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African Art in the Modern Era
Art and it function
Architecture: Nankani compound
Sculpture:
Yoruba twin figures: style and function
Kongo Power Figure: sculpture and
participation
Performing Arts:
Bwa initiation rites
Textiles:
Kente cloths: from traditional textile to
installation art
- diversity of
cultures,
languages,
religions, political
entities
- destruction of
oral tradition /
history
- Europe:
colonialism,
anthropology,
and primitivism
Attributed
to Kojo
Bonsu,
Finial of a
Spokepers
on Staff,
from
Ghana,
Ashanti
ulture,
1960s-70s,
wood and
gold. H. 11
1/4 “
Art and its function
Iconography related to
use
“political power is like
an egg: grasp it too
tightly and it will
shatter in your hand;
hold it too loosely and
it will slip from your
fingers”
Ghana, one of richest
goldfields -> gold =
power
gender roles: squared
buildings used only by
men, round ones by
women (inner
courtyard)
Men build, women
paint
Yidoor= horizontal molded ridges
Zalanga = bisected lozenge design
Contrast angular decoration - curved
walls/urban structure
Twin Figures,
from Nigeria,
Yoruba culture,
early 20th cent.
Wood, h. 7 7/8”
Terracotta Sculpture,
Yoruba people 12-
15th Century
Great Yoruba sculpture
tradition
Sculpture = spirit’s
dwelling place
Ritual: sculpture
brought home
from the artist’s
studio
Twin Figures,
from Nigeria,
Yoruba culture,
early 20th cent.
Wood, h. 7 7/8”
Sculpture = spirit’s
dwelling place
Ritual: sculpture
brought home
from the artist’s
studio
Placed in shrine +
taken care of
(signs of use)
Sculpture = spirit’s
dwelling place
Ritual: sculpture
brought home
from the artist’s
studio
Placed in shrine +
taken care of
(signs of use)
Iconography:
glossy surface =
health, signs of
adulthood
(hairstyle,
scarification)
Twin Figures,
from Nigeria,
Yoruba culture,
early 20th cent.
Wood, h. 7 7/8”
Power figure (Nkisi),
from the Democratic
Republic of Congo,
Kongo culture, 19th
century. Wood, nails,
pins, blades and other
materials, h. 44”
-house specific mystical
forces
-medicines in a hole in
the stomach or on top of
its head
-collaborative creations
-category formerly known
as ‘nail fetishes’ (nkisi
miloko)
Male power figure
(Nkisi), wood,
pigment, nails,
cloth, beads,
shells, arrows,
leather, nuts,
twine, h. 23 in.
(58.8 cm),
19th–20th century
(New York,
Metropolitan
Museum of Art
Kongo Power
Figure, Nkisi
N'Kondi:
Mangaaka
Kongo
Peoples;
Democratic
Republic of the
Congo or
Angola,
Second half of
the 19th
century. Wood,
paint, metal,
resin, ceramic
Initiation
Passage from puberty
to adulthood
1) “kidnapping”
(separation from
younger playmates)
2) Isolation and
education (masks,
spirits)
3) Reunionhttp://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/streamingmovie
s/RSTP_files/BwaBoni512K_Stream001
.mov
Masks in performance, Burkina
Faso, Bwa culture, 1984, wood,
mineral pigments, and fiber, h. 7’
Masks in performance, Burkina
Faso, Bwa culture, 1984, wood,
mineral pigments, and fiber, h. 7’
Iconography:
White crescent = quarter moon
(when the rite is held)
White triangles = bull roarer
(sound of spirit voices)
X = initiation scar
Zigzags = path of the ancestors
(difficult to follow)
Beak of the hornbill = bird
intermediary living-dead
Kente
cloth,
from
Ghana.
Ashanti
culture,
20th
century.
Silk, h. 6’
10 9/16”.
Long Ashanti tradition of KENTE =
woven textiles
Male activity
Strip waving
Famous for bright colors