African Art Pre-history and early cultures 25 000 BCE-1000 CE 11 th -15 th century 16 th -18 th century.

African ArtPre-history and early cultures

25 000 BCE-1000 CE

11th -15th century

16th-18th century

Dates

• Nok 500BCE-200CE Nigeria

• Great Zimbabwe 11th- 15th Zimbabwe

• Ife Culture 11-12th century Nigeria

• Benin 13th-19th century Nigeria

• Mende 19th – 20th century Sierra

• Leon

• Kongo 19th -20th century Congo

Key Ideas

• Much of African art is created around spirituality, the spirit world, and the role of ancestors in our lives.

• African artists prefer wood, but notable works are also don in ivory and metal

• African art is rarely decorative, but made for a purpose, often for ceremonies.

• African architecture is predominantly made of mud-brick: stone is rare, but can be seen in Zimbabwe and in Ethiopian churches

Africans believe that ancestors never die and can be addressed: hence a sense of family and a respect for elders are key components of the African Psyche. Many African sculpturesare representations of family ancestors and were carved to venerate their spirits.

Fertility, both of the individual and the land, is highly regarded. Spirits who inhabit the forests or are associated with natural phenomenon have to be respected and worshipped.Sculptures of suckling mothers are extremely common: it is implied that everyone suckles from the breast of God.

Patronage

• Since traditional Africans rely on an oral tradition to record their history, African objects are unsigned and undated. Although artists were famous in their own communities and were sought after by princes, written records of artistic activity stem from European or Islamic explorers who happened to encounter artists in their African journeys.

African artists worked on commission. The same apprenticeship training that was current in Europe was the standard in Africa as well. Africans had guilds that promoted their work and help elevate the profession.

As a rule, men were builders and carvers and were permitted to wear masks.Women painted walls and created ceramics. Both sexes were weavers. Exceptions were: Sierra Leon and Liberia women wore masks during importantComing-of-age ceremonies.

Farming communities produced most of the collectable art. The more nomadicPeople of East Africa in Kenya and Tanzania produced a fine school of body art, And the more agricultural West Africans around Sierra Leon and Nigeria Achieved greatness with bronze and wood sculpture.

African art was imported into Europe during the Renaissance more as curiosities Than as artistic objects. It was not until the early twentieth century that African art began to find true acceptance in European artistic circles.

African Architecture

• African architecture was built to be as cool and comfortable, therefore was made of mud-brick walls and thatched roofs. Mud-brick buildings had to be meticulously maintained in the rainy season or it would wash away. Africans built huge structures of mud-brick with horizontally placed timbers as maintenance ladders.

• The royal complex at Zimbabwe from the 14th century was unusual in both its architecture and sculpture.

Great Friday Mosque , remodeled in 1907, Djenne’, Mali

• Made of adobe, a baked mixture of clay and straw

• Wooden beams act as permanent ladders for the maintenance of the building

• Vertical fluting drains water off the surfaces quickly

• Largest mud-brick mosque in the world.

Great Friday Mosque , remodeled in 1907, Djenne’, Mali

• Bundles of deleb palm wood embedded in the walls of the Great Mosque are used for decoration and serve as scaffolding for annual repairs.

Great Zimbabwe, fourteenth century, Zimbabwe• Prosperous trading center and royal complex• Stone enclosure, probably a royal residence• Walls thirty feet thick• Conical tower modeled on traditional shapes of grain silos: control over food Symbolized wealth, power, and royal largesseWalls slope inward toward the top, made of exfoliated granite rock• Internal and external passageways are tightly bounded, narrow, and long,Forcing occupants to walk in single file, paralleling experiences in the Africanbush

Beta Giorghis, Lalibela, Ethiopia 13th century

• Rock cut church (Christian), cut from one piece of rock

• Shape of a Greek cross, also carved on the roof for emphasis

• Emulates Byzantine models

• No space for revisions once the carving has begun, careful planning.

• Beta Giorghis stands for Saint George

Characteristics of African Sculpture

• African art is basically portable. Large sculptures, the kind that grace the plazas of ancient Egypt or Rome are unknown

• Wood is the favorite material. Trees were honored and symbolically repaid for the branches taken from them. Ivory is used as a sign of rank or prestige. Metal shows strength and durability and is restricted to royalty. Stone is extremely rare

Characteristics of African Sculpture

• Figures are basically frontal, drawn full-face, with attention paid to the sides. Symmetry is occasionally used, but more talented artists vary their approach on each side of the object.

• Africans did no preliminary sketches and worked directly on the wood. There is a certain stiffness to all African works.

Characteristics of African Sculpture

• Heads are disproportionately large, sometimes one-third of the whole figure. Sexual characteristics are also enlarged. Bodies are immature and small. Hand and feet are very small: fingers are rare.

• Multiple media are used. It is common to see wood sculptures adorned with feathers, fabric or beads.

Characteristics of African Sculpture

• African sculpture prefers geometrization of forms. It generally avoids physical reality, representing the spirits in a more timeless world. Proportions are therefore manipulated.

Nok Heads 500 B.C.E-200 C.E

• May have been part of full-sized figure

• High arching eyebrows parallels sagging underside of eyes: voids of the irises draws attention of viewer.

• Mouth indicates speech: nose varely modeled- widely spaced flaring nostrils

Nok Heads 500 B.C.E-200 C.E

• Holes for airing out large ceramics during firing in eyes, nostrils, mouth

• Human head appears cylindrical

Ife Figure, eleventh and Twelfth centuries

• Head emphasized a seat of intelligence

• Scarification on sculptures imitates scarification as tribal indentification

• Heavily loaded with jewelry around chest, wrists, ankles.

Head of a King

Ivory Belt Mask, 1550

• Worn by the king or “Oba” Esigie, King of the Benin, as a belt buckle

• May have been made to honor King’s mother, Idia, at a commemorative ceremony

Ivory Belt Mask, 1550

• Around the crown are stylized Portuguese heads alternating with mudfish. Mudfish represent royalty because they live on both land and sea, as king is both human and divine

• On Bottom: more stylized Portuguese heads

Benin Figures 1400- 1900

• Classically refined beauty idealized naturalism

• High collars

• Imported metal from Europe

• Many placed on altars in royal homes

Benin Oba Head

Kongo Power figure• Power figure (nkisi nkondi)

African, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kongo peoples), 19th–20th century61 x 30.5 x 20.3 cm (24 x 12 x 8 in.)Wood, glass, iron nails, pigment, sacred material

• Classification: Sculpture • On view in the: Richard B. Carter Gallery (African Art) • Ritual specialists (nganga) commissioned artists to carve figures such as this one

which are physical containers for spirits from the other world. Once the figure was completed, the nganga-a counselor or mediator skilled in treating afflictions of the body and spirit-activated it. Now it had the power to heal and protect and to punish wrong doers. The nganga hammered nails or blades into the work to seal a vow or to awake its power to solve a problem or dispute. This figure's open mouth suggests the uttering of judgments, and the abdomen and eyes contain mirrors to deflect danger.

• Standing wood figure covered with white pigment, an ovoid panel set into its stomach and numerous hand-cut nails inserted into its shoulders and chest. The figure's arms are akimbo; he stands on a small, round base. Kongo people (Kakongo, Yombe, Woyo)

• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston • Gift of William E. and Bertha L. Teel, 1991

Accession number: 1991.1064

Power Figure• Power Figure (Nkisi), 19th–20th century

Kongo peoples; Democratic Republic of CongoWood, paint, nails, cloth, beads, shells, arrows, leather, nuts, twine H. 23 5/32 in. (58.7 cm)The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979 (1979.206.127)

• This striking sculpture is an nkisi (pl. minkisi) from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Minkisi are the creation of a sculptor and an nganga (pl. banganga), a ritual specialist in Kongo society. An nkisi is essentially a container of spiritual forces that are directed to investigate the underlying cause of some chronic problem. As spiritual experts, banganga are approached by clients to address any of a multitude of crises that may emerge in the community, including illness, political instability, and social strife. Minkisi are essential to the nganga's profession, creating a focal point from which to draw upon the spirit realm and its powers. Just as minkisi are directed toward specific ends, the banganga that own and control them may be specialized to address specific issues. For instance, only experienced banganga assume the responsibility of the most powerful minkisi, those concerned with political matters and the administration of justice.

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Power Figure

• After a sculptor carves the figure at the core of the nkisi, it is the responsibility of the nganga to customize it by adding symbolic materials. Consequently, each nkisi is a unique creation, and can be controlled only by the nganga that conceived of its arrangement. The nganga begins by packing various "medicines" about the head and body of the figure. These are weighted with sacred power and spiritual implications, and are often tightly wrapped in knots and nets to give visual expression to the idea of contained forces. The diverse ingredients of the medicines may include special earths and stones, leaves and seeds, parts of animals, bird beaks and feathers, and are specifically combined to attract and direct forces to the desired goal. The figure's belly, or mooyo—which, not coincidentally, also translates as "life" or "soul"—is another spiritual focal point, packed with medicines and then sealed with resin.

Power Figure

• As the figure is used and reused, the addition of materials enhances its ability to direct forces while simultaneously augmenting its visual intricacy. As illustrated in this example, nails, bits of cloth, beads, bells, even miniature carvings have all been added to literally and figuratively load the figure with spiritual power. Many of the objects are tied to a cloth collar around the neck, a feature not commonly found on other minkisi. While prevalent teeth and wide, aggressive eyes characterize many other minkisi; this example is further distinguished by the serenity of its facial expression, a sharp contrast to the rusted nails and complex assemblage of accoutrements that ornament the body of the figure below.

Power Figure• The kingdom of Kongo was at the height of its power in 1482, when

Portuguese sailors first visited the coast of Central Africa. Founded between 1350 and 1400, the kingdom was a model of centralized government, with a divine king and a network of advisers, provincial governors, and village chiefs who ruled as many as three million people. Portuguese navigators brought with them Catholic missionaries, who converted the kings of Kongo during the sixteenth century. It has been suggested that the practice of piercing the nkisi with nails, spikes, or other elements was adopted from Christian images of martyred saints introduced in the area during this time. Figurative wood sculptures such as these are sometimes called "fetishes," a misleading word derived from the term feitico, which was used by the early Portuguese explorers to describe anything artificial or manmade.

•Spirits are embedded in the images

•Spirits can be called upon to bless or harm others, cause death or give life

•In order to prod the image into action, nails or blades are often inserted into the image or removed from it.

Mende Helmet Mask• Mende helmet mask

"Bundu" or "Sowei" maskSande society

Sierra Leone and Liberia

In sub-Saharan Africa only men are normally permitted on ritual occasions to wear wooden masks. This black helmet mask is worn exclusively by women. The practice of women wearing masks seems to have been brought to several populations of  Sierra Leone and Liberia, such as the Temne, Gola and Vai, by the Mende and Mande-speaking people from the northern savanna. Because of the similarity of mask styles and the itinerant pathways of noted carvers, it is

difficult to assign some masks to a particular ethnic group.

Mende Helmet Mask•

In the 19th century the Mende were organized into independent chiefdoms; families and individuals were ranked according to their land-use rights. Industrious rice farmers, the Mende number approximately two million people. The rituals of their women's society, called Sande, require the appearance of masked figures. Within such a large population there are many variations in local practices and carving styles, but there is broad agreement on the nature of the mask itself.

modified or even disbanded.     

Mende Helmet Mask• The mask presents an ideal of feminine beauty admired by the Mende:

elaborate hairstyle, full forehead and small facial features. The gleaming surface signifies healthy, glowing skin. The swelling fleshy rolls alternating with deep incised lines at the neck or back of the head are considered marks of beauty and a promise of fecundity. The neck is broad to fit over the head of the woman who will wear it.    Sande officials commission male carvers to produce the mask in secret. The surface is smoothed with the rough leaves of the ficus tree, then dyed black with a concoction made of leaves. Before use, it is anointed with palm oil to make it shine. (Modern carvers use black shoe polish.)

Mende Helmet Mask• With this confining mask, the wearer (who has to be a good dancer

and an official of the Sande) puts on a thick cotton costume covered with heavy fibre strands dyed black. Her dances may last for over two hours. The sacredness of the mask lies in its deeper meaning as a representation of the long deceased founder of Sande society. In pre-colonial times women could hold the position of chief of a village cluster; until the 1970s women politicians continued to use the Sande society to support and further their careers in modern government. With increasingly rigorous Islamisation, however, the Sande society is being seriously modified or even disbanded.     

Mende Helmet Mask

• Female ancestor spirits

• High forehead indicates wisdom

• Used for initiation rites to adulthood

• Symbolic of the chrysalis of a butterfly: young woman entering puberty

• Shiny black surface

• Small horizontal features

Altar to the Hand and Arm,(ikegobo)17-18 century

•Head is distorted to emphasisThe seat of king’s will and power

•Symmetrical hierarchical Compostitions centered on theDominant king

•Hand and arm symbolize sacrificeto the owners power and Accomplishments.

Sapi art, Atlantic coast of Africa, Sierra Leone

• During the late-fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries, Sapi artists also created ivory objects for export to Europe. These items included delicate spoons and forks, oliphants (hunting horns), and elaborate saltcellars. They are unique hybrids of African and European culture from a period of early contact.

One saltcellar depicts an execution scene on a circular platform held up by slender rods adorned with crocodile images. Two male and two female figures sit between these rods. Details recall stylistic traits found on Sapi memorial figures from the same period.