IntroductionAfrican clothing and body adornment is a complex subject that incorporates countless media and technologies, are of which are in a constant state of transformation. The arts of the body are exceptionally adaptable, inherently portable, and simultaneously personal and public. Because they are mobile, moving as commodities and gifts, and worn on the bodies of travelers, these forms readily pass between cultures and communities.
Only when removed from their intended contexts for collection or display in museums, or frozen in the form of a photograph, do these forms cease to reflect constant movement and change. While these are characteristics of dress practices everywhere, scholarship focused on Africa is further complicated by the history of Western misrepresentations of African people and cultures, in which dress served as an emblem of the “primitive.” In Western popular culture representations of Africa, undressed or underdressed bodies signified the distant “other.” Scholarship on dress and body adornment in Africa, therefore, has special significance.
Research on African arts of the body has addressed genres of dress and adornment as elements of ensembles or as singular objects; it has explored the series of technologies and actors involved in the production of body adornment, the last of whom is always the wearer who brings the parts together to reflect personal identity at a single moment. Dress elements are intended for and completed by the people who wear them; indeed, body adornment is often inseparable from the body, such as hair styles, and skin ornamentation such as painting, scarification, and tattooing. Scholarship on these art forms has taken diverse approaches to this connection to the body as intended support. Some research has addressed objects of adornment entirely as aesthetic objects, separated from their use contexts to address production techniques, the symbolism of patterns and colors, and the like.
Other scholars have focused chiefly on context, addressing the symbolic roles of body adornment in political and religious contexts, the significance of dress in the expression of specific social identities—age, gender, familial and other affiliations. And finally, numerous publications have combined these approaches, as reflected in their illustrations: large, color images feature the objects of adornment themselves, while contextual photographs that show the objects in use are smaller, playing supporting roles. African dress studies have more often focused on the social structures these forms reflect than on individual innovators; only in recent years have scholars turned attention to fashion design, dress innovations that foreground dress creativity as a marketable artistic expression.
While the focus of this site is contemporary African art, I believe it is essential to understand what has gone before. For it is rooted in many things, not all of them within our capacity to fully comprehend.But.by experiencing the history, the journeys made by tribes across the continent of Africa and by closely regarding the creations of their artists, we can get closer not only to their mystique but also to the form of expression of contemporary African artists.African Art embodies all that is mystical, spiritual, emotive and arresting about Africa. It can evoke joy or fear, emotionally exuberant or startled responses. It is fantastical, illuminating, complex. And in its purest form, beautiful beyond measure.Pablo Picasso's words resonate for me when he stated.
'I have felt my strongest artistic emotions when suddenly confronted with the sublime beauty of sculptures executed by the anonymous artists of Africa'.However, if we look at the Western definition of 'art', it pertains to 'imitative or imaginative skill applied in design' and alludes to 'skillful execution as an object in itself.' 'These works of a religious, passionate and rigorously logical art are the most powerful and most beautiful things the human imagination has ever produced.' Either way, the aesthetic significance of African art to the world of art today is immense. In my mind, there is no other continent whose study of their arts can shed such an instructive spiritual and intellectual light upon the societal structure of its communities who have inhabited, and presently do inhabit, this amazingly creative, richly rewarding land mass. Cultural heritageThe art of Africa is a cultural heritage that leads us on both an historical and geographical journey.The term usually refers to the work of 'black' or sub-Saharan Africa, the part of the continent that was originally occupied by Negro people who developed cultures quite separate from those of Mediterranean cultures, both Islamic and Caucasian. This area can itself be broken down again to West Africa, Central Africa, Eastern Africa and Southern Africa. Each specific area has its own art disciplines that are more prominently used than in other areas according to geographical environment, influences of climate, selection of and availability of raw materials and natural resources, cultural traditions and spiritual practices.There are seven major types of art produced historically in Africa that are widely recognized.
Masks. Figural sculptures. Metalwork. Textiles.
Basketry. Ceramics. Carving - Artifacts, FurnitureThe following decorative art forms can also be added. Musical instruments. Gold weights. Jewelry. Bead workTraditionally, the most important aspect of an African piece of art has been its function:.
connecting to a higher spiritual world. commemorating a political or social event. crafting, embellishing and enhancing a utilitarian objectOn the other hand, painting in Africa has been a form of applied art executed on rock walls to assist in story telling and recording events. The motive for creating any piece of art is invariably complex, perhaps even more so in an African artist's mind for not only has he to satisfy the functional requirement of the piece, he also has to satisfy the aesthetic aspirations of his culture and his own motive for creating the piece.
African Ear Adornment
African Ornaments
That may or may not, be in addition a personal form of expression, an emotional outpouring or simply an egotistical demonstration of his skill.By regarding African artists as only being concerned with function, one ceases to identify with them as people with personalities, ambition, pride or egos. Coupled with this is the fact that seldom do we know of an artist's name. Only in recent years can we start to identify work from known sculptors such as the master wood carvers of Yoruba or the baboon master carver from Zululand in South Africa.It is vitally important that artists such as those who produce the beautiful and imaginative pieces for Ardmore Ceramics in South Africa are recognised individually. This I am glad to report is happening more and more on the contemporary scene. Unifying characteristicsSome general unifying characteristics of African art may be identified. Innovation of form ie the concern on the part of the African artist with innovation and creativity.
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There is a high level of inventive originality from area to area and in different timeframes.Conventionalization ie combining a balanced composition and asymmetry, adhering to the aesthetic boundaries of beauty as defined in the 5 elements of African art.Visual abstraction ie favouring visual abstraction over naturalistic representation and realism. It usually conveys ideas, the supernatural or spirits and thereby allows itself to be abstracted.The primacy of sculpture ie with the emphasis on the human figure in a three-dimensional mode, even their fabrics are used as decorative cloths to turn the wearer into a living sculpture.Importance of performance art ie the combination of music, dance, dress and bodily ornamentation, sculpture and masks imparts a general multiplicity of meaning and a multi-layered facet to a primary component of African art, thus making each individual object significant for itself and as part of a whole. The message becomes the art form and the meaning comes out in the context rather than the actual object.Adornment and decoration of the human body ie scarification, tattoos, body piercing, body painting, wearing of masks and cloths and jewellery, all artistic expressions contributing to the transformation of the human form to another realism.Nonlinear scaling and geometric shapes ie often a small part of an African design will look similar to a larger part, most prevalent in textiles, basketry and architectural patterning, also decoration of ceramics and drums. This creates a soothing effect, pleasant to the eye and creating an illusion of simplicity belying the complexity of design skill and technique required to create these patterns.Multiple meanings ie the artists of Africa love to convey many meanings and messages in their work, not all which are immediately evident to the viewer. Contemporary African art.
Africa is home to a thriving and energetic contemporary art culture. Painting, sculpture, metal art, gun art, photography, installation art, contemporary textiles and thread art, recycled art, printmaking, mixed media, all these forms exist in Africa today.Without a profound knowledge of the history and traditions of the art of Africa, its sociological makeup, its political and cultural contexts, its design principles and its common characteristics, we would fail to see where contemporary African art has arrived at, what it pays allegiance to and what it chooses to leave behind in its attempt to be part of a world universalization.