African art

Definitions

Some definitions of African art include the artistic production of African diasporas, such as African-American art, Afro-Caribbean Art, and Latin American art inspired by African traditions. However, African art does not usually encompass the artistic traditions of North Africa, which have been predominantly influenced by distinct artistic traditions, such as Punic art, Greco-Roman Art, Islamic Art, and other styles originating beyond Africa. As a result of geographic factors, namely North Africa's proximity with the Mediterranean and the natural boundaries, such as the Sahara, separating North Africa with the rest of continent, the influence of indigenous African forms of art would have been lower by comparison.

Thematic elements

In Western African art there is a particular focus on expressiveness and individuality. The art of the Dan people is an example of this, and it has also extended its influence beyond the continent.

The human figure has long been the central subject of most African art, and this emphasis has influenced certain European artistic traditions. For instance, during the fifteenth century, Portugal engaged in trade with the Sapi culture near the Ivory Coast in West Africa. The Sapi artists produced intricate ivory salt cellars that merged African and European design elements—most notably through the inclusion of the human figure, which was typically absent in Portuguese saltcellars. In African art, the human figure can symbolize the living or the dead, represent chiefs, dancers, or various trades, serve as an anthropomorphic image of a deity, or fulfill other votive and spiritual functions. Another recurring theme is the intermorphosis of humans and animals, blurring the boundaries between species to convey symbolic meaning.

Visual abstraction: African artworks often prioritize visual abstraction over naturalistic representation. This stylistic tendency stems from the widespread use of generalized and codified forms, which reflect cultural values, spiritual beliefs, and artistic conventions rather than realistic depictions.

Scope

The study of African art until recently focused on the traditional art of certain well-known groups on the continent, with a particular emphasis on traditional sculpture, masks and other visual culture from non-Islamic West Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa with a particular emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries. Recently, however, there has been a movement among African art historians and other scholars to include the visual culture of other regions and time periods. The notion is that by including all African cultures and their visual culture over time in African art, there will be a greater understanding of the continent's visual aesthetics across time. Finally, the arts of the African diaspora, in Brazil, the Caribbean and the south-eastern United States, have also begun to be included in the study of African art.

Materials

African art is produced using a wide range of materials and takes many distinct shapes. Because wood is a prevalent material, wood sculptures make up the majority of African art. Other materials used in creating African art include clay soil. Jewelry is a popular art form used to indicate rank, affiliation with a group, or purely aesthetics. African jewelry is made from such diverse materials as Tiger's eye stone, Hematite, Sisal, coconut shell, beads and Ebony wood. Sculptures can be wooden, ceramic or carved out of stone like the famous Shona sculptures, and decorated or sculpted pottery comes from many regions. Various forms of textiles are made including Kitenge, mud cloth and Kente cloth. Mosaics made of butterfly wings or colored sand are popular in West Africa. Early African sculptures can be identified as being made of terracotta and bronze.

Traditional African religions

Traditional African religions have been extremely influential on African art forms across the continent. African art often stems from the themes of religious symbolism, functionalism and utilitarianism. With many pieces of art that are created for spiritual rather than purely creative purposes. The majority of popular African artworks can be understood as the tools, such as the representative figurines used in religious rituals and ceremonies. Many African cultures emphasize the importance of ancestors as intermediaries between the living, the Gods, and the supreme creator. Art is seen as a way to contact these spirits of ancestors. Art may also be used to depict deities, for example, the Yoruba deity Ogun who presides over iron, war, and craftsmanship, and is valued for its functional purposes.

The arrival of both Christianity and Islam greatly influenced the art of the African continent, and the traditions of both have been integrated into the beliefs and artwork of traditional African religion.

History

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. In Africa, evidence for the making of paints by a complex process exists from about 100,000 years ago and of the use of pigments from around 320,000 years ago. African rock art in the Sahara in Niger preserves 6000-year-old carvings. Along with sub-Saharan Africa, the Western cultural arts, ancient Egyptian paintings and artifacts, and indigenous southern crafts also contributed greatly to African art. The abundance of surrounding nature was often depicted through abstract interpretations of animals, plant life, or natural designs and shapes. The Nubian Kingdom of Kush in modern Sudan was in close and often hostile contact with Egypt and produced monumental sculptures mostly derivative of styles that did not lead to the north. In West Africa, the earliest known sculptures are from the Nok culture, which thrived between 1,500 BC and 500 AD in modern Nigeria. Its clay figures typically feature elongated bodies and angular shapes.

More complex methods of producing art were developed in sub-Saharan Africa around the 10th century, some of the most notable advancements include the bronze work of Igbo Ukwu and the terracotta and metalworks of Ile Ife Bronze and brass castings, often ornamented with ivory and precious stones, became highly prestigious in much of West Africa, sometimes being limited to the work of court artisans and identified with royalty, as with the Benin Bronzes.

As Europeans explored the coasts of West Africa, they discovered a wide range of functional objects that Africans used for cultural, social, and economic purposes. Oath devices, for instance, were essential to securing business relationships during the era of the Atlantic slave trade. Though these works of craftsmanship followed their own aesthetic principles, they were regarded as tools of sorcery by European travel writers and reduced to a category of "fetish," which was understood to be outside the realm of art.

Influence on Western art

During and after the 19th and 20th-century colonial period, Westerners long characterized African art as "primitive." The term carries with it negative connotations of underdevelopment and poverty. Colonization during the nineteenth century set up a Western understanding hinged on the belief that African art lacked technical ability due to its low socioeconomic status.

At the start of the twentieth century, art historians like Carl Einstein, Michał Sobeski and Leo Frobenius published important works about the theme, giving African art the status of an aesthetic object, not only of an ethnographic object. At the same time, artists like Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, André Derain, Henri Matisse, Joseph Csaky, and Amedeo Modigliani became aware of and inspired by, African art, amongst other art forms. In a situation where the established avant-garde was straining against the constraints imposed by serving the world of appearances, African art demonstrated the power of supremely well-organized forms; produced not only by responding to the faculty of sight but also and often primarily, the faculty of imagination, emotion and mystical and religious experience. These artists saw in African art a formal perfection and sophistication unified with phenomenal expressive power. The study of and response to African art, by artists at the beginning of the twentieth century facilitated an explosion of interest in the abstraction, organization, and reorganization of forms, and the exploration of emotional and psychological areas hitherto unseen in Western art. By these means, the status of visual art was changed. Art ceased to be merely and primarily aesthetic, but became also a true medium for philosophic and intellectual discourse, and hence more truly and profoundly aesthetic than ever before.

Traditional art

Traditional art describes the most popular and studied forms of African art typically found in museum collections.

Wooden masks, which might either be of human, animal or legendary creatures, are one of the most commonly found forms of art in Western Africa. In their original contexts, ceremonial masks are used for celebrations, initiations, crop harvesting, and war preparation. The masks are worn by a chosen or initiated dancer. During the mask ceremony the dancer goes into a deep trance, and during this state of mind he "communicates" with his ancestors. The masks can be worn in three different ways: vertically covering the face: as helmets, encasing the entire head, and as a crest, resting upon the head, which was commonly covered by material as part of the disguise. African masks often represent a spirit and it is strongly believed that the spirit of the ancestors possesses the wearer. Most African masks are made with wood, and can be decorated with: Ivory, animal hair, plant fibers (such as raffia), pigments (like kaolin), stones, and semi-precious gems also are included in the masks.

Statues, usually of wood or ivory, are often inlaid with cowrie shells, metal studs and nails. Decorative clothing is also commonplace and comprises another large part of African art. Among the most complex of African textiles is the colorful, strip-woven Kente cloth of Ghana. Boldly patterned mudcloth is another well-known technique.

Contemporary African art

Africa is home to a thriving contemporary art and fine art culture. This has been under-studied until recently, due to scholars' and art collectors' emphasis on traditional art. Notable modern artists include El Anatsui, Marlene Dumas, William Kentridge, Karel Nel, Kendell Geers, Yinka Shonibare, Zerihun Yetmgeta, Odhiambo Siangla, George Lilanga, Elias Jengo, Olu Oguibe, Lubaina Himid, Bili Bidjocka and Henry Tayali. Art bienniales are held in Dakar, Senegal, and Johannesburg, South Africa. Many contemporary African artists are represented in museum collections, and their art may sell for high prices at art auctions. Despite this, many contemporary African artists tend to have a difficult time finding a market for their work. Many contemporary African arts borrow heavily from traditional predecessors. Ironically, this emphasis on abstraction is seen by Westerners as an imitation of European and American Cubist and totemic artists, such as Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani and Henri Matisse, who, in the early twentieth century, were heavily influenced by traditional African art. This period was critical to the evolution of Western modernism in visual arts, symbolized by Picasso's breakthrough painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.

Since the late 20th century, artists such as Ibrahim El-Salahi and Fathi Hassan have emerged as significant early figures in the development of contemporary Black African art. However, the foundations of contemporary African artistic expression were laid earlier, particularly during the 1950s and 1960s in South Africa, where artists like Irma Stern, Cyril Fradan, and Walter Battiss played pioneering roles. Institutions such as the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg also contributed to the promotion and visibility of African modernism during this period.

In more recent decades, the global art scene has shown growing interest in African contemporary art, largely thanks to the support of European galleries like the October Gallery in London and the involvement of prominent collectors such as Jean Pigozzi, Artur Walther, and Gianni Baiocchi.

A wide range of more-or-less traditional forms of art or adaptations of traditional style to contemporary taste is made for sale to tourists and others, including so-called "airport art". Several popular traditions assimilate Western influences into African styles such as the elaborate fantasy coffins of Southern Ghana, made in a variety of different shapes which represent the occupations or interests of the deceased or elevate their status. The Ga people are said to believe that an elaborate funeral will benefit the status of their loved ones in the afterlife, so families often spare no expense when deciding which coffin they want for their relatives. These coffins can take the forms of cars, cocoa pods, chickens, or any other shape a family may choose to represent the deceased.

Pop art and advertising art

Art used to advertise for local businesses, including barbershops, movie houses, and appliance stores has become internationally celebrated in galleries and has launched the careers of many contemporary African artists, from Joseph Bertiers of Kenya to several movie poster painters in Ghana. Ghanaian hand-painted movie posters on canvas and flour sacks from the 1980s and 1990s have been exhibited at museums around the world and sparked viral social media attention due to their highly imaginative and stylized depictions of Western films. This creative interpretation of Western culture through African art styles is also on display with the tradition of praise portraits depicting international celebrities, which often served as storefront advertising art, and have since become widely valued and collected in the global art market.

Minimalist African art

Another notable contemporary African artist is Amir Nour, a Sudanese artist who lived in Chicago. In the 1960s he created a metal sculpture called Grazing at Shendi (1969) which consists of geometric shapes that connect with his memory of his homeland. The sculpture resembles grazing sheep in the distance. He valued discovering art within the society of the artist, including culture, tradition, and background.

By country, civilizations or people

West Africa

In the 17th century, the area of present-day Ghana was a center for trade and cultural exchange. The states in the region were connected through trading networks and shared cultural beliefs but remained politically independent. This arrangement lasted until the early 18th century when the leader Osei Tutu initiated a vast land expansion that unified these smaller states.

The kingdom's economy, which grew through trade in gold, cloth, and enslaved people, supported the development of its artistic culture. Ghanaian artworks range from wood carvings to brass works, figures, and gems.

Kente is a traditional, multi-colored, hand-woven cloth made from silk and cotton. It consists of interwoven cloth strips and is central to Ghanaian culture. It is traditionally worn as a wrap by men and women of various Ghanaian ethnic groups, with variations in style for each.

Colors and their meanings

There are different color variations for Kente, each with a different meaning:

Black: maturation

White: purification

Yellow: preciousness

Blue: peacefulness

Red: bloodshed

Akan art originated among the Akan people. Akan art includes traditions such as textiles, sculpture, Akan goldweights, and gold and silver jewelry. Akan art is characterized by a connection between visual and verbal expression and a blending of art and philosophy. Akan culture values gold above other metals, and it is used to represent supernatural elements, royal authority, and cultural values. According to Asante oral tradition, their origins are linked to the arrival of a golden stool, which is believed to hold the soul of the Asante nation. In some Akan cultural beliefs, gold symbolized the sun and was associated with royal authority. It was often used in art to signify the king's importance, representing key cultural and social values. Kente cloth is another important art tradition of Akan culture. According to oral tradition, Kente cloth originated from attempts to replicate spider webs through weaving. Kente cloth is recognized for its colors and intricate patterns. Its original purpose was to represent royal power and authority, but it has since become a symbol of tradition and has been adopted by other cultures.

East Africa

East Africa, a region encompassing countries like Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Ethiopia, has a rich and diverse artistic heritage. From traditional crafts to contemporary expressions, East African art reflects the region's history, cultural complexity, and evolving identity.

Around Lake Turkana, ancient petroglyphs exist depicting human figures and animals. Some Bantu-speaking groups create funeral posts, and carvings of human heads atop geometric designs are still produced. These more recent creations are considered a continuation of the practice, although original posts no longer exist. The Kikuyu people also continue ancient traditions in the designs painted on their shields.

Contemporary Kenyan artists include Elimo Njau, founder of the Paa Ya Paa Art Centre, a Nairobi-based artists' workshop. From the University of Nairobi School of Fine Art and Design came Bulinya Martins and Sarah Shiundu. They are known for their style, use of color, and execution, which builds on foundational design techniques. Unlike many of their Kenyan contemporaries, they paint using oils, acrylics, watercolors, and combinations of these media.

The Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University has a large collection of traditional art objects from Kenya including jewelry, containers, weapons, walking sticks, headrests, stools, utensils, and other objects available online.

Ethiopian art from the 4th to the 20th century can be divided into two broad groupings. The first is a distinctive tradition of Christian art, mostly for churches, in forms including painting, crosses, icons, illuminated manuscripts, and other metalwork such as crowns. The second includes popular arts and crafts such as textiles, basketry, and jewellery, in which Ethiopian traditions are closer to those of other peoples in the region. Its history goes back almost three thousand years to the kingdom of D'mt. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has been the predominant religion in Ethiopia for over 1500 years, for most of this period in a very close relation, or union, with the Coptic Christianity of Egypt, so that Coptic art has been the main formative influence on Ethiopian church art.

Prehistoric rock art comparable to that of other African sites survives in a number of places. Until the arrival of Christianity, stone stelae, often carved with simple reliefs, were erected as grave markers and for other purposes in many regions; Tiya is one important site. The "pre-Axumite" Iron Age culture of about the 5th century BCE to the 1st century CE was influenced by the Kingdom of Kush to the north and settlers from Arabia, and produced cities with simple temples in stone, such as the ruined one at Yeha, which dates to the 4th or 5th century BCE.

Central Africa

The Kuba Kingdom (also rendered as the Kingdom of the Bakuba, Songora or Bushongo) was a pre-colonial kingdom in Central Africa. The Kuba Kingdom flourished between the 17th and 19th centuries in the region bordered by the Sankuru, Lulua, and Kasai rivers in the south-east of the modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo. A great deal of the art was created for the courts of chiefs and kings and was extensively decorated, incorporating cowrie shells and animal skins (especially leopard) as symbols of wealth, prestige and power. Masks are also important to the Kuba. They are used both in the rituals of the court and in the initiation of boys into adulthood, as well as at funerals.

The Kingdom of Luba or Luba Empire (1585–1889) was a pre-colonial Central African state that arose in the marshy grasslands of the Upemba Depression in what is now the southern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Today, the Luba people or baLuba are an ethno-linguistic group indigenous to the south-central region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The majority of them live in this country, residing mainly in its Katanga, Kasai, and Maniema provinces.

As in the Kuba Kingdom, the Luba Kingdom held the arts in high esteem. A carver held a relatively high status, which was displayed by an adze (axe) that he carried over his shoulder. Luba art was not very uniform because of the vast territory the kingdom controlled. However, some characteristics are common. The prominent role of women in creation myths and political society resulted in many objects of prestige being decorated with female figures.

The Sao civilization, which existed in Middle Africa from circa the 6th century BC to as late as the 16th century AD, lived by the Chari River around Lake Chad in territory that later became part of Cameroon and Chad. Their most significant artworks include terracotta figurines representing humans and animals. Other artifacts show that the Sao were skilled workers in bronze, copper, and iron.

The Fang people create masks, basketry, carvings, and sculptures. Fang art is characterized by clarity of form and distinct lines and shapes. Bieri, boxes for holding ancestral remains, are carved with protective figures. Masks with faces painted white with black features are worn in ceremonies and for hunting. Myene art centers on rituals for death. Female ancestors are represented by white-painted masks worn by male relatives. The Bekota use brass and copper to cover their carvings and use baskets to hold ancestral remains. Compared to some other African countries, Gabon has less tourism, and its art production is less driven by commerce.

Southern Africa

In the northern part of Botswana, women in the villages of Etsha and Gumare are noted for their skill at crafting baskets from Mokola Palm and local dyes. The baskets are generally woven into three types: large, lidded baskets used for storage; large, open baskets for carrying objects on the head or for winnowing threshed grain; and smaller plates for winnowing pounded grain. The artistry of these baskets is being steadily enhanced through color use and improved designs as they are increasingly produced for commercial use.

The oldest evidence of art in the region consists of ancient paintings from both Botswana and South Africa. Depictions of hunting and both animal and human figures, made by the San people and dating back more than 20,000 years, are found within the Kalahari desert.

The culture of Great Zimbabwe is known for its buildings and sculptures, including the eight soapstone Zimbabwe Birds. These appear to have had a special significance and were presumably mounted on monoliths. Modern Zimbabwean sculptors in soapstone have achieved international success. Southern Africa's oldest known clay figures date from 400 to 600 AD and have cylindrical heads with a mixture of human and animal features.

The Kingdom of Mapungubwe (1075–1220) was a pre-colonial state in Southern Africa located at the confluence of the Shashe and Limpopo rivers, south of Great Zimbabwe. The most famous Mapungubwe artwork is a tiny golden rhino, known as the Golden Rhinoceros of Mapungubwe. In other graves from Mapungubwe, objects made of iron, gold, copper, ceramic, and glass beads were found.

The Southern Ndebele people are famous for the way they paint their houses. Distinct geometric forms against stark, contrasting colors form the basis of the Ndebele style, which encompassed the architecture, clothing, and tools of the people. While color has almost always had a role in drawing emotions in art, the Ndebele were one of the first Southern African tribes to utilize a wide array of colors to convey specific meanings in their daily lives.

North Africa

Art in many African traditions often carries symbolic meaning related to community values, ancestral reverence, or spiritual beliefs. For example, masks may represent spirits or deities, and sculptures can symbolize fertility, protection, or wisdom.

Rock Art and Prehistoric Art:

North Africa's artistic heritage dates back to prehistoric times, evidenced by rock art in the Sahara Desert. Sites like Tassili n'Ajjer in Algeria feature thousands of petroglyphs and paintings, depicting animals, hunting scenes, and daily life from as far back as 10,000 BCE. These works reflect the relationship between early humans and their environment.

Persisting for 3,000 years and thirty dynasties, the "official" art of Ancient Egypt centered on the state religion. The art ranged from stone carvings of both massive statues and small statuettes to wall art that depicted both history and mythology. In 2600 BC, the maturity of Egyptian carving reached a peak that was not surpassed for another 1,500 years, until the reign of Ramesses II.

Much of the art possesses a certain stiffness, with figures poised upright and rigid in a regal fashion. Bodily proportions also appear to be mathematically derived, giving rise to a sense of idealized perfection in the figures depicted. This was likely used to reinforce the godliness of the ruling caste.

The people of Nubia, living in southern Egypt and the northern region of Sudan, developed historical art styles similar to those of their Egyptian neighbors to the north. However, Nubian art was not merely a product of colonization by ancient Egypt, but was also the result of a mutual exchange of ideas and ideologies along the Nile Valley. The earliest art of the region comes from the Kerma culture, which was contemporary to the Old and Middle Kingdom of Egypt. Art from this period exhibits Egyptian faience alongside the distinct black-topped pottery of Nubian origin. In the later Napatan period of the Kingdom of Kush, art showed more influence from Egypt as the people in the region worshiped Egyptian gods.

After these historical periods, the inhabitants of Sudan created artworks in different styles, both in indigenous African ways and influenced by Byzantine Christian, Islamic, and modern art traditions.

Museums

Many art and ethnographic museums have a section dedicated to the art from Sub-Saharan Africa, such as the British Museum, Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac in Paris, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Ethnological Museum of Berlin. Not many Western museums are dedicated only to African art, like the Africa Museum in Brussels, National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C., and African Art Museum of Maryland in Columbia, Maryland. Some colleges and universities hold collections of African art, like Howard University in Washington, DC and Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.

Nearly all countries in Africa have at least a national museum housing African art, often very largely from that country, such as the Sierra Leone National Museum and Nigerian National Museum in Lagos. There are also many smaller museums in the provinces.

The display of African art and artifacts in European museums has long been controversial in various ways, and the French-commissioned "Report on the restitution of African cultural heritage" (2018) has marked a key moment, leading to an increase in the return of artifacts. However, there are other examples, such as the Museum of African Art in Belgrade which was opened in 1977 because of Yugoslavia's relations with many African countries thanks to the Non-Aligned Movement. The museum was opened out of the desire to acquaint the people of Yugoslavia with the art and culture of Africa since there was a deeply rooted notion about Yugoslavia sharing a friendship with African countries thanks to their similar struggles; all of the original items in the museums were legally bought by the Yugoslav ambassador and journalist Zdravko Pečar and his wife Veda Zagorac, while more recent acquisitions were either bought by the museum, received as gifts from Yugoslavs who lived in Africa, or were diplomatic gifts to the museum by the ambassadors of African countries.

The Congolese activist Mwazulu Diyabanza has taken direct action against European museums to take back items he says belong to Africa.