Africa is well known for its art and craft works, most of these arts works are found in the form of sculptures, fabric work, decorative items, musical instruments like drums, and paintings. Most of the statues will be carved in the form of humans, which represents great leaders. They make their art work in such a way that each and every piece of art reveals their tradition and culture. Normally Africans DO NOT show affection to each other, they make their art work which resembles their culture.
The statues of animals in African art are included with human figures, to further give praise to the person being honored. For example, a horse is considered a very noble animal, and including one in a sculpture of a man or woman means that person is being held in very high regard. Most contemporary statues are made of either stone or carved of wood.
You can find many evidences which prove that African arts were found as early as 500BC, with carved rocks in Sahara and sculptures in Nigeria. People even used metals like bronze to carve statues, and they even used Ivory and terracotta to make their art look even richer. And these rich arts were reserved for royalties. People used these arts and craft works to decorate their houses. People wore hand made fabrics with full of artistic works, which reveals the wearer as a part of that art piece. They even used wall paintings to fill their houses with traditional art.
Most of the African arts and crafts resemble its tradition and culture. Each and every art piece resembles the daily life and culture of African peoples. And today those arts can be found in museums, one good example is African masks. African people used masks on some occasional days or on some regional ceremonies, and even in wars and also on the day of harvesting.
They design the masks according to their county or tribe, each design has its own kind of pattern and style. For example the Dan people of Ivory Coast and Liberia carve their masks with features such as wide fore head, flattened nose, full lips, and the strands of rope attached at the top of masks to make it look like hairs. The people of Congo in Punu make their masks with wood and paint it in white color, which resembles rich women. And they use these masks to scare off evil spirits and witches.
African baskets are another art which was made in old African tradition. There are some particular places in Africa where baskets are famous, like Esths and Gumare tribes. In those day's the basketry were usually carried over the head, as the culture grew, two ropes were tied on each side of basket and they were carried in hands and named as handbags. As a result many unique and rich varieties of hand bags were made with some appealing arts on it. They even used materials such as mud cloth and suede to make bags. Even today African arts and crafts are in a great demand among people as they are very magnificent.
Herman Wheeler had focused mostly on psychology and spirituality, but he had been a long time collector of African Art and Crafts. So he started the website www.theafricanartwheel.com to share his passion on African arts with other people. Visit Theafticanartwheel.com and decorate your home with the miracle and wonder of original hand-made African Arts and Crafts.
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