African Art - sculpture with a deeper meaning

 Traditional African art is often unusual and abstract.
Sculptures of human figures may have out of proportion elements
such as an over-sized head coupled with a tiny body form. To
understand the art, it must be remembered that the majority was
made for religious purposes. The artist was not interested in
the beauty of the subject in a Western European sense but
instead the work would have a deeper meaning that was based on a
religious belief.

Most traditional Africa tribal reglions are based on one
all-powerful God and ancestor worship being a major part of the
belief. As God could not be represented in an artistic work then
statues and carvings were made of ancestors. Realism was not an
important factor or even a consideration. 

The most important aspect to the work would be the artists
ability to bring a life-force into the sculpture that came
direct from God. In this way the spirits of the ancestors could
occupy the statues and only then would the artist have created a
successful sculpture.

In addition to the ancestral figure sculptures another important
African art form is the mask. Again, the mask was carved for
religious purposes and usually destroyed after use. This is one
of the reasons why so little ancient African art has survived.
Of course another reaons is due to the nature of the materials
that were used in the sculptures. Clay and wood were the most
common and unlikely to survive over a long period of time. 

The earliest known African sculptures come from Nigeria. Between
the years 1100 AD and 1300AD Nigerian civilization flourished
and many beautiful terrocotta sculptures have been discovered
and are suprisingly lifelike. 

African Art has had a considerable influence on Western Art.
Most notable would be the work of Picasso. The inspiration of
African masks and sculptures and the shapes partly inspired
'cubism' and other abstact art forms.