Traditional African Art

Africa is diverse both in race and language, these differences are spread across its millions of inhabitants. 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". These areas, tropical Africa, are where the numerous, primarily wooden sculptures were created. 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 is as much variation artistically as there is socio-politically, racially, linguistically, ecologically and geographically. There are kingdoms with divine rulers and tribal groups governed by elders; the landscapes varies 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. The varying social and physical environmental influences on the artists cause great variation between regions in style.

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

One artistic activity common to all African cultures consists of crafts or cottage industries, where specialists make objects needed by other members of the society. In the case of textiles, these specialists include spinners, weavers, dyers of cloth, tailors, and seamstresses. Others work in leather, wood, clay, or metal.

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. Many of these objects were taken to Europe and North America where they became popular and influenced Western art. The bronze and terra-cotta sculptures of Ife and Benin City, two very old cities in Nigeria, are the best known.

Court art 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.

Although younger than Palaeolithic works found in South Western Europe, the Neolithic rock paintings and engravings of the Africans are equally advanced in renderings of humans, animals and non-representational (supposedly symbolic patterns). One example of sensitive human, depiction is a dancing woman from Inaouanrhat, in the Tassili region. The figured varying delicately precise, multicoloured body decoration and is actively posed. The rocks dated 3000 BC -but this is only an estimate, as with many rock paintings.

At the Nok archaeological sites the earliest known African sculpture in round were found and are relatively accurately dated c. 500 BC - AD 200. Due to the confident handling of the terracotta heads, it is speculated that wood or other clay method prototypes were crafted first and have since been lost. The smoothly surfaced, full-volumed quality of the heads has led to speculation of their direct ancestry to Ife terracotta and bronzes of 150 miles south-west of the Nok areas. These Ife works are dated 1000-1200 AD.

Benin (west of Igbo Ukwa), also had royal rulers and the area produced many exquisitely cast bronzes and carved ivory, wood, terra-cotta sculptures. They were simplistic and somewhat naturalistic (heads were exaggerated) in style and were created to glorify the rulers. Sculptures often had hieractic arrangement and were distorted, thus showing the importance of symbolism.

The Yoruba were the most artistic in Africa producing: cult figures in wood, bronze, terra-cotta and iron; beaded objects and garments; and elaborate palace decorations. Masking was also popular in Yoruba communities to entertain senior women and the deities associated with witchcraft. One example is the door of the King's Palace at Ikerre, which was carved by Areogun. Areogun's personal style included elongated and expressionistic figure. In about the ninth century AD, at Igbo Ukwa (north-east of the mouth of the Niger river) Yoruba Africans had developed a sophisticated lost-wax casting techniques. By the twelfth century the area had begun to produce the most naturalistic African Art known. Such as the detailed 'Ife king figure'. The city of Ife was and is the spiritual capital of the Yoruba people. It was located in western Nigeria. Although they have not survived, wood carvings were made at this time.

The Bangwa kingdom of the Cameroon Grasslands express the vigour of dance through: active asymmetrical posing, a thrust-back head with open mouth, constrictions at joints (to energise the figure) and rough texturing. Carvings such as the dancing royal couple were kept by rulers to depict all the people, living or dead, who were responsible for the continuity of life. They were used in rituals and as symbols of wealth, power and taste.

The Ibo mbari houses are complex forms of art, involving clay sculptures (often more than 100 pieces in one mbari) and paintings in a specially designed building. They were built to honour principal community deities and often depicted the goddess of the Earth. Sculptors would enlarge and extend her torso, head and neck to express her power and aloofness. Each house is considered a cosmic symbol and so the secret building process is a form of world-renewal ritual. They are never repaired but left to return to the earth.

The Kongo produced sculpture with precise, smooth refined delicacy. The works were often symbolic repositories of deceased nobles and were prayed to, asking for continuing care.

The Songye, who lived east of the Kongo created more abrupt and forceful carvings. These were quite abstract in their depiction of the human form. These figures contained ancestral powers that were released by placing medicines in and on the sculpture. Songye and Kongo power figures had purposes like ending drought, curing disease, protection in warfare, and crop fertility.

The Dan people evolved a great variety of masks, Masks were used in many everyday things, for example, whilst judging a case, the judges wore masks depicting judges. They were also used for entertainment, Dan woodcarvers, who were required to make masks of various secular and spiritual types, became skilled in changing style; from refined and polished for a beautiful women to highly abstract and rough for masks called 'Kagle'. Both are simplified, but in different ways.

African art is clearly as diverse as its landscape.

Above: Map of The African Continent
Location of tribes marked with x

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 a 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 the 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.

Abstraction provided the African artists with a method to capture their subject as they saw them, on the inside.

This Biography was written by myself.
Please feel free to use this as a resource, not an assignment.
If you have any questions, suggestions or further information please email me.

Bibliography

Hopwood, G., 'Handbook of Art', North Clayton; The Specialty Press, 1979.
Gardner, H., 'Art Through The Ages', New York; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975.
Read, H., 'A Concise History Of Modern Sculpture', London; Thames and Hudson, 1974.
Williams, D. and Wilson B. V., 'From Caves To Canvas, An Introduction To Western Art', Sydney; McGraw-Hill, 1992.
Feldman, E. B., 'Varieties of Visual Experience -2nd Edition', New York; Prentice-Hall, 1981.
Parrinder, G., 'African Mythology', London; Hamlyn Publishing Group, 1967.
Herold, E., 'The World of Masks', London; Hamlyn, 1992.
Mack, J., 'Masks- The Art of Expression', London, British Museum Press, 1994.
'The Longman Chesire Australian Atlas', Melbourne; Longman Cheshire, 1993.

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