Visual art forms of the Continent of Africa, originally rock painting and drawings, in open shelters rather than caves. Scratched or incised drawings occur more abundantly throughout the Sahara than anywhere else in the world, and extend chronologically from ancient times almost to the present day. Early representations of wild animals, some now extinct, attest to a hunting culture that flourished before c.4000 BC. The style, as in European Palaeolithic art, is naturalistic. Later rock art is more schematic. Horses and chariots, and later camels, appear. In S Africa the Bushmen have practised their own form of rock painting and drawing from early times to the present. The major form of African tribal (as opposed to prehistoric) art, practised mainly in the W Sudan, the Guinea Coast, Middle Africa, and the Congo, has been sculpture, especially masks and small figures, stools and thrones, as well as everyday objects. Materials, apart from wood, include ivory, metal (mostly bronze), terracotta, raffia, and occasionally stone. Painting has been much less important. In the early 20th-c, African sculpture inspired artists such as Picasso to employ primitive forms in reaction against the conventions of 19th-c naturalism. In recent years, especially since c.1960, artists working in independent states have created original forms of art by combining traditional African with modern Western ideas, techniques, and aesthetic attitudes.
African art is any form of art or material culture that originates from the continent of Africa. This article discusses primarily visual art;
The arts and material culture of the African continent constitute one of the most diverse and innovative artistic legacies on the planet. Though many casual observers tend to generalize "traditional" African art, the continent is actually full of a multitude of peoples, societies, and civilizations, each with a unique visual culture.
Utilitarianism: An overarching characteristic of tradtional African art is that it is utilitarian. Everyday items such as hair combs, bowls, knives, stools and textiles are objects of art, often adorned with representations of human, animal and supernatural forms, ancestral figures, geometric patterns, cowrie shells, spiritual symbols, raffia and vibrant colors. Formal Innovation: Unlike Western societies, where artworks tend to be produced according to strict canons of representation, many African societies encourage innovation and creativity of both style and form among their artists. Ancient Egyptian art, also usually thought of as naturalistically depictive, makes use of highly abstracted and regimented visual canons, especially in painting, as well as the use of different colors to represent the qualities and characteristics of an individual being depicted. Emphasis on Performance Art: An extension of the utilitarianism and three-dimensionality of traditional African art is the fact that much of it is crafted for use in performance contexts, rather than in static ones. Multiplicity of Meaning: Symbols and forms in African art are typically intended to represent different things to different members of society, depending on age, gender, education, or social status. This is in contrast to "Western" Christian iconographic traditions where a symbol is typically linked with only one meaning (for example the cross as a symbol of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.)Area of influence
African art has a long and surprisingly controversial history. Up until recently, the designation "African" was usually only bestowed on the arts of Black Africa, i.e., the cultures and peoples living in sub-Saharan Africa. The non-black peoples of North, the blacks of the Horn of Africa, as well as the art of Ancient Egypt, generally were not included under the rubric of African art. Recently, however, there has been a movement among African art historians and other scholars to include the visual culture of these areas, since all the cultures that produced them, in fact, are located within the geographic boundaries of the African continent. Since there was often a confluence of traditional African, Islamic and Mediterranean cultures, scholars have found that drawing distinct divisions among Islam, ancient Egypt, the Mediterranean, and traditional African societies makes little sense. Finally, the arts of the people of the African diaspora, prevalent in Brazil, the Caribbean, and the southeastern United States, have also begun to be included in the study of African art as products of the African diaspora.
History
The origins of African art lie long before recorded history. African rock art in the Sahara in Niger preserves 6000-year-old carvings . Along with sub-Saharan Africa, the cultural arts of the western tribes, ancient Egyptian artifacts, and indigenous southern crafts also contributed greatly to African art. Often depicting the abundance of surrounding nature, the art was often abstract interpretations of animals, plant life, or natural designs and shapes.
More complex methods of producing art were developed sub-Saharan Africa around the 10th century, some of the most notable advancements include the bronzework of Igbo Ukwu and the terracottas and metalworks of Ile ifeBronze and brass castings, often ornamented with ivory and precious stones, became highly prestigious in much of West Africa, sometimes being limited to the work of court artisans and identified with royalty, as with the Benin Bronzes.
Influence on Western art
At the start of the twentieth century, artists like Picasso, Matisse and Modigliani became aware of, and inspired by, African art. In a situation where the established avant garde was straining against the constraints imposed by serving the world of appearances, African Art demonstrated the power of supremely well organised forms; These artists saw in African Art a formal perfection and sophistication unified with phenomenal expressive power. The study of and response to African Art, by artists at the beginning of the twentieth century facilitated an explosion of interest in the abstraction, organisation and reorganisation of forms, and the exploration of emotional and psychological areas hitherto unseen in Western Art. By these means, the status of visual art was changed. Art ceased to be merely and primarily aesthetic, but became also a true medium for philosophic and intellectual discourse, and hence more truly and profoundly aesthetic than ever before.
Traditional art
Traditional art describes the most popular and studied forms of African art which are typically found in museum collections. Wooden masks, which might either be human or animal, are one of the most commonly found forms of art in western Africa. Decorative clothing is also commonplace and comprises another large part of African art.
Contemporary art
Africa is home to a great and thriving contemporary art culture. This has been sadly understudied until recently, due to scholars' and art collectors' emphasis on traditional art. Art biennials are held in Dakar, Senegal, and Johannesburg, South Africa. Many contemporary African artists are represented in museum collections, and their art may sell for high prices at art auctions. Many contemporary African arts borrow heavily from traditional predecessors. Ironically, this emphasis on abstraction is seen by Westerners as an imitation of European and American cubist and totemic artists, such as Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani and Henri Matisse, who, in actuality were heavily influenced by traditional African art. This became the first step of evolution in Western art where people started becoming more open-minded and came out of their shell to explore the different aspects of art.
By country
Côte d'Ivoire
The Baoulé, the Senoufo and the Dan peoples are skilled at carving wood and each culture produces wooden masks in wide variety.
These ceremonial masks each are thought to have a soul, or life force, and wearing these masks is thought to transform the wearer into the entity the mask represents.
Egypt
Persisting for 3000 years and thirty dynasties, the "official" art of Egypt was centred on the state religion of the time. The art ranged from stone carvings of both massive statues and small statuettes, to wall art that depicted both history and mythology.
A lot of the art possesses a certain stiffness, with figures poised upright and rigid in a most regal fashion.
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