Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
African art describes modern and historical paintings, sculptures, installations, and other visual cultures from native or indigenous Africans and the African continent.The definition may also include the art of the African diasporas, such as art in African-American, Caribbean or South American societies inspired by African traditions.
These qualities include laws, morals, beliefs, knowledge, art, customs, and any other attributes belonging to a member of that society. [3] Culture is the way of life of a group of people. Africa has numerous ethnic nationalities all with varying qualities such as language, dishes, greetings, dressing, dances and music.
African folk art consists of a variety of items: household objects, metal objects, toys, textiles, masks, and wood sculpture. Most traditional African art meets many definitions of folk art generally, or at least did so until relatively recent dates.
African textiles also have significance as historical documents, offering perspectives in cases where written historical accounts are unavailable: "History in Africa may be read, told and recorded in cloth." [33] Western African demand for cotton textiles fueled early South-South exchange during colonial times. [34]
Mask from Gabon Two Chiwara c. late 19th early 20th centuries, Art Institute of Chicago.Female (left) and male, vertical styles. Most African sculpture from regions south of the Sahara was historically made of wood and other organic materials that have not survived from earlier than a few centuries ago, while older pottery figures are found from a number of areas.
African art reflects the diversity of African cultures. The oldest existing art from Africa are 6,000-year-old carvings found in Niger , while the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt was the world's tallest architectural accomplishment for 4,000 years until the creation of the Eiffel Tower .
Before the Berlin Conference of 1885, traders and explorers to Africa purchased or stole art as souvenirs and curios, [4] spreading beyond the coast; ivory objects made along African coasts had been collected for centuries, and many were made by Africans for purchase by Europeans, mainly in areas reached by the Portuguese, such as the Afro-Portuguese ivories.
Contemporary African art is commonly understood to be art made by artists in Africa and the African diaspora in the post-independence era. However, there are about as many understandings of contemporary African art as there are curators, scholars and artists working in that field.