Table of Contents
What is African art mostly used for?
Traditional African art served a purpose (and does still in some cultures) as an agent of religion, social stability, and social control. Art that has a purpose is not unique to African or other non-Western cultures but occurs in Western ones as well.
What are the most important facts about African art?
Sculpture – Sculpture was one of the most important types of art in Ancient Africa. Sculptures were mostly made of people and sometimes animals. African artists often used wood for their sculpture, but they also used bronze, terracotta, and ivory. Masks – Masks were an important part of art.
What were the most common forms of art in Africa?
African art, the visual arts of native Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, including such media as sculpture, painting, pottery, rock art, textiles, masks, personal decoration, and jewelry.
What is unique about the function of African sculpture?
Their purposes are very varied; bringing fertility, rain, good harvests; warding off disease, natural calamities, evil spirits; helping with social decisions and judgments; commemorating important events, making political statements.
What are the elements of African art?
Elements of the African Aesthetic Resemblance to a human being: Luminosity: Self-composure: Youthfulness: Clarity of form and detail, complexity of composition, balance and symmetry, smoothness of finish:.
What is traditional African painting?
What is called Traditional African Art is what is most commonly recognized by Westerners. Wooden masks feature heavily in Traditional artworks, and originate mostly from Western African countries. These masks are created to represent human, animal, or mythical creatures and are used for ceremonial purposes.
What makes African art unique?
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. Visual Abstraction – African artworks tend to favor visual abstraction over naturalistic representation.
What influenced African art?
Because of colonialism and slavery, African art found its way around the world. First presented as curiosities of primitive cultures, objects such as masks and sculptures influenced European artists looking for a new vocabulary that didn’t rely on Realism.
How is African art different from Western art?
African Art is much different in use from its Western Art counterparts. Western Art, is used to decorate walls and can be studied for its perspective, lines, symmetry and many other artistic forms. African Art was used as an integral part of the societies rituals, dances and ceremonies.
How African cultures express its arts and crafts?
Africa has a rich tradition of arts and crafts. African arts and crafts find expression in a variety of woodcarvings, brass and leather artworks. African arts and crafts also include sculpture, paintings, pottery, ceremonial and religious headgear and dress.
What was the first African art to be found in Africa?
Rock art is the earliest art form in Africa.
Which materials were used by African artists?
Popular materials used were wood, Ivory, Stone, metal, clay and fiber. Of course, African artworks were not restricted to these materials. Early African artists used pigments for painting as far back as 73,000 years ago.
How were West African sculptures used?
Many West African figures are used in religious rituals and are often coated with materials placed on them for ceremonial offerings. The Mande-speaking peoples of the same region make pieces of wood with broad, flat surfaces and arms and legs are shaped like cylinders.
What is African tribal art?
African tribal art consists of wood carvings, (masks and sculptures), stone carvings, furniture, ceramics, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, textiles, pipes, musical instruments, weapons, beadwork and the production of architectural features like doors and wall decoration and construction.
What is West African art?
West African arts include many of the most outstanding works from the continent and in the world. Home to both large empires and nomadic groups, this region has produced cultures that have created a diversity of art forms, from monumental architecture to small and intimate personal objects.
Why is African art abstract?
Most traditional African artworks are abstract. The African proclivity towards abstraction has its roots in the need of the artist to express an idea, rather than simply portray a subject. Instead of depicting animals and humans realistically, African artists distort, reshape, and creatively interpret their figures.
What common elements are of art used in African art or masks?
The most commonly used material for masks is wood, although a wide variety of other elements can be used, including light stone such as steatite, metals such as copper or bronze, different types of fabric, pottery, and more. Some masks are painted (for example using ochre or other natural colorants).
What themes of art are most frequently explored in African art?
Revealing the importance behind some of Africa’s most beautiful art and culture are four common themes. These themes represent ceremonial honor, mother earth and the people as her children, honor, and portrayal of a stranger.
What is Nigerian art?
The history of Nigerian art is fascinating. The dawn of the 15th century saw an explosion inthe art scene. The 19th century saw the prominence of arts from the Nok, Benin, Igbo Ukwu, Owo, Esie and Ife artworks. Today, these artworks energise Nigerian creatives to produce works within obvious traditions and practices.
Is African art generally frontal?
In traditional African art, the non-frontal figure is usually negligible–a child (Fig. 128), a member of an entourage, or some lesser being. Even these individuals are usually depicted frontally, however.
What were African masks traditionally used for?
Africa possesses a long tradition of masking and it is believed that masks were integral to their culture long before the first century B.C. The wide variety of uses for masks, which included rituals of myth, creation, and hero worship, as well as fertility rituals for increase, agricultural festivities, funerals or.
What is the role of the artist and the aesthetic in African art?
The Role of Visual Expression in Africa Prior to the Renaissance, most art traditions around the world were considered functional as well as aesthetic. The objects African artists create, while useful, also embody aesthetic preferences and may be admired for their form and composition.
What is African modernism art?
African art was primarily associated to ‘primitivism’ and its influence on cubism and other forms of post impressionistic art. In 1967, the Harmon Foundation, USA published a book called ‘Africa’s Contemporary Art and Artists’; a descriptive compilation of artists living in Sub-Saharan Africa.
