0134484592 ch29

Copyright © 2018, 2014, 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Art History
Sixth Edition
Chapter 29
Arts of Africa from the
Sixteenth Century to the
Present

Learning Objectives (1 of 2)
29.a Identify the visual hallmarks of post-1500 African art in its distinct
cultures for formal, technical, and expressive qualities.
29.b Interpret the meaning of works of post-1500 African art in their
distinct cultures based on their themes, subjects, and symbols.
29.c Relate African artists and art after 1500 to their distinct cultural,
economic, and political contexts.

Learning Objectives (2 of 2)
29.d Apply the vocabulary and concepts relevant to post-1500 African
art, artists, and art history.
29.e Interpret a work of African art after 1500 using the art historical
methods of observation, comparison, and inductive reasoning.
29.f Select visual and textual evidence in various media to support an
argument or an interpretation of a work of African art after 1500.

Amir Nour GRAZING AT SHENDI
1969. Steel, 202 pieces. Collection of the artist.
© Amir Nour. [Fig. 29-01]

The Sixteenth through Twentieth
Centuries: Royal Arts and Architecture
• With over 2,000 languages and a rich, diverse cultural tradition,
Africa's artistic legacy is difficult to summarize.
• Royal arts of the sixteenth century shaped the way art was made
across the continent.

POLITICAL MAP OF AFRICA IN 2015
The vast continent of Africa is home to 54 internationally recognized countries, each of
which is home to multiple cultural and ethnic groups with their own linguistic and religious
practices. [Map 29-01]

Key Concepts (1 of 2)
• Participation
– Seldom were artworks made simply to look at or contemplate from
a distance.
• Contemporaneity
– Art not made for a museum display was often intended to be
temporary and useful.

Key Concepts (2 of 2)
• Abstraction
– In contrast to the idealized, naturalistic forms in Europe, African
artists conveyed non-visual ideas.
• Cultural Fluency
– Unique combinations of abstraction and naturalism appealed to
both African rulers and European collectors.

Ghana (1 of 3)
• The Asante Empire
– The Asante of Ghana use gold from El Mina ("the Mine") for
objects and jewelry as a symbol of power.

Ghana (2 of 3)
– Textile weavers used light, horizontal looms that appeared as
rectangles on the finished kente cloth.
– Royal men wore a single piece while women wore a skirt and a
shawl.
 The cloth is reserved for formal, special occasions.

KENTE CLOTH
Asante, c. 1980. Rayon, 10'3-1/2" × 7'1-1/2" (3.14 × 2.17 m).
Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California in Los Angeles. © Photo
courtesy of the Fowler Museum at UCLA. [Fig. 29-02]

Ghana (3 of 3)
– The governing system includes a spokesman, or okyeame.
 A staff called an okyeama poma symbolized their ability to
speak on behalf of the Asantehene.
 The example is a long, wooden pole with a sculptural
metaphor at the top, all covered in gold leaf.

Attributed to Kojo Bonsu FINIAL OF AN OKYEAME POMA (SPEAKER'S STAFF)
Ghana. Asante, 1960s–70s. Wood and gold, height 11-1⁄4″ (28.57 cm).
Barbier-Muller Collection, Gold of Africa Museum, Cape Town, South Africa. [Fig. 29-03]

Cameroon
• Bamum Kingdom
– Sultan Njoya was an avid supporter of the arts who elevated
Bamum sculptures and beadworks.
– The photograph on the next slide documents Njoya wearing a
German officer's outfit, which was given to him by the Kaiser of
Germany in exchange for the ancestral throne of Bamum.

KING NJOYA OF BAMUM IN THE UNIFORM OF AN OFFICER WITH HIS FATHER'S
THRONE IN FRONT OF THE OLD PALACE AT FUMBAN
1906 photo from Basel Mission Archives. Beaded throne of King Nsangu, father of King
Njoya. Bamum, Cameroon. Late 1880s. Photograph delivered by Friedrich Lutz, May
1906 - African Crossroads: Intersections between History and Anthropology in Cameroon.
Basel Mission Archives/Basel Mission Holdings (E-30.29.042). [Fig. 29-04]

Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Kuba Kingdom
– The nyim is the top ruler of the Kuba people of the Democratic
Republic of Congo; at the installation of a new monarch, a new
capital city is built.
– Geometric decoration appears on the walls of royal buildings and
carved into objects.

SLEEPING HOUSE OF THE NYIM
Royal Compound at Nsheng, Democratic Republic of the Congo. 1980. Photo: Angelo
Turconi. [Fig. 29-05]

NDOP PORTRAIT OF KING MISHE MISHYAANG MAMBUL
Kuba. c. 1760–80. Wood, camwood powder, 19-1/2 × 7-5/8 × 8-5/8” (49.5 × 19.4 × 21.9
cm). Lulua Province (Democratic Republic of the Congo). Brooklyn Museum, New York.
[Fig. 29-06]

Nigeria
• Yoruba
– The Yoruba people have been known throughout history as prolific
carvers.
– Olowe of Ise (c.1873–1938) was one of the most important Yoruba
artists of the early twentieth century.
 He was a royal court carver.
 One of most well-known pieces is the figural column sequence
of the king’s palace at Ikere.

Olowe of Ise VERANDA POSTS (LEFT TO RIGHT): ROYAL WIFE WITH TWIN
DAUGHTERS, ENTHRONED KING AND SENIOR WIFE (OPO OGOGA), AND ROYAL
WARRIOR ON HORSEBACK
From the palace of the king of Ikere, Ekiti region, Nigeria. Yoruba, 1910/1914. Wood and
pigment, 60 × 12-1/2 × 16” (152.5 × 31.75 × 40.6 cm) each. Photograph 1964. Memorial
Art Gallery, Rochester, New York, Marion Stratton Gould Fund (71.13) (royal wife); Art
Institute of Chicago, Major Acquisitions Centennial Fund, 1984.550 (king and wife); and
New Orleans Museum of Art museum purchase, Ella West Freeman Foundation
Matching Fund (70.20) (royal warrior). Photo: John Picton. [Fig. 29-07]

Nigeria
• Yoruba
– Olowe of Ise (c.1873–1938) was one of the most important Yoruba
artists of the early twentieth century.
 He carved the door for the palace at Ise in an asymmetrical
composition.
– The relief is so high that the figures' upper bodies are
carved in the round.
– It commemorates the arinjale's reception of the first British
traveling commissioner.

Olowe of Ise ONE OF TWO DOORS FROM THE KING’S PALACE AT ISE
Nigeria, Yoruba, c. 1904–1910.
Wood and pigment, height 81-1/2" × 34-5/8" × 6-1/4” (207 × 88 × 15.9 cm).
National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Gift of Dr. and
Mrs. Robert Kuhn (88-13-1). Photo: Frank Khoury. [Fig. 29-08a]

Olowe of Ise ONE OF TWO DOORS FROM THE KING’S PALACE AT ISE
Nigeria, Yoruba, c. 1904–1910.
Wood and pigment, height 81-1/2" × 34-5/8" × 6-1/4” (207 × 88 × 15.9 cm).
National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Gift of Dr. and
Mrs. Robert Kuhn (88-13-1). Photo: Frank Khoury. [Fig. 29-08b]

The Nineteenth Century: Colonialism
and Modernity
• Modernity is defined by increasing urbanization, trade, travel, and war,
occurring alongside European colonialism.
• Artists gained European patrons for their "traditional" works, but
struggled against dynamic power changes.

The Colonial Conquest (1 of 2)
• The Berlin Conference of 1884–1885
– European forces fueled the Scramble for Africa between England,
France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Portugal; Otto von
Bismarck divided the continent formally in 1884.
– Unified ethnic groups found themselves partitioned and unable to
rule themselves with autonomy across colonial borders.

THE COLONIAL CONQUEST OF AFRICA
The political boundaries shown are those of 1914, resulting from the divisions created at
the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885. [Map 29-02]

The Colonial Conquest (2 of 2)
• The British Punitive Expedition of 1897
– General James Phillips's mission to make more favorable trade
agreements with Benin City ended the oba's warrior chiefs killing
all but two British delegates.
 In return, Britain seized over 2,000 objects.
 The new oba commissioned a replacement altar thereafter.

MEMBERS OF THE BRITISH PUNITIVE EXPEDITION TO BENIN CITY
Seen in the Royal Palace with objects from the oba's treasury. 1897 photograph.
© The Trustees of the British Museum. All rights reserved. [Fig. 29-09]

BENIN CITY PALACE ANCESTRAL ALTAR DEDICATED TO OBA OVONRAMWEN
Benin City, Nigeria. Photograph: Eliot Elisofon, 1959. Image no. EEPA EECL 7584. Eliot
Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, DC. Photograph by Eliot Elisofon 1959. [Fig. 29-10]

Modern Objects (1 of 6)
• Once African artists learned that their European patrons had no
interest in using an object in its proper ritualistic manner, they modified
objects to be more decorative.
– The Lidded Vessel is covered with grooves specifically for
aesthetic and tactile appeal rather than function.

LIDDED VESSEL
South Africa or Kingdom of Swaziland, Southern Africa. North Nguni, 19th century.
Wood, height 2-413⁄16″ (63 cm). Metropolitan Museum of Art. Purchase, Anonymous Gift,
Richard, Ann, John, and James Solomon Families Foundation, Adam Lindemann and
Amalia Dayan, and Herbert and Lenore Schorr Gifts, Rogers Fund, and funds from
various donors, (2013.165a, b). © 2016. Image copyright The Metropolitan Museum of
Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence. [Fig. 29-11]

• New Objects: the Nkisi Nkonde
– Minkisi are objects harnessing spirit forces made by Kongo and
Songye peoples.
 They were made to alleviate illness and protect vulnerable
individuals.
 A diviner prescribes the attachment of medicinal ingredients,
bilongo.

• New Objects: the Nkisi Nkonde
– The Nkisi Nkonde served a judicial function for wrongdoers.
 It was important for small villages whose legal power was
removed by European colonial rule.
 A dispute between two villages may be solved by driving a nail
into the Nkisi Nkonde to seal the end of their argument.

A CLOSER LOOK: Nkisi Nkonde
Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kongo, 19th century.
Wood, nails, raffia, organic materials, and pigment, height 44" (111.7 cm).
The Field Museum, Chicago. © The Field Museum, Image No. A109979_Ac, Cat. No.
91300. Photo: Diane Alexander White. [Fig. 29-12]

The Spirit World
• Private Objects: the Spirit Spouse
– The Baule people of the Ivory Coast believe everyone lived in a
spirit world before birth and left behind a spouse.
 If a person has difficulty assuming their gender-specific role, a
diviner may prescribe commissioning of the Spirit Spouse.
 The owner cares for the statue to restore balance in their
human life.

BLOLO BLA (FEMALE SPIRIT SPOUSE)
Ivory Coast. Baule culture, early–mid 20th century.
Wood and glass beads, height 19-1/4" (48.9 cm).
National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Museum
purchase (85.15.2). Photo: Frank Khoury. [Fig. 29-13]

• Altered Objects: the Bieri Figure
– A wooden sculpture, eyema bieri, was placed on top of the
container holding the relics.
 These were carved in a number of forms and styles.
 They were enhanced by frequent application of palm oil over
an extended period of time.

EYEMA-O-BYERI (RELIQUARY FIGURE)
Gabon. Fang, mid–late 19th century.
Wood, metal, and shell; height 21-1/4" (53.97 cm).
Dallas Museum of Art. The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc.
(2000.3.MCD). [Fig. 29-14]

• Decontextualized Objects: Moving into Museums
– European museums exhibited early works of African art as "less
civilized" artifacts or curios.
– The Madagascar hazomanga served as a marker of lineage, but
the top was cut from its traditional column and removed from its
original significance.

STANDING COUPLE, PINNACLE COMPONENT OF HAZOMANGA POLE
Madagascar. Sakalava/Menabe, 17th–late 18th century. Wood and pigment, height 39″
(99.06 cm). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace,
Daniel and Marian Malcolm, and James J. Ross Gifts, 2001 (2001.408).
© 2016. Image copyright The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence.
[Fig. 29-15]

• Recontextualized Objects: The British Museum Sowei Mask
– The sowei mask displayed here represents ideal female beauty
and would have been worn by a member of the Sande women's
society for initiation rituals; it also would have had an unique
name.
– When the mask lost its raffia, Sande women created it and
renamed it.

SOWEI MASK FROM THE SHERBRO DISTRICT
Mende, 1880–1886. Wood, pigment, and raffia fiber; height 16.9″ (43 cm) (mask), 17.3″
(44 cm) (fringe). British Museum, London. Purchase from Thomas Joshua Alldridge
(Af1886,1126.1). © The Trustees of the British Museum. All rights reserved. [Fig. 29-16]

MEMBERS OF SIERRA LEONEAN DIASPORA COMMUNITY IN LONDON, THROWING
COWRIES TO DETERMINE THE NAME OF THE SOWEI MASK IN THE BRITISH
MUSEUM COLLECTION
British Museum. January 23, 2013. © The Trustees of the British Museum. All rights
reserved. [Fig. 29-17]

The Twentieth Century: Independence-
Era Art
• Nationalistic artists were inspired by the Pan-African movement,
Harlem Renaissance, and American civil rights movement.
• It took until the late 1970s for all African nations to be free of colonial
rule.

Ghana
• Ghana utilizes the arts to preserve historical and traditional local art
and architecture.
• The Nankani farming communities' distinctive adobe homes are
painted with geometric motifs indicating long life, good wishes, and
success.

HOUSE COMPOUND IN SIRIGU
Ghana. Nankani, 1972.
© Margaret Courtney-Clarke/Corbis. [Fig. 29-18]

Burkina Faso
• Bwa people initiate both men and women by having them perform a
public masquerade ceremony.
– Men wear masks and women sing songs to accompany them.
– Each mask is commissioned and maintained by family groups and
represents abstracted forms of people, animals, and insects.

Postcolonial/Postmodern: Photography,
Récupération, Painting (1 of 5)
• Photography and painting were imported from Europe and utilized by
Africans to reclaim their own image from colonial gaze.
• Found object works traced to a different origin than the European
readymade; they became a widely used and influential art practice.

• Photography
– Seydou Keïta became a renowned portraitist, sitting his subjects
as prosperous and urban.
 He captured people as they were as well as how they wished
to be, a far cry from the Europeans' depictions of naked
"savages."

THREE PLANK MASKS, BUFFALO MASK, AND SERPENT MASK PERFORMING IN
THE TOWN OF DOSSI
Burkina Faso. Bwa, 1984. Wood, pigments, and raffia fiber. Plank masks height 7′ (2.13
m); serpent mask height over 14′ (4.3 m).
© Charles & Josette Lenars/Corbis. [Fig. 29-19]

• Photography
– Keïta was among the first to embrace photography in Africa in
1935.
– He took unidealized photographs of the people in Bamako, Mali.
 The elegant composition in Untitled draws attention to the
proud poses of the sitters, who assert their own complex
identities.

Seydou Keïta UNTITLED (FAMILY PORTRAIT)
Bamako, Mali. Gelatin silver print, 1952–1955.
Courtesy The Contemporary African Art Collection, Geneva. [Fig. 29-20]

• Récupération
– El Anatsui began to study Ghanian surface design traditions as
produced by Ewe and Ashanti textile artists.
– He created a large body of work inspired by uli, an important Igbo
surface design system.
– He also appropriated found objects and weaved them into wall
sculpture as seen in Flag for a New World Power.

El Anatsui FLAG FOR A NEW WORLD POWER
2004. Aluminum (bottle caps) and copper wire, 16'4" × 14'9" (5 × 4.5 m).
Private collection. © El Anatsui. Courtesy October Gallery, London [Fig. 29-21]

• Painting
– Political subjects reigned over independence-era paintings.
– Tombeau sans cerceuil shows a hero figure of Congolese
independence, Patrice Lumumba, who had been assassinated
four months into office.
 Here, he appears as a Christlike figure.

Tshibumba Kanda Matulu TOMBEAU SANS CERCUEIL (TOMB WITHOUT A COFFIN)
ca. 1974. Canvas (recycled flour sack), paint, wood, and staples, 39.2 × 60.2″ (99.5 ×
152.9 cm). Fowler Museum at UCLA. Anonymous Gift (2002.30.2).
© Photo courtesy of the Fowler Museum at UCLA. [Fig. 29-22]

Late Twentieth and Early Twenty-First
Century: New Directions
• Cultural fluency became the focus of works in the late twentieth
century.
• This allowed for specific issues and cultural concerns to translate
across cultures, time, and space.

Mpane: The Burden of History
• Congo: Shadow of a Shadow was created with headless wooden
matches glued together into a hollow framework of a life-sized man.
– Congo is personified, even given a death date, to reference the
death of the country by the Berlin Conference.

Aimé Mpane CONGO: SHADOW OF A SHADOW
2005. Installed in the exhibition "Shaping Power: Luba Masterworks from the Royal
Museum for Central Africa," July 7, 2013–May 4, 2014), Los Angeles County Museum of
Art (LACMA). Mixed media (matchsticks, wood, shoes, beads, and metal), dimensions
variable. National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Museum purchase (2009.10.1). © 2016. Digital Image Museum Associates/LACMA/Art
Resource NY/Scala, Florence. [Fig. 2-23]

Wangechi Mutu: The International Artist
Experience
• Mutu uses collage to describe the international experiences of women.
• Le Noble Sauvage rejects the stereotype of non-European women
being exotic due to their skin color or body shape, pointing out that
beauty standards are always contrived.

Wangechi Mutu LE NOBLE SAUVAGE
2006. Ink and collage on Mylar, 7′7-3⁄4″ × 4′6″ (233 × 137.2 cm).
Collection of Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg, Scarsdale, New York.
© Wangechi Mutu. Image courtesy the artist. [Fig. 29-24]

Yinka Shonibare MBE: The Global
Flows of History
• Wax-print fabric was the material of choice for Yinka Shonibare MBE.
• Scramble for Africa shows an imagined scene of European heads of
state during the Berlin Conference.
– It appears as though the European men have been dressed in
African fabric, but the fabric is actually European; authenticity is
brought into question.

Yinka Shonibare SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA
2003. 14 life-size fiberglass mannequins, 14 chairs, table, and Dutch wax-printed cotton.
The Pinnell Collection, Dallas. Courtesy James Cohan Gallery, NY. [Fig. 29-25]

Muholi: Changing the Political and
Cultural Discourse
• Artist Zanele Muholi lived under apartheid until it was abolished in
1994 in South Africa.
• "Faces and Phases" is a long-running series of black and white
photographs of people who identify as LGBT.
– Thobe and Philia I portrays a female couple standing beside each
other as equals.

Zanele Muholi THOBE AND PHILA I
2012. Silver gelatin print, 19-7⁄8 × 30-1⁄8″ (50.5 × 76.5 cm). Edition of 5 + 2 AP.
© Zanele Muholi. Courtesy of Stevenson, Cape Town/Johannesburg and Yancey
Richardson, New York. [Fig. 29-26]

Think About It (1 of 2)
• How do the royal arts of the sixteenth to twentieth centuries display the
attributes of participating in society, cultural fluency of artists,
contemporary nature, and abstract subjects?
• How did African objects made during the colonial period respond to the
new contemporary situations of colonial society?

Think About It (2 of 2)
• How did the arts of the independence period participate in redefining
African art in the 1950s to 1980s?
• Cultural fluency arguably means something different for artists working
for royal patrons than it does for artists working for a global art market.
How are late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century artists
interpreting cultural and global fluency?

0134484592 ch29

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