Traditional African Art

Rock Art the earliest form of traditional art found in Africa is believed to be symbolic and associated with ritual.

However not all rock art is primitive, it actually continued past European occupation to the present. It is found throughout the continent and is as varied as the cultures and people.

Artists existed in almost all traditional African tribes however the artists of the Niger and Congo River basins produced sculptures which have become famous as African Art

The artistic styles of the countries of North Africa have been strongly influenced by Islamic art and are considered part of the Middle Eastern tradition.

South of the Sahara there exists a rich diversity of artistic forms that Westerners have begun to appreciate only recently.

Across Africa there were kingdoms with divine rulers and tribal groups governed by elders; the landscapes vary from semi-arid land south of the Sahara to lush coastal forest and savannah.

As a result of this wide variety of surroundings there is much variation between the regional art styles.

Masking was extremely common and of high quality in Africa. The masks were made of wood, bronze, feathers and many other collected items.

Masks were large in size, often with huge eyes and other exaggerated facial features. Africans also painted on rock walls which are equal to any others from the prehistoric eras.

Wood and metal sculpture used in religious and cultural ceremonies were also common.

Craftsmen and craftswomen are called upon to fashion objects to be worn as part of a costume at a New Year festival, a dance in hope of the first rains, or a harvest ceremony where the guardian spirits are thanked for providing food

Court art traditionally consists of objects made at the courts of the kingdoms that dominated many parts of Africa before colonial rule.

The artists were full-time professionals maintained at the court, where they fashioned clay, wood, and metal sculptures in honour of the royalty and various officials.

Often they produced naturalistic art as they tried to capture the expression of a person.

Power and authority were expressed through other arts, as well. Kente cloth (brightly coloured cloth with gold threads), for example, was only made for the political leaders of the Ashanti state.

African Art displays clear abstract qualities. African sculpture has barbaric power and a disregard for classical canons of beauty; these combine to create their abstract form.

The line of African art is bold and simple, the shapes are also simplified, they are rarely coloured and when they are it is with a limited palette; these are characteristic of abstraction.

Faces are distorted to accentuate the dominant features, in a type of serious caricature, thus the essence of the subject is conveyed.

Abstraction allowed traditional masks and sculptures to be immediately recognisable as who they depicted by their use of line and shape capturing the subject's personality in an inanimate object.

Abstraction also allowed the clear depiction of stereotypes, especially in masks.

One of the reasons Africans developed Abstract qualities in their art was that they were attempting to depict their Gods and other spiritual beings.

The only way the people could comprehend the metaphysical, was to extract the important part of each Gods character and symbolise it in the facial and other physical characteristics.

Symbolism was also an important factor for creation of Abstract and distorted works. For example, rulers were given large heads in relation to their bodies to symbolise their power and intelligence.

This was done because the head was considered the centre of being and the source of these qualities.

Arts - Crafts - Gifts - Posters

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