African Craft: Ancient Art Form
Beautifully Redefined For Today

African craft refuses to go unnoticed. As an art form, its influence continues to have a reflection of the enigmatic in all its powerful glory.

The clever craft of the African artist leaves you awestruck by its beauty and at the same time, dying to discover the mysteries behind it.

• What does it all mean?
• Why was this mask used?
• And what does that symbol mean?
• Why does this figure look like that?

Answering questions like these requires you to take African craft seriously as an art form.

Understanding African Creativity

According to "The Tribal Arts of Africa," a book written by Jean-Baptiste Bacquart, "A specific word for art did not exist in most of the languages of the African peoples who produced the masterworks."

Instead, they described it using a word that depicted the making of an object.

For example, in the Akan language, what Westerners call art, craft or architecture is described universally as hand-thought. For Africans, it was the "doing" that produced the name, not the object itself.

The African crafted a carving; he was not creating art.

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This can begin to explain why there exists no hierarchy of art forms like that found in Europe, with the fine arts such as painting and sculpture at the top, followed by the various forms of crafts below.

Often, Africans strove to resolve a fundamental duality in their art namely, that in order to survive, one must offend nature.

To grow food, the earth must be furrowed; to make a wooden mask, one must offend a tree by cutting it.

Culture is nature transmuted. It is a revealing portrayal of the stunning achievements of black African artists over the millennia.

A Bit Of African History

The earliest craft pieces date from beginning of the first millennium, and the most recent hail from the early 20th century before the widespread commercialization of art for the tourist trade. African craftsmen made these pieces for their own use.

The craft of Africa is not only an aesthetic; it also has meaning and function. African art objects were rarely created just for art's sake.

These objects always performed a magical or social ritual role, like honoring the supernatural world and one's ancestors.

Value Of African Art And Culture

There are hundreds of reasons why Westerners collect African art. For some, African art such as paintings, sculpture, African beads and African quilts serves as a jumping-off point for the cubist and abstract art movements.

For other collectors, African art is about protecting a dynamic and rich cultural legacy.

Such artists as Braque, Derain, Picasso, Matisse and Vlaminck in Paris highlighted the value of crafts from Africa in the early 20th century.

African craft reveals the essence of a cultural heritage as it reflects the arts and crafts movement of a continent.

From delicate beaded jewelry to wonderfully carved wooden vessels, African craftsmen continue to make powerful statements about their history, their values, and their rightful place in the world!

Two authors whose works have helped us explore that world are Jane Bingham and Jean-Baptiste Bacquart.

• Bingham, Jane (2005). African Art & Culture (World Art & Culture), Illustrated Edition. Heinemann/Raintree. ISBN 1844210448.
• Bacquart, Jean-Baptiste (2002). Tribal Arts of Africa, Surveying Africa's Artistic Geography. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 9780500282311.

I'm grateful to both writers for inspiring me to create this page on the art craft of Africa.

Feeling a need to feed your hunger for the craft of Africa? Click the "Art For Sale" button on the menu to the left and browse my catalog of art. You just might be surprised with what you find!

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