African Art as the Epitome of Traditional Art
Traditional art can best be defined as art that is part of a culture of a group of people. This type of art is reflective of a group’s ethnic heritage, cultural mores, language, religion, occupation, or geographic region (National Endowment for the Arts). There are many kinds of traditional art from native or indigenous walks of life from this continent and around the world. African art, the visual arts of native Africa, represent one of the most popular and well-studied media when it comes to traditional art. Their media takes on the form of sculptures, paintings, pottery, rock art, textiles, masks, personal decoration, and jewelry. African art is the epitome of traditional art as the meaning of each piece varies. Some pieces have value as entertainment; as where others, have political or ideological importance. However, it is not just limited to that and can be representative of ritualistic items or just having aesthetic appeal. The explanation of the art pieces represents how they can be reflective of different characteristics of ethnic African peoples and how these customary pieces originated and are “traditional.”
As briefly mentioned, African art has different purposes beyond what it means to auction houses and museum collectors. African art can be described as very dynamic and changing in form, function, and meaning over time. However, traditionally the African peoples’ art is not really for decorative purposes. Depending on the ethnic group on the continent, each piece usually represents something. It can represent the values, emotions, and daily customs of their originating group. In other words, their artworks and handiwork deal with making sense of the world. Their pieces are not something to just be put on display. The African people are very notorious for their terracotta figurines, in which they do not accurately represent actual human representations. When African artists create these figures, they focus on creating the world in another form. Rather more they focus on giving it a deeper meaning. An example of what they want to portray is explaining how to reduce fear of the unknown in the world. There really is more to the art of African-style pieces because they try to blend a deeper meaning and understanding into what they create as artists. They really stressed something of a greater value, and it is representative in their ritual and ceremonial objects, items of daily use, and other adornments.
In the form of the ethnic African people’s work, one can truly see the function or purpose clearer. For example, the African people often create masks. The Smithsonian National Museum of African Art has many colorful cap masks used by African people for the Gelede festival. The masks represent a masquerade to honor and placate the forces of infertility and the spiritual power of so-called witches. The mask forms are used to combine art and ritual dance to amuse, educate, and inspire (National Museum of African Art). Another example of the form is their sculptures, although not on exhibit currently at the Museum there is a group of works called the African Forms. The oddly shaped plaster and wax forms help with their purpose because it gives visualization to the artist’s connection to nature and the unique surfaces of materials that can be found from the surrounding geographical area of its creation (National Museum of African Art).
The copying of form especially in African art is a necessary and essential thing to an artwork or handiwork’s function or purpose because it is something that is characterized by it. The form is something portrayed in many parts of Africa and it is something that is constant throughout many forms of art completed and done by the African people. Its traditional look, by its nature, allows for copying as the different forms have rarely changed. A good example to look at as previously mentioned is in the terracotta figurines you can see at various museums and exhibitions around the world.
The function of African art has changed over time – despite its form staying the same. Its form has changed rapidly to accommodate traditional society's interactions with the Western hemisphere of the world. For example, the Western market and those in the Academic world have made a concept of “traditional” African art. Their art traditions are not entirely valid unless they were “viable and “active” art pieces prior to the colonization of Africa by European powers in the late nineteenth century. Collectors have a very strict view on this but see the function and form of things as they want. An example of this is when they classify something that is a commodity as a work of art. Collectors do not look at things like the continuity and dynamism of African art. They only care for colonization and when they were created; caring little for their function and form.
Traditional African art is diverse and made by many brilliant people on the continent. While very amazing for their ethnic or regional creation, there are many similar forms making it easy for there to be copies. Traditional African art copies, however, are very different from copies of “fine art” like da Vinci's Mona Lisa or Vermeer's Girl with the Pearly Earring because they are very representative and belong to a distinct past that cannot be recreated.
