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his fantastic imagery is traditional African art. To be sure, Lam's work is an Afrocentric art. It points to developments that are very much aligned with what African American art historian and artist Jeff R. Donaldson calls "TransAfrican Art" 36 This is an art that "has enriched traditional African art forms through the reconciliation and fusion of attributes from other cultures resulting in the creation of distinct new expressive principles, practices and forms." 37 While Donaldson was not focusing only on Caribbean art, his words provide a most apt description of the art that springs from the part of the African Diaspora.

Conclusion

In this essay we have emphasized the African dimension of the visual arts in the Caribbean cultural region. The ability of the early transplanted Africans to respond to the invariants of their new world environment contributed to the high degree of African cultural resiliency that has been characteristic of the Caribbean. Slavery caused some changes, but Blacks were able to adjust and reinterpret their new situation in light of their pre-American experience. Young children were frequently cared for by older slaves providing those keepers of the lore the opportunity to teach the young to respond appropriately to those things that were considered good, meaningful and necessary, assuring congruence with traditional African cultural patterns. Accordingly, the artistic behavior was guided by traditional values, manifest in persistent ways that have at once defined and perpetuated a cultural core that has had an African character for over three hundred years. Our discussion centered on only a few of the manifestations of African retentions and reinterpretations in the art of the Caribbean. But what should be clear is that this region is a dynamic part of the African diasporic culture, which itself has its own epicenter and is influencing world culture.

Numerous musical styles, including Reggae and Dub, have originated in the Caribbean and spread throughout the world Haitian popular painting helped to alter the face of the world visual art when it became widely known in the late 1940s, and was purchased for many major museums. Numerous artists live and work in the United

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Wifredo Lam, MOTHER AND SON. 1955. Oil on Canvas.

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Wifredo Lam. ZOOMORPHIC FIGURES. 1950. Oil and Carbon on Canvas. 5' x 4'.