African Art And Culture
Comes Home To The Heart

African art and culture helps to restore the balance to life that you crave. It allows you to slow down and appreciate every special moment.

By delighting your senses and emotions, each work of art will recapture the rapture of memories past. Arouse your consciousness and come explore African art and culture with us.

African art delves into a wealth of traditions, religious principle and sacred myths of an ancient culture. It embodies original expression, sensuality and tenderness deepened with legendary mystical significance.

A Common Theme: The Couple

Vital importance is placed on the couple in African art and culture. The emphasis is on two as one and art works depicting the couple are developed for shrines or positions of ceremonial honor.

Representations of public displays of love and intimacy between a man and woman are rare in African culture; the more frequent display is one of strength and honor, even in African women art.

The mother/child couple is representative of mother earth and the people as her children. The male with a weapon or animal (usually a horse, which is of greater status than owning an automobile) is another frequent motif in African art and culture to show honor to departed ancestors.

A final common theme is of a stranger, someone from a different country or tribe. Always unwelcome, the portrayal would be distorted, giving dishonor. Discerning the meaning of the piece leads to a deeper understanding and fuller appreciation of the continent's cultural heritage.

Your Ad Here

5 Elements To Fully Explore

Upon closer examination, you'll soon learn that African art has been designed to do more than just hang on a wall or serve as decoration. Customarily, art from the heart of Africa is utilitarian, while playing an important role in daily life.

Contemporary and traditional artists create to understand the world better and to live a fuller, more meaningful life. To help understand the complexities of this art form, experts have classified and defined it within the scope of five elements of African art.

1. Likeness to a human figure to better convey thoughts about reality or spirituality.
2. Radiant and luminous finish to represent shiny and flawless skin, hence beauty and moral purity.
3. Representation of youthfulness portraying vitality, fertility and all the goodness of life.
4. Reserved demeanor expresses being in complete control, behaving in a measured and rational way.
5. Balance, symmetry and proportion, all of the utmost importance, are achieved through the choice of material.

The 5 elements of African art highlight the intuitive, religious and aesthetic value of the works that form an integral part of the lives of people from across the various African regions.

Deeply Meaningful And Profoundly Mystical

The history of African art teaches us that it has one of the most diverse legacies on earth. From crude carvings of 6,000 years ago, to innovations including terracotta, brass and bronze, the art form has endured.

While so simple and complex at the same time, African art has a deeper meaning and purpose than you may first suppose. Allow your enthusiasm for African art take you on a magical journey throughout my site.

Sample it in all its glorious forms as you browse further evidence of the fundamental agreement between religious thought and the inspiring objects charged with expressing or serving it. The spirits of ancestors are ever-present.

Feel free to experience the joy and awe of the creators revealing the mystery of their ancestry. Simply click on one of the menu links to the left for further exploration or to purchase one of the affordable art objects on my African art for sale page.

Let African art stimulate your senses and bring home the passion!

Return to the home page from
this African art and culture page.