Where do we start?
We shall declare that Africa is the home of earliest art.
Art.
Well, defining art is like defining sex: Some styles make it simple, some touches make it intricate; the exceptional ones fog your senses.
Today art stirs around the world in tones of cubism, constructivism, expressionism, minimalism, surrealism, futurism–and more; but if the story of intelligent humans began in Africa, then African art must have followed directly; because, as we know, art is an expression of how people understand and interact with their world.
More or less, Carolina Sanmiguel concurred:
“Picasso and Braque may have pioneered one of the most radical avant-garde movements in Europe during the early 20th century: Cubism. But African carvers were first to abstract reality.”
Art reveals true history.
Spotlight Africa’s artistic past, and the cultural riches of the continent, generally in a mesh of interconnections with other cultures–from Mediterrania, Asia Minor, Arabia to Armenia–over thousands of years, immediately astonishes you.
Why this extensive heritage is somehow unappreciated amongst the African public (and the world) is a question to be curious about. An average African remembers his past no farther than the beginning of modern colonialism. A man is the sum of all his past; the man who sees only a fragment of his history, is a man without full identity.
In this treatise, we explore the origins of African art and its evolution across different cultures and time: a rock painting in Namibia gives us the earliest evidence of art–circa 23,000 BC; Nok culture (in modern Nigeria) gives us the terracottas in 500 BC; the Bura community show us the ceramics around 200 CE; and on to the 20th century we examine contemporary African art. Step by step, we study the art of different African regions: West Africa, South Africa, Central Africa, North African–and others.
We also discuss foreign influences on African art, and sub-optimal appreciation of African art. Even though African art existed for all this time; and early travelers voyaged into the east, north and south African coasts (and the interior) for centuries, the appreciation for and influence of African art was only seriously broadcasted no earlier than the the 18th century.
One reason for this was the mistaken belief on the part of foreigners, that African culture was inferior and barbaric. As Monica Visona would write, this is a problem of cross-cultural translation.
Wouldn’t you want to learn about the Tassili rock paintings in the Sahara? Lost-wax casting technique for fabricating bronze artifacts? The more-than 1,500 rock churches in Lalibela, Ethiopia? The great Olowe of Ise–he who sculpted a door to the entrance of king Ogoga of Ikere’s palace, which depicted the reception of Captain Ambrose, the British Commissioner of Ondo Province, 1897? The Benin Punitive Expedition of 1897 by the Royal Navy? What about the Zamble mask?
–Even Picasso was influenced by African masks; André Derain (the co-founder of Fauvism) was stunned; and Braque’s artistic imagination was expanded.
Permit us to ride you through variegated cultural lines of Africa; for which Africa varied its art treasury. The differences in art also arose because of differences in the environment. Think of the African Savannah, tropical forests, plateaus and deserts. Depending on the environment, the population became, accordingly; pastoralists, hunters, or agriculturalists with a defined settlement. Consequently, their art reflected their lifestyle.
But more important, we hope that this material will highlight the significance of African art in the eyes of Africans of the past, and of today: was the art about spirituality? Cultural heritage? Was it about the simple utility of artifacts? What about beauty?–We shall find out.
Citing then Peter Garlake’s quote: ”The potential African contribution to the art history of Africa has been ignored for far too long. Indigenous African views of the African past have yet to be fully developed,” we welcome you to this journey.
What do we exclude?
Art being broad, we exclude other art forms like music, and only focus on sculpture, rock art, paintings, masks, textiles and architecture.
As we share this African art corpus, we express our deepest gratitude to great art historians, like Frank Willett, Peter Garlake, Dennis Duerden and Monica Visona; whose works have formed the foundation of this story. On other online sources we also relied.
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A note: we use dating terms ‘BC’ for Before Christ for and ‘AD’ for Anno Domini.
Next: The Yoruba art.
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Part of this writing was contributed by Denis Chiedo.
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