Painting & Sculpture

Painting & Sculpture of Africa

Up until modern times, however, only a few records of the artistic creations of African cultures have survived.

Due to the varying climatic conditions, the likelihood of objects surviving also varies greatly. For this reason alone, it is not possible to view Africa as a single entity. The size of the continent, the many vegetation and climate zones as well as vast natural spaces have led to a very different development of individual regions. Therefore, specific regions of Africa must always be considered individually. With regard to painting and sculpture, it is worth focusing on the most productive regions, North and West Africa.

Painting and Sculpture in North Africa

The North African region has been shaped by Islam for many centuries, in which sculpture does not play a significant role.

However, there was a remarkable sculpture tradition in pre-Islamic cultures, especially in Ancient Egypt. Statues of gods, pharaohs, but also non-royal persons were an important part of this high culture, especially in the areas of cult and representation. Preferred materials were numerous types of stone, wood and, for particularly high-quality pieces, precious metals. The remains of this civilization can be seen in many museums around the world and still amaze people today.

The traces of the time of the Imperium Romanum can also still be well traced in North Africa. During this time, classical Roman sculptures were created, but in Egypt, for example, mixed styles emerged from this new, European and the old, pharaonic tradition.

Painting was mainly used as part of larger dimensions. In North Africa, examples of ancient cave paintings can be found and in ancient cultures, mural paintings also played a very important role. In this context, entire houses were designed and even today in Egypt there are house facades that are decorated with figurative paintings. However, due to the well-known avoidance of images during Islamic times, painting was often neglected.

In particular in North Africa, the focus was even more on ornamentation and calligraphy than in the rest of the Islamic world. A remarkable exception to this, however, is the miniature painting of Mamluk Egypt, which also emphasizes this country's special position in connection with figurative representations.

West African Painting and Sculpture

West African art, which is considered typically African in the modern world, developed its own, complex visual language. However, many records of earlier artistic creations in this area have been lost, which is mainly due to the weather conditions. It can therefore be assumed that there must have been wooden sculptures for several centuries, which are now so well known for African art.

Carving still plays a major role in artistic production and has produced not only wooden statues but also fine ivory works and impressive masks. Examples of sculptures from the Nok, Ife or Benin cultures have survived from ancient times, which were made from clay or metals among other materials. A characteristic feature of these works is the representation of individual body parts that does not correspond to real proportions.

The strongly abstract representations of people and animals had a significant influence on the development of Western art in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, like many non-European artworks, they must be considered in their cultural, especially ritual, context. Often, sculptures, as well as masks, stand on the threshold to a ritual world and therefore do not claim to reproduce characteristic external features of persons. They often represent protective spirits and have symbolic character.

Even if the statue is made after a real person, for example, if it is a sculpture for the ancestor cult, it does not have portrait-like features in the European sense.