Traditional African art and Contemporary African art

Traditional African art and Contemporary African art

The beginnings of African art are considered to be as early as twenty-six millennia ago with the earliest examples of African art being simple images of animals painted on rocks that were found in caves in Namibia. The oldest known African sculptures date from about five hundred BC and they represent heads and human figures made out of clay. However despite this evidently long and rich history, very few pieces of early African art exist nowadays mostly because they were made out of perishable materials such as wood, cloth or plant fibers and because their intensive use as either daily or ceremonial objects. A large proportion of the African art that is known today can be considered recent, coming to us from the nineteenth century or later.

African art masks, African paintings and African art patterns

African art masks, African paintings and African art patterns

The mask plays a very important role in traditional African art and life, particularly spiritual life. Masks are used during special events likeceremonies and celebrations and their purposes range from honoring and entertaining to initiating or blessing, while at the same time serving as both disguise and protection for the wearer. Usually, African masks are carved of wood but some are made with other materials such as cloth or clay, and they can also be painted and decorated with other things like Read More

Some of the most important artists offered by the African continent

Some of the most important artists offered by the African continent

This article will give you a look on a couple of the most famous contemporary African artists that the continent has produced in recent years.

How African art has influenced the Western architecture

How African art has influenced the Western architecture

African art became a great source of fresh inspiration to the artists of the early twentieth century who wanted to do away with the established artistic conventions of the time. However, despite this important impact it had on Western art in the past century, for the time before that it had little to no effect on European art. This was so because African art was conceptualized so differently than European art that most Europeans didn’t even consider it as art; the concepts of African art and its emphasis on form and ritual were strange and foreign to Europeans and this lead to it being overlooked till the beginning of the twentieth century when in search of new artistic forms, European artists took a closer look at the apparent abstract forms of African art.

HISTORY OF AFRICAN ART

Rival masterpieces: 5th century BC

By one of the strange coincidences of history, the 5th century BC produces the first masterpieces in two incompatible styles of sculpture. Nearly 2500 years later, these styles become bitter rivals in the studios of our own time.

One is the classical realism which will prevail from the Renaissance to the end of the 19th century. The other is the sculpture of Africa, distorting human features and limbs in a dramatically expressive manner. African figures in this long and vibrant tradition inspire Picasso’s experiments with Cubism, which launch the mainstream of modern art. 

The characteristic sculpture of Africa, which forms the largest part of what is usually considered primitive art, can be seen as early as 500 BC in the Nok culture – named from the village in Nigeria where pottery figures of this kind were first found.

The Nok statuettes are mainly of human subjects. Made of terracotta, they combine strong formal elements with a complete disregard for precise anatomy. Their expressive quality places them unmistakably at the start of the African sculptural tradition.