Art and Design A comprehensive guide for creative artists - Aaltodoc

Architecture
A basic example of the earliest architectural belongings
of African art, were caves and the remains of the ancient
Egyptian tomb pyramids. They are the burial places of dead
kings. Inside a pyramid, the body of a dead king was buried
in the company of statues and everything that he would
need in the afterlife. They also decorated the tombs with
scenes of life recounting their adventures and for magical
rituals “to ensure that it becomes imbued within the spirit of
the dead.” (Willett 1971, 112)
Generally, African architecture and art is legendarily
executed from a diversity of disintegrative materials such as
rammed earth, thatch, sticks/wood, mud or mud bricks, stone
and clay. As an example, the architectural structure of the
Ganda tombs for kings at Kasubi near Kampala in Uganda
are built with mud walls, the roof is thatched with grass
and the enclosing fence is woven with reeds. Inside, the big
tomb or hut, the interior is adorned with royal regalia of
spears, decorative mats, bark cloth, animal skins and furniture.
The reed works of the interior are put up to represent the “52
clans of Baganda.” Kyeyune (2003, 45) adds.
Eventually, as a way of accounting for the main points of
this study, African art is a very broad area of study. In this
subsection, our analysis has been built with several generalisations
which do not cover everything. It is difficult to say
if they cover even most of the African societies, but these
generalisations are kind of typical features of African art in
the African societies.
That is to say, it is a statistical model that does not resemble
any specific African society in reality and not as much as
may be required is availed in every expressions of this
subject matter about African art. As a creative artist select
what is influential to the impending discussion and do
further analysis from the books, which have been listed in
the reference section.
Elements of African aesthetics
Ability and skill are some of the values of African art and
aesthetics. “The term African aesthetics often intersects
words like beauty and goodness ... the Baule peoples of
Côte d'Ivoire and others have discerned among the Lega
and Songye of the Congo and the Igbo, Edo and Ibibio of
Nigeria, among others.” (Vogel, 1986)
As a further matter, Vogel (1986), obtained individual
analysis—but not in the same way as Willett (1971) on
aspects of African aesthetics in the following ways:
Resemblance
Luminosity
Self-composed
Youthfulness
Clarity of forms
and detail
African artists glorify carved figures; they
believe that such figures look like human
beings. They almost depict actual people,
animals, or the actual forms. According to
Willett (1971, 212), it is “jijora, the moderate
resemblance of the subject.”
African figural sculptures are often
embellished with luminous decorated
surfaces, or they are combined with scaring
patterns to denote beauty of their healthy
skin. Willett (1971, 213) explains, “luminosity,
or smoothness of a surface as didon.” Rough
and deformed parts were considered ugly
and morally invalid.
African artists connect composed behaviour
of persons in a rational way. They regard
such people as controlled, proud, majestic,
dignified and cool. Willett (1971, 213)
argues, “coolness or composure is tutu in
sculpture—a quality which is sought in
human behaviour too.”
Implies strength, productiveness,
toughness, fertility and ability to work.
Yet, Illness and deformity are infrequently
portrayed—for the reason that, they are evil
signs. Willett (1971, 213) names it “Odo, where
by, the subject is represented in the prime
of life.”
Intricacy as well as composition, balance
and symmetry, smoothness of finish. Willett
(1971, 211, 213) briefly explains clarity of forms
and detail as “ifarahon, visibility.” Certainly,
“a sculptor will often carve spontaneously,
inspired by a beautiful face, but without
attempting to simply represent what they
have seen.”
By regarding Willett's (1971, 208) survey about aesthetics
in African sculpture—“artists and art critics cultivate their
awareness of artistic values in a way not shared by large
sections of the community.” For that matter, elements of
African aesthetics link value to the artworks we produce, by
virtue of physical perfection, moral excellence, social order
and some domains of our social activities.
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