What Is African Art?

Royal Arts of Africa show traditional work from the most historic tribal civilizations. Throughout centuries, African Art has enriched royal stature, authenticated noble influence, and honored past and present rulers. The Kom of northwest Cameroon, included in these historic tribal civilizations, molded statues symbolizing their very own royal families and prestige attendants of their kings’. The “Royal Figure” is a prime example of this kind of artwork that has lived through the Kom Kingdom’s history. This piece is constructed out of multiple mediums including wood, Indigo beads, raffia cloth, and iron, but beneath these materials lies a much deeper meaning. Symbolism, daily functions, history, and culture were all brought forward when

Dance has always been the focal point in which Africans are able to let free through movements of emotion. In this essay I will discuss the history of African Dance and its importance to the African Culture. Also will be discussing the general information of African dance, the different types of African dance and the ones that I like the most. Dance in the African culture is something that cannot be taken advantage of in the African Culture because it holds such a strong meaningful moment at the time of any occasion.

Art of the Egyptians and Africans express ………………………..In art, style is a characteristic, or a number of characteristics that we can identify as constant, recurring, or coherent.(Art Terminology 1) Artists express their emotions through their art-making, their finished product will reflect that emotion. They might also create a piece of art that makes the viewer create an emotional response. Emotion is any strong agitation of the feelings actuated by experiencing love, hate, fear, etc.(Dictionary 1)

From the 1500s to the 1700s, African blacks, mainly from the area of West Africa (today's Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Dahomey, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Gabon) were shipped as slaves to North America, Brazil, and the West Indies. For them, local and tribal differences, and even varying cultural backgrounds, soon melded into one common concern for the suffering they all endured. Music, songs, and dances as well as remembered traditional food, helped not only to uplift them but also quite unintentionally added immeasurably to the culture around them. In the approximately 300 years that blacks have made their homes in North America, the West Indies, and Brazil, their highly honed art

The reason I chose to go to the African Art Museum is because I have been there before and I enjoy my time when I go. The tours at the museum consisted of talks about certain pieces in the museum that fell in a category the tourist wanted to focus on. Nkechi Obi was my first tour guide and the title of her tour was “Docent African Arts”. Her goal throughout the tour was to show pieces of artwork that showed what Africans may have gone through in the past in slavery. One piece that she focused on that I want to highlight was “Southern Landscape” by Walter Williams Roots. In this piece there various things going on in the photo.

There is no doubt that African Americans have a rich cultural background and history like the many different ethnic groups who settled in the New World, whose origins lie in another country. For this reason, America was known as the melting pot. However, the backgrounds of each of these cultures were not always understood or, in the case of African Americans, accepted among the New World society and culture. Americans were ignorant to the possibility of differences among groups of people until information and ideas started to emerge, particularly, the African retention theories. This sparked an interest in the field of African culture and retention in African Americans. However, the study of African American culture truly emerged as a result of increased awareness in America, specifically through the publication and findings of scholarly research and cultural events like the Harlem Renaissance where all ethnicities were able to see this rich historical culture of African Americans.

The African Culture is one of the most intriguing and complexed cultures to analysis because of the hidden meaning and thought-provoking ritual that has highly impacted their traditions. One of the most considerable piece of evidence of their ritualistic perceptions is the astonishing art work that the African people left behind. The art was a way for the people to implement different rituals throughout the year. For comparison, it is similar to many American cultures ritualistic traditions regarding such holidays as Christmas and Thanksgiving. One piece of art that the African culture is particularly recognized for is their Masks.

The African art had a major influenced in the west. Artists were encourage to break out from naturalism. In about 1905, the African American art reached Europe. African art was a source of inspiration for artists as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Amedeo Modigliani. The African art inspired these western artists to break the norms. They were allowed to be more creative.

What is Black art? Black Art is “cultural production informed by standards of creativity and beauty and aspired by and reflective of people 's life experiences and life aspirations” (Karenga, 1980:80). According to Evans (1979:37), Why is it called Black art? “...It is called Black art because it is saturated with the experience and behavior patterns of the people for whom it is created and because its substance is functional.” So, according to Karenga and Evans Black art is an art and any art if it is made based a Black person 's life. Africa artist was carvers of wood, ivory and bone, sculptors in stone, clay, bronze, gold and iron. Slaves struggled for their freedom and all they had was their art. Even thought Whites most

“The Royal Arts of Africa: The Majesty of form” written by Suzanne Bier, speaks about the different types of art used to dress royal individuals in Yoruba and Dahomey. When the kings must go to important ceremonies they are dressed in royal beaded regalia to appear powerful, wealthy, and beautiful. The height and the cone shape of the crowns brings attention to the king's head, the head representing ideas of destiny, spiritual power, character and beauty in Yoruba. Nowadays the royal beaded regalia is no longer just the crown, and scepters it is also the gowns, leggings boots and the foot rest for the king.

African art has played an important role in the culture of the world. The sculpture is the most common traditional culture expression for the African art. The different sculptures are shown by their local styles and they serve for the specific functions, such as religion. From some of these old art pieces, we figure out this kind of traditional culture expression already existed in the African for such a long time. In this paper, the art piece I am going to analyze is the Female Figure with Child and it made by Akan-Asante people. The Akan people of Ghana have been recognized for their various and attractive culture and it located in what are today Ivory Coast and the republic of Ghana in Western African. The Akan people are combined by different groups, such as the Anyi, Akawpim, Akyem, Aowin and Asante, and these people have their own dialect, but they share a lingua franca, which called Twi. The sculpture I choose could effectively reflect its own distinctive culture, because of the social connection reflect on the royalty, the comparison with other local art pieces, like Akuaba fertility dolls and its specific art form.

However, throughout centuries an immense amount of art has been produced that hold a unique position in the perspective of art history. The elements that may have led to this singularity of artistic expression are numerous and varied, yet they illustrate how an exclusive form of African art established a significant position in the evolution of art. The art of a region is reflective of its culture and values. However, art and culture is not able to flourish without freedom and independence, which gives insight into the indomitable spirit of the Ethiopian people. Ethiopia preserved their independence for two thousand years. Due to their independence, Ethiopians were able to freely develop their culture, religion, and artistic propensity

Africa is not only the second largest country and second most-populous continent. Art from Africa or “African Art” described not only modern or historical paintings, installations, sculptures, or etc. Even though Traditional Yoruba Art and Yoruba Art today were made from people from the Yoruba Culture, they both hold similarities and differences. These differences and similarities include points as the varieties of artwork they possess, roles the art play in Yoruba, meaning in the pieces, and subject matter in the artwork.

For centuries, African art has been thought of as a valuable piece of history, but as time continues to pass African art is gradually losing is value while other pieces are gaining value. This occurs because as more people of todays society owns pieces of African art, these same people are also losing, breaking, or damaging these priceless pieces of artwork. The problem lies with how people are able to get their hands on these priceless artifacts and what actions the economy is taking in order to protect and preserve African art.

Style. The term African art refers to these different forms of art that derive from native Africans