African sculptures are famous amongst collectors around the world, and offer tremendous insights into the cultures and tribal communities from where they originate. Often figurative, they typically depict the human form. Usually fashioned out of wood, they may have religious or spiritual references. This sculpture of a man, carved using indigenous African wood, has intricately carved details and striking features. The collectible is most likely from the 1970s, and its origin can be traced back to either Cameroon in Central Africa or Mali in Western Africa.
A analysis of the history of African art reveals that the oldest types of sculpture found come from Nigeria and date from about 500 BC. The absence of archaeological excavations, however, prevents knowledge of African art's antiquity and the sheer utilitarian value of the raw materials used in the production of art artifacts suggests that over time an untold wealth of parts has disintegrated. The basic subject is the human figure and strong formal qualities were exhibited with strong design features creating balance and harmony.
LEFT : AFRICAN SCULPTURE /CENTRE: STANDING POSE/ RIGHT :EBONY WALL HANGING
The earliest known sculptures are the remarkable terracotta pottery heads, most of them fragments of figures, from the Nok culture of Nigeria and are dated around 500 BC through to 200 AD.They are made from grog and iron rich clay but none of them have been found in their natural settings and they demonstrate that strong abstract figural representation has existed in Africa for over 2500 yrs. Their strong formal elements and expressive quality places them at the start of the African sculptural tradition. They are remarkable for their sense of caricature and have a strong sense of style showing elaborate hairdos and ornamentation. Nok terracottas currently occupy an important but isolated space in African art history.
Wood carving remains today the primary sculptural art form of the sub Saharan continent. African art history shows the earliest wooden sculptures from the 17th C are attributed to the Kuba, central Zaire but the earliest surviving sub-Saharan sculpture is a zoomorphic head found in 1928 in Central Angola. It is dated to the 8th-9th C and survived being buried under the water table.The finest examples of surviving wood carving date around 1920, some collected as early as 1890 and generally gathered before 1945 while tribal art was still very much in practice. African art history has had untold influence on the global art world.
While the first to take an interest in primitivism were painters, the main influence was on art. Andre Derain, the Fauvist painter, also taught himself to carve limestone in order to create works in the primitive style. The following are among the finest works of art produced in a primitive way: GREATEST SCULPTURES IN PRIMITIVE STYLE
- Oviri (The Savage Woman) (1891-93) by Paul Gauguin.
- Crouching Figure (1907) by Andre Derain.
- The Kiss (1908) by Constantin Brancusi.
- Woman Dancing (1908-12) by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.
- Sleeping Muse (1910) by Constantin Brancusi.
- Red Stone Dancer (1913) by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska.
- Crouching Woman (The Farewell) by Henri Laurens.
- Baboon and Young (1952) by Pablo Picasso.
- Divided Head (1963) Easter Island-style bronze sculpture by Cesar.