African art essays

African art essays African Art in general, are works of art created by historical or contemporary African artists living south of the Sahara. The artists belong to a wide variety of cultures from Africa, and everyone is characterized by its own language, traditions, and artistic forms. Although the large Sahara is a natural border within the continent, evidence has shown that there are a lot of influences through trade routes that covered the continent from early times. Also, research has pointed to constant influence of sub-saharan African arts and cultures on northern African areas closer to the Mediterranean. Egypt, one of the most popular of African civilizations, can also be seen as having important ancient artistic and cultural similarities with sub-saharan African civilizations. The arts of Africa highlight the rich histories, philosophies, religions and societies of the people who live there on this big continent. African artworks, in addition to their significance to the peoples who produced them, also have inspired some of the most important artistic tradition emerging in Europe and here in America in the modern era. American artist of this century have admired both African artists' on abstraction and their freedom from naturism. The history of art in Africa covers many centuries. Among the most ancient of these arts are the rock paintings and engravings from Tassili and Ennedi in the Sahara (6000BC-1st century AD.) Other examples of early arts include the terra-cota sculptures modeled by Nok artists in central Nigeria between 500BC and AD200, the decorative bronze works of Igbo Ukwu (9th-10th century AD), and the great bronze and terra-cota sculptures from Ife (12th-15th century. AD). Early viewers assume that they must have been of classical Greek inspiration. Today rich African traditions continue, with artists working both within the traditional modes of expression and in nontraditional genres. ...