Friday
– TURN IN: Ch. 15 & Ch.34 worksheet (to me)
1. Beginning (5 min) finish putting together
posters.
2. (3 min) presentations (everyone take
notes).please write down name/ short
description of artwork
3. (Last 15 min: Jeopardy Review Game)
– If we run out of time, I’ll put this on my
website so you can review at home.
• Will only have 1 or 2 questions relating to
African Art.
– Based on the 4 images I gave you.
Test is Primarily Ancient Near
East & Egyptian.
UNIT 1 TEST
• TEST Monday, STUDY!
– UNIT 1 Image Packet
– UNIT image P.P. on my website
There will
be chance
for extra
credit points
Will use
– My WEBSITE: Online Resources: Image P.P. by Darrocott bell curve if
needed
• ( ARTWORK BY THEMES)
– STUDY VOCAB FROM QUIZZES!
• The FORMAT (will have some images)
–
–
–
–
–
Identification
Multiple choice
Short answer
Short essay (2)
Long essay (1)
DO NOT
SKIP
CLASS!
MAKE-UP
TEST IS
ALL
LONG
ESSAYS.
Art of Africa
Core Beliefs
• Honor Ancestor
• Worship Deities
• Elevate Rulers to Sacred Status
Nomadic vs. Farmers
• Nomadic Art:
– Personal adornment, rock engravings, animal/
ritual paintings
• Settled Farmers:
– Figures (wood, clay, metal) shrines to ancestor
deities. Pray for good crops.
THE ART
• THEMES: Images of Identity/ Status/
Worship/ Power/ and Gender Roles
• Naturalism &/or Extreme Stylization
(abstract/ exagerations)
• Materials: wood, terrecotta, ivory, brass
(casting), textiles
Below: Head from the Nok
culture, c. 500 BCE-200 CE,
terracotta
Right: Standing Nok figure
Nok culture/ problems of preservation of African
art/ stylization vs. naturalism
style characteristics: piereced eyes, mouth, & ear
holes. Let heat get out during firing.
Broken
bands on
neck, ~
indication
of
elevated
status
Head of a King (Ife),
c. 13th century CE, brass
naturalistic sculpture in
the city of Ife/
scarification on the face
of an oni “King”/ holes
along the neck
Right: King (Ife, Nigeria), eleventh
to twelfth century, zinc brass
Below: Memorial Head (Benin,
Nigeria), c. 1400-1550 CE, brass
• Belief:
– Head is the
Location of
Wisdom, Destiny,
Essence of Being,
& ability to
communicate with
spiritual forces in
the ancestral world.
• Casting Tradition
• Memorial Heads
• “Rolled Collars”
Head of an oba (Benin),
c. 1700-1897 CE, brass
kingdom of Benin/ an
“oba” with identification
marks (ikharo)/
appearance of casting
due to contact with
Portuguese traders/
coral-bead necklaces
threaded with elephant
hair/ eyes with pupils
inset with iron
Brass commemorative head
with tusk from the altar
for Oba Ovonramwen,
photographed in 1970
Mounted King and Attendants (Benin),
c. 1550-1680, bronze
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Mounted King and
Attendants (Benin),
c. 1550-1680, bronze
high relief cast sculpture
created for a door/ use of
hierarchical proportion/
flanking figures used to
create a symmetrical
composition suggesting
order reinforced by cosmic
imagery or symbolism
Oba
wearing
coralbeaded
regalia and
seated on a
dais
Africa after 1800
• Europeans :
– Exploration
– Trade
– Influences to African Cultures (christianity)
Children & Continuity of Life
Children– symbolize the future.
– social security (for parents)
• Yoruba- 1 of highest rates of twin births
• Often birth complications (deaths)
Left and Right: Twin figures (ere ibeji) from the
Yoruba (Nigeria), 20th century, wood
Art forms of
deceased
honored.
(dress, dance,
sing to it)
Belief: honoring
will bring good
fortune to the
surviving
members.
Twin figures of the Yoruba (Nigeria), early twentieth
century, cowrie shells and wood
Spirit World
• Many cultures believe there are many
different spirits involved for human offers
• Nkisis: objects that harness spirit forces
• Diviner: specialist in ritual & spiritual
practices
Power figures of the Kongo
culture (Zaire), 19th century,
wood, nails, pins, blades, and
other materials
power figures (nkisi nkonde)
of the Kongo culture/
bilongo ingredients drawn
from plants, animals, and
minerals (includes human
hair, nail clippings, etc…) to
bring a “neutral figure” to
life
Nails or pointed
objects driven in (or
removed) to provide a
particular function
(oath-taking, healing,
etc…)/ “pakalala” pose,
a stance of alertness,
ready to strike or
attract/ problematic
issues regarding
Western concepts of
“art” and “artist”
Abogunde of Ede. Shango shrine
figure holding a dance staff,
Yoruba (Nigeria), nineteenth
century, wood and beads
large number of orisha of the
Yoruba/ Shango, god of thunder/
oshe shango staff used in a
ritualistic hypnotic state/
balancing a double axe, carrying
the burden of child-bearing and
child rearing/ suggestion of purity
through nudity
A figure of Eshu of
the Yoruba (Nigeria),
twentieth century,
wood and cowrie
shells
Eshu (disorder) and
Orunmila (order) /
mediator between
gods and humans/
long braids of cowrie
shells, referencing his
role as god of the
marketplace
Ancestral Couple (?) (Dogon,
Mali), c. 19th century, wood
Dogon concept of the primordial
couple/ protective male and the
nurturing female/ reverence for
ancestors
Male Chi Wara Antelope Headdress,
Bamana, Mali, 19th-20th century,
wood
Reliquary guardian figure of the
Kota (Gabon), nineteenth and
twentieth centuries, wood,
copper, iron, and brass
Kota funerary figures (mbulungulu)/ bwete bundle of bones
and relics/ highly stylized human
form to suggest non-human
spiritual forces/ reflective brass
and copper used as an apotropaic
device to deflect evil forces
Kente cloth of the Ashanti (Ghana), 20th century, silk
Ashanti, known for their woven textiles/ kente cloth,
woven with patterns signifying rank/ warp (vertical
threads in weaving that are attached to the top and
bottom of a loom, through which a weft is woven)/ weft
(threads of yarn woven over and under warp threads)/
worn when the king held court
An akuaba figure of
the Akan (Ghana),
nineteenth-twentieth
century, wood
Shrine figure (akua mma)
of the Ashanti (Ghana),
wood
Figure of a Tano priest of
the Akan (Ghana),
nineteenth-twentieth
century, wood
Female mask of the Mende
(Sierra Leone), wood
masks from the Mende worn by
priestesses or judges (when
women rule for three years in a
ritual calendar, alternating with
men) in ritual dance/ the Sande
society of women
(complementary to the Poro
society of men)
a small closed mouth and
downcast eyes (indicating a
serious demeanor) and a
high, broad forehead
(wisdom)/ black surface
evoking ancestral spirits
emergent from their
underwater homes (also
symbolized by the turtle on
top)
Lets Analyze!
Corn
Flakes
Make
Really
Funky
PopSicles
Content
Focus
Mood
Realistic
Function
Patron
Setting
Corn
Flakes
Make
Really
Funky
PopSicles
Content
Focus
Mood
Realism
Function
Patron
Setting