria in approximately the 12th century AD. Art was a very important part of the culture; they were especially known for their statues featuring images of human beings.

Yoruba religious practices and natural elements were also common characteristics of artwork from the region. The Yoruba were primarily an agricultural people who were harvesters rather than hunters (Mullen). Everything that possessed a life force was considered of equal importance to the Yoruba. They would take the same amount of effort in naming their children as their pets, putting both through a special ceremony. According to researchers, the Yoruba culture is an African community which is very close to nature.

The presence of the birds and the horsemen are indicative of the importance of that culture (Wangboje). Bright colors and overlapping patterns are also customary to the Yoruba culture. The use of bright colors and textures is used to show the emotion behind the particular piece of artwork. Dance and celebration were an important part of Yoruba culture and the intent was to relate the importance of these things through the various pieces of artwork.

Additionally, the central figure is emblematic of the importance of femininity in the Yoruba culture, a figure not many other cultures would have chosen to incorporate in such a prominent way. 2. Meaning and Themes: In the center of the painting are two characters: one very obviously a woman and one who seems to be a male on top of a horse. The woman is green and she has brown hair that comes out of her head in strict lines.

Her entire body is patterned, as is the rest of the painting. The female goddess was an extremely important component of the Yoruba culture and thus she is the most prominent part of the painting (Folarin). The woman's color also shows her connection to the earth. Her body is greenish blue like the sea or the grass, but her hair looks similar to lines of dirt that one would see on the ground after planting seeds. The man is a warmer orange color and he rides a black horse.

Whereas the woman's features are soft and peaceful in appearance, the man and his horse look angry and stiff. They are aggressive and the woman uses her hand to beckon him to her view of the world. Behind her are other, natural beings such as the bird and what appears to be a snake and another person as well. The patterns and colors are more complicated as well. Behind the man, the patterns are still present, but they are less varied and the colors are less vivid.

Also, there are no animals behind him. 3. Written Conclusions: The artist was painting in the late 1990s, rather than the 12th of 14th centuries of the ancient Yorubans but the techniques that he utilizes and the themes that he chose to depict are indicative of the types of artwork that one would see from the ancient peoples of that culture. The colors are vivid and are found in the natural world.