Traditionalism and Internationalism: 19th and 20th Century African Arts
    
       
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  THE RECENT PAST

The past 50 to 100 years have witnessed many changes to the forms, functions, and meaning of African arts.

Festival arts in Ghana:

Annual festivals in contemporary Ghana, which under British colonial rule was called the Gold Coast, still feature sumptuous royal arts such as gold-leafed wooden sculptures and cast-gold jewelry as well as rich textile arts.

32-20: Akan festival showing gold-leafed wooden stool, royal umbrellas, and court officials seated in state, Akuropon, Ghana, photographed by Herbert Cole in 1972.
  1. Akan Festival
Igbo Houses for the Gods:

Mbari houses are elaborate unified complexes, built as sacrifices to major community deities. The construction process is a stylized world-renewal ritual. In the Mbari shown, the figures' differing modes of dress relate to concepts of modernity and tradition. The artist emphasized the aloofness, dignity, and power of the deities.

32-21: The thunder god Amadioha and his wife, painted clay sculptures in an mbari, Igbo, Umugote Orishaeze, Nigeria, photographed in 1966.
  1. Thunder God Amadioha and His Wife
  2. Thunder God Amadioha and His Wife
  3. Thunder God Amadioha and His Wife
Body adornment:

People in many rural areas of eastern Africa continue to embellish their own bodies, not only for occasional ceremonies, but every day.

32-22: Samburu men and women dancing, northern Kenya, photographed by Herbert Cole in 1973.
  1. Samburu Dancing
  2. Samburu Dancing

Mamy Wata:

Around 1900 in the Niger River delta there appeared a color lithograph of a light-skinned, straight-haired woman controlling large snakes,  This print, seen on the wall in the following image, seems to have stimulated the growth of the Mamy Wata (“mother of water") cult as a vehicle for the assimilation and expression of contemporary spiritual values grafted onto traditional ones.

32-23: Mamy Wata shrine with priestess, Igbo, near Owerri town, Nigeria, photographed by Henry J. Drewal in 1978.

Dogon houses of words:

Modern trends can be seen in recently installed posts in Dogon men's houses, called togu na, which are vital to community welfare. Earlier posts show schematic renderings of legendary female ancestors. Recent posts feature narrative and topical scenes, more descriptive detail, writing, polychrome painting, and their artists' desired recognition.

32-24: Togu na (men's “house of words"), Dogon, Mali, photographed in 1989. Wood and pigment.

  1. Similar Example
  2. Similar Example
Ga caskets:

Carved wooden caskets, created by KANE KWEI (b. 1924), exemplify the use of new forms and materials within older functional categories. Kwei's caskets reflect on the deceased's life and occupation, and he has created diverse shapes evoking both modern and traditional Akan forms.

32-25: KANE KWEI, coffin in the shape of a hen with chicks, Ga, Ghana, 1989. Wood and pigment, 7' 6 1/2' long. Museum voor Volkenkunde, Rotterdam.
  1. Similar Example
  2. Similar Examples
  3. Similar Examples
  4. Similar Examples
A Congolese internationalist:

TRIGO PIULA (b. ca. 1950) creates works that fuse Western and Congolese images and comment on present-day Congolese culture. Ta Tele depicts Congolese citizens staring at pictures of consumerism on fourteen 14 television screens. A traditional lower Kongo power figure (called nkisi nduda) is a visual mediator between the viewers and the images. The image indicts contemporary consumerism.

32-26: TRIGO PIULA, Ta Tele Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, 1988. Oil on canvas, 3' 3 3/8" X 3' 4 3/8".
  1. Trigo Piula
  2. Trigo Piula Painting
  3. Trigo Piula
  4. Trigo Piula Piece
Art and political protest:

Most contemporary African art forms are formally vibrant, as well as concerned with social and political issues.  Art is South Africa for example first helped protest apartheid.

The following painting is an homage to Steve Biko, who was a gentle and heroic leader of the Black Liberation Movement and was killed by white authorities while in detention.

32-27: WILLIE BESTER, Homage to Steve Biko, South Africa, 1992. Oil, enamel, and mixed media, 4' 1 5/6" X e' 1 5/6". Jean Pigozzi Collection, Paris.
  1. Willie Bester
  2. Willie Bester Painting
  3. Willie Bester
  4. Willie Bester Piece
    
       
 
 
       
       
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