Ethiopian art and the Italian Renaissance

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-29064625

It's mostly pictures! This is an article about an art gallery in Ethiopia that sells the art of around seventy artists. One of the arguments from an outsider artist who felt his art didn't fit with the overall complexion of the gallery is that the gallery has a particular taste that alienates 'more authentic' artists that depict more 'Ethiopian' art, because the people it sells to foreigners and tourists and then some wealthy Ethiopians. They tend to depict scenes of market squares, women, churches, monks, etc.

So I had an art history class my first semester of college on the Renaissance and Baroque periods. And one of the things that stuck out from me in this article is that there's a growing market, people are making the effort to spend money on art. Patronage of the arts was one of the main causes of the Renaissance, the reason things shifted in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Age of Reason. It's just fascinating that this could be a new Renaissance in our midst.