This critical history examines the major themes and accomplishments in African art since the middle of the 20th century, seeking to achieve a balance between the critical re-examination of frequently-discussed artists, groups and workshops and the introduction of less-publicized or more recent material. Postcolonial art in Africa has built seamlessly upon already existing structures in which older, precolonial and colonial genres of African art were made. It is in this sense, and in the habits and attitudes of artists towards making art, rather than in the adherence to a particular style, medium, technique or thematic range, that the art is recognizably "African". Beginning in the early 1950s, the transformations in patronage, training and literacy brought about the birth of new genres which have been propelled onto a world stage.