African Art

African art may not be very popular and has been understudied, but the culture offers important contributions in the art world, and has been influential to the west. The history of African art dates back before recorded history, from rock art 6000 years ago in Niger, to the art in ancient Egyptian artifacts. African art has often been abstract and was an influence on many western artists in the 20th century such as Picasso, Modigliani, and Van Gogh. You could say it has an unconventional way of expression that often reflected imagination, emotion, mystical and religious experience. These and many other aspects of African art contributed to the sudden interest in abstract art.

Africa's long contriversial history must have influenced their artists into exploring many themes. They share many themes such as utility, where artists make use of objects and materials available to them to convey meaning. They'd represent issues such as social structure, status, or gender identity. A common medium used in African art is sculpture. It's noticable that much of their art is "3D". Also, through my research i noticed that many of the works seem to have multiple meaning where symbols and forms could reflect different things to different people.