AFRICAN ART

African Art: History and Meaning

When we speak about African art, we are referring to the works of Sub-Saharan Africa, rather than the northern part of the continent.

This leaves a huge geographic area composed of many different regions with different cultures, languages, and artistic expressions. Because of this diversity, there is no way we can do justice to the whole of African art in one lesson or even in one course, so we'll examine some broad characteristics and purposes of the African art that influenced Western artists. We'll also take a look at what some contemporary African artists are doing with their cultural heritage.

Here are your goals for this lesson:

OBJECTIVES

• Explain the moral and aesthetic values of African art.

• Describe the role of masks in dance and ritual.

• Discuss how African art influenced Western artists.

• Understand some trends in contemporary African art.

VOCABULARY

USES OF AFRICAN ART

In many African languages, the same word means "beautiful" and "good." Traditional African art, in general, was valued not just for its beauty but because it represented moral values as well. Art was often used to educate. Through hidden symbols, the artists instructed people on behavior and moral conduct. In Africa, traditional art was generally created for moral and spiritual purposes as opposed to political purposes. Contemporary African art, on the other hand, is often a political or personal expression.

As you have seen in earlier lessons, art throughout history has often been linked to rituals and religion. Early African religion can be characterized as polytheistic. Not only were there many gods, but there were also ancestral and nature spirits that could be helpful or harmful. Art was used in rituals of worship and also to house spirits. Masking was an important element to religious ritual.

Tradition-based African art was also incorporated into daily life. Art objects (costume accessories, weapons, tools, household objects, architectural elements) were used to indicate a person's status in the community. For instance, only leaders owned a certain type and quality of object. These objects often meant more than one thing. Jewelry, headwear, and other items of adornment, for example, could let others know whether the wearer is married or undergoing initiation. Some objects were only to be used by men — others, only by women. A person's occupation (farmer, hunter, and weaver) was distinguished by particular tools and special regalia. Diviners, healers and other ritual specialists have sculptures, equipment, staffs and jewelry that place the focus on their spiritual power, providing both support and identification.

Historically speaking

The earliest-known African sculptures date from about 500 BC to AD 200. These sculptures include pottery heads and figures from the area of present-day Nigeria and sculpted heads from Lydenburg, which were probably used in initiation rites, in South Africa.

Notes

Click on the link to this discussion of the, Lydenburg Heads , read the text, and enlarge the image.

Now visit the page "The Diversity of African Art", and list five different types of art objects. Make notes from the text as well. Use your note-taking tool and don't forget to save your work. What are the primary subjects of the art? Why are the artists of so many works unknown?

Iron, copper, and bronze works have been found that date back to the ninth century. In the Yoruba city of Ife, brass castings have been identified from the eleventh to fifteenth centuries, and in Benin from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries. Sculptures in stone from Sierra Leone and the Congo date from about the same time period. The ones found in the Congo are characterized by their tubular shapes, fertility themes, and geometric planes.

Notes

At the following link, you'll see a stone figure from the Congo. 

Stone figure from the Congo

In the sixteenth century, ivory was being carved with extraordinary skill. Check out these armlets at the Smithsonian. They were carved by the Yoruba peoples sometime between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.

TRADITIONAL AFRICAN SCULPTURE

Figurines

The subjects of African sculpture typically include the human form and animal forms (real or fantasy). The style is abstract, geometric and reductive. African carvers consistently rejected real-life appearance in favor of vertical forms, tubular shapes, and stretched body parts derived from the cylindrical forms of trees. Since the figurines were sacred objects harboring the life force of an ancestor or nature spirit, their creators believed that they could wreak havoc or bestow blessings among the living and that they could cure illnesses or harm enemies.

In creating human images, artists often focused on beauty. They regarded a long neck, especially one adorned with rings, as particularly beautiful. In figurine sculpture, the curve and the rounded shape are important elements of beauty. An emphasized stomach symbolized pregnancy or well-being, either physically or in terms of power and wealth. Muscular, bowed legs were preferred.

We can identify several characteristics of traditional African sculpture, including:

1. resemblance to living beings — ideas about reality, spirituality or humanity conveyed through human or animal images.

2. luminosity — a smooth, lustrous quality often embellished with decorative scarification. Figures with rough surfaces and deformities indicated ugliness and moral failure.

3. self-composure — someone who is proud and dignified.

4. youthfulness — vigorous, productive, fertile, and hard-working attributes.

5. clarity of form and detail, complexity of composition, balance and symmetry, smoothness of finish — fine workmanship and evidence of mastery of the medium.

Rituals and Masks

"It came to me that this was very important . . . These masks were not just pieces of sculpture . . . they were magic." Picasso

Wooden masks were (and are) used during rituals and ceremonies. The mask allowed the performer to conceal his true identity when dealing with a supernatural power. The mask provided an artificial face. For special ceremonies, the figures and masks were removed from their shrines, washed, anointed with palm oil and decorated with beads and cloth. When they were not being used in rituals, they were hidden, and women and children were not allowed to look at them because of the perception of their enormous power.

Stylistically, we can identify the following characteristics to these artworks:

• intentionally unrealistic or distorted

• simplified human features

• angular, sharply cut planes

Wooden masks were used in ritual performances with complex musical rhythms, dances, and costumes. The dancer became an unseen spirit when wearing a mask and performing. Not only was the face covered, but the whole body would be hidden behind an elaborate costume.

Traditional African dance is a means of communication possessing precise rules and codified movements.

Activity

Visit the Bayly Art Museum exhibit at the University of Virginia website. Study the works and read the texts.

THE INFLUENCE OF AFRICAN ART

The freedom from European tradition — the abstraction, the use of geometric planes — appealed to Pablo Picasso and other artists and inspired the Cubist movement.

Other artistic movements inspired by African art include artist involved in Surrealism, Modernism, Abstract Expressionism and Contemporary artists such as Keith Haring.

Contemporary African Art

Contemporary African art displays great variety in forms and materials. The artists are often influenced by the traditional forms of African art, which they blend with new techniques and forms from around the world.

Two Contemporary Yoruba Artists

The culture of the Yoruba-speaking people is at least 1,000 years old. The Yoruba live in the present day countries of Nigeria and the Republic of Benin. But because of the Atlantic slave trade and religious pilgrimages to Mecca, the Yoruba diaspora is spread around the world. The Yoruba have produced some of the greatest African sculptures. Today, the works of Yoruba masters such as Olowe of Ise (who died in 1939) are treasured by museums and collectors.

Notes

Go to the link and click on the link to Olowe's carving style.

Nike Davies Okundaye (born 1954) is another Yoruba artist, who specializes in textile design and who has established several schools in Western Africa. Juliet Highet wrote: "Nike represents the new breed of African woman artist, many of whose realities are now international, though in essence they are perpetuating the living tradition of female artists and 'cloth-queens', controlling heady empires of fabric — wealthy powerful women."

Nike is a painter who has been working in the field of fabric art, specifically adire and batik. Her work brings a modern approach to Yoruba tradition and social practices.

Visit her Arts website to learn more about the textile arts of adire and batik.

LET'S REVIEW!

In this course you have learned about the following topics:

• African art is used for educational instruction, religious rituals, and daily use.

• The African stylistic element of geometric abstraction was highly influential on the art of Modernists such as Picasso and Postmodernists such as Keith Haring.

• Contemporary African artists continue to incorporate traditional African art into their modern interpretations.

Complete the quiz before moving on.