Hello, my name is Lindsay Williams, and I am a Visitor Services Assistant. Today I will be reading the African Images section panel for David Driskell: Icons of Nature and History along with label text and audio descriptions for three highlighted works.

Driskell was introduced to African art by James A. Porter at Howard University. Sojourns to Africa in 1969–70 and in 1972 deepened his understanding of and connection to West African art. In 1973, he addressed this influence directly: “I have turned my attention to images that reflect the exciting expression that is based in the iconography of African art. In so doing, I am not attempting to create African art, instead, I am interested in keeping alive some of the potent symbols that have significant meaning for me as a person of African descent.”

Driskell became a more astute scholar of African art during his tenure at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he oversaw an extensive African art collection. African art became integral to his life and soon graced his home and studios. The role of African art in his work is rarely one of direct quotation but rather as the source of intrinsic form and as an aesthetic connector of sorts to memory and ancestral legacy. The African motif that appears most often in his art is that of the mask.