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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.
In his article, Georges Meurant, collector, author of studies on African art and former professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, Belgium, discusses the mostly small-format sculptures made of wood or clay of the ethnic groups south of the Kenyan border in the north-eastern part of the country. [28]
Central Zimbabwe contains the "Great Dyke" – a source of serpentine rocks of many types including a hard variety locally called springstone.An early precolonial culture of Shona peoples settled the high plateau around 900 AD and “Great Zimbabwe”, which dates from about 1250–1450 AD, was a stone-walled town showing evidence in its archaeology of skilled stone working.
The origins of African art lie long before the recorded history. The region's oldest known beads were made from Nassarius shells and worn as personal ornaments 72,000 years ago. [6] In Africa, evidence for the making of paints by a complex process exists from about 100,000 years ago [7] and of the use of pigments from around 320,000 years ago.
Luckily, two archaeological sites, Samun Dukiya and Taruga, were found containing Nok art that had remained unmoved. Radiocarbon and thermo-luminescence tests dated the sculptures to a range of dates between about 2,900 and 2,000 years ago, making them some of the oldest in Western Africa.
It is a hallmark of African cultures in general that art touches many aspects of life, and most tribes have a vigorous and often recognisable canon of styles and a great range of art-worked objects. These can include masks , drums , textile decoration, beadwork, carving, sculpture , ceramic in various forms, housing and the person themselves.
The realism and sophisticated craftsmanship of the objects challenged the dismissive and patronising Western conceptions of African art. The naturalistic features of the Ife heads are unique [3] [1] and the stylistic similarities of these works "suggest that they were made by an individual artist or in a single workshop." [3]
The most widely found - about twenty percent of statues belong to this type - is a figure who raises his hands in front of his face in a gesture often interpreted as praying. The second most prevalent theme is that of mother and child. The art of Lower Zaire, and especially the art of Mayombe, is known for privileging maternity subjects. The ...