The Kuba also sewed cowry shells and glass beads onto cloth. One costume of the Kuba king bore so many beads and cowry shells that it weighed 84 kg . The form and style of an African art object depend primarily on the traditions and beliefs of the artist's culture. This contrasts with European art, in which form and style often reflect the artist's desire for personal expression or the effort to imitate nature's appearance. An object of African art must first of all perform its function well. Beauty is an attribute that enables it to do so, especially when an object acts as an intermediary between the human world and the world of spirits. Beauty makes an object pleasing to these spirits. The qualities that African artists may strive for in order to achieve this beauty include balance, clarity of form, straightness, exaggeration or distortion, and stylized or symbolic depiction. Sculptures typically achieve balance through bilateral symmetry, which means that the right half and left half are mirror images. Balance and simplicity of form help convey meaning and aid clarity, and clarity helps the object carry out its purpose. Straightness, especially of the human figure, is a quality admired by a number of African cultures.
For example, Baule spirit-spouse figures feature a straight, strong neck, which conveys the idea of an upstanding and upright person in both a physical and moral sense. Symmetry contributes to the stiffness of the figures. When the hands, feet, head, or other parts of a figure are enlarged, it means that these parts are of particular importance to the society. Many Yoruba sculptures have enlarged heads, because the head is considered the location of a person's luck, wisdom, and destiny, and the center of character. The Yoruba also enlarge the eyes because they are windows to the soul. Baule spirit-spouse figures have large, well-formed calves, which are a desirable physical characteristic for both men and women and indicate a hard-working person. African figurative sculptures show an idealized or generalized version of a human being rather than a realistic representation of an individual. For this reason, they traditionally depict youthful figures, without signs of old age. Bronze heads from the Kingdom of Benin, for example, may represent older, wise people of high rank, but they are made to resemble someone about the age of 20, with flawlessly smooth, tight skin. Within the boundaries of tradition, however, African artists do have freedom to innovate. One artist noted for the individuality of his carvings is Olowe of Ise, a Yoruba artist from Nigeria who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
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