Cultural Experience of the Early African Artists - Essay Example

Cultural Report Thesis: Comparative essay about the cultural experience of the early African artists I. INTRODUCTION A. Overview. African art is now not only belongs to the parts of North Africa, but it is also attached with other traditional areas. Masks have been duly considered as the important aspects in culture of African art or for the people of Africa. In recent trends, African culture has developed various arts through the use of bronze casting. The African art has greater importance on the uniqueness and thus people can get influenced by the same perform by various African artists. With this concern, Epa festival is regarded as one of the decisive festivals in the African culture (Arterial Network, “Contemporary Arts and Culture Discourse: African Perspectives”). B. Background Information. Epa is recognized as the male deity who was involved in wood carver. The artists of Africa tend to develop various forms of art that encompass traditional art, modern art, western art and historical art among others. The artists of Africa use several materials to prepare several forms of African art. The people of North Africa, mainly the people who are not black, get involved in the art of ancient Egypt (Arterial Network, “Contemporary Arts and Culture Discourse: African Perspectives”). C. Thesis Statement. In relation to the above context, the essay intends to write a critical comparative essay about the cultural experiences of the early African artists with the indication made in one of the provided arts i.e. Epa helmet mask. II. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW A. Epa Helmet Mask. Epa helmet mask is duly considered to be one of the historical arts of Africa, which is much different from other art forms belonging to the nation. In earlier trends, the materials were different that are mainly used for making arts. However, in recent trends, such materials have developed than the earlier times. Based on the existing trends, it can be apparently observed that the artists of Africa use bronze materials to create the African arts. Epa mask has been created from the seventeen empire, which involves the Ekiti region of Yoruba territory. The design of the Epa mask mainly consists of the face of Janus. Therefore, the face of Epa mask bears different types of names such as ‘mother with children’ and children cover me’ among others. The name of Epa Mask has been selected based on the concept of the picture of Epa mask. In previous years, Epa masks mainly focused on the productiveness based on the views of earlier writers. Moreover, during that time, the artists often had to use woods as materials to prepare the art of Epa mask (African Art & Culture, “Epa Mask”). B. African Arts. The African arts are unique, which can influence the people of Africa along with other areas also. The traditional forms of African arts can be mostly found in the museums that include wooden mask, which can be seen in the form of human and creatures also. Specially mentioning, most of the African arts can be decorated with animals’ hairs, stones, pigments and gems among others (African Art & Culture, “Epa Mask”). The following pictorial illustration depicts a few of these arts: Source: (De Young, “The African Art Collection at the De Young Museum”) From the above depicted two pictures or African arts, it can be assessed that in earlier trends, African arts can be made through wooden and stone materials and such arts are found to be different from other arts. The artists of Africa are talented as well as creative therefore, based on the creativity ideas, they can make any form of attractive art. For example, based on their creativity, the traditional African arts can be duly considered as historical ones and thus people can see such form of arts in museum. From the above portrayed African arts, it can be inferred that the culture of Africa depends on the traditional, modern as well as contemporary aspects (De Young, “The African Art Collection at the De Young Museum”). C. Earlier African Arts. Source: (De Young, “The African Art Collection at the De Young Museum”) The picture portrayed above reveals the earlier African art, which is related to Epa helmet mask. From the above depicted art, it can be apparently observed that the art has been made on wooden carved, expressing the culture of Africa. It must be mentioned in this regard that the culture of Africa has been divided into excessive number of ethnic traditions. Based on the ethinic culture, the nation i.e. Africa contains high rituals regarding the craft as well as the arts. In this regard, the African arts as well as crafts invent the appreance in the variability of wood crafts and leather arts also. The african arts also involve painting, ceremoniala and dress among others. The traditional arts of African signify certain themes of the African culture (De Young, “The African Art Collection at the De Young Museum”). III. THE FORMS OF AFRICAN ART A. Culture of African Artists. Africa is regarded as one of the biggest as well as populous continents throughout the globe wherein there lays the presence of several nations including Egypt, South Africa and Mali among others. Thus, there exist different cultural and different categories of people in Africa. Africa can also be recognized as the part of different ethnic culture as compared to others. It is worth mentioning that African arts are mainly based on the contribution made by the artists of Saharan Africa. The artists of Africa mostly focus on the arts of West as well as Central Africa. The arts of West as well as Central Africa are found to be much different from the Saharan African arts based on the differences persisting within their respective culture (Arterial Network, “Contemporary Arts and Culture Discourse: African Perspectives”). B. Traditional Arts of Africa. In relation to the above context, woods are deemed to be one of the essential and primary materials that were used for making the traditional arts of Africa. In West as well as Central Africa, the governmental as well as the social system has developed extensively in recent years as compared to earlier times. For the royal judges, the artists of Africa have created the most beautiful arts. For example, in the earlier trends, the royal art was basically portrayed for the empire of Benin and in the recent trends, the same art is designed for the empire of Nigeria. The royal art was made by mainly with bronze materials that are quite costly within the African culture (Arterial Network, “Contemporary Arts and Culture Discourse: African Perspectives”). C. Different forms of African Arts. The varied forms of African art have been made based on certain objects of culture as well as tradition. Stone, woods and bronze are the major materials that have been utilized for making the Epa mask as well as other African arts. Bronze is found to be costly than other stones as well as wood materials. Therefore, it can be affirmed that the early artists of Africa largely used stones as well as wood materials to make the African arts rather than using bronze (De Young, “Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco”). However, in the recent trends, based on the developments made in the African culture along with art, the artists can be found to use bronze materials. From the earlier trends, the art of Epa mask is deemed to be different from other art forms of Africa. This difference could be measured in the form of prevailing cultural traditions along with norms. The artists have improved their arts based on the development of trends along with changing the thinking patterns of the artists (Arterial Network, “Contemporary Arts and Culture Discourse: African Perspectives”). Initially, the artists select which type of arts that they want to make along with deciding the themes and most vitally the kinds of materials such as bronze or stone materials required to make such arts. Then, they collect the essential materials and based on their creativity ability along with talent, they design or prepare the arts and also express the themes of such arts to the people. The Epa mask gets designed based on the beautiful face of girls wherein there exist several varieties of the same in Africa. Therefore, due to variety of design, the Epa mask art has various names such as ‘mother with children and children cover me’ among others. (Arterial Network, “Contemporary Arts and Culture Discourse: African Perspectives”). IV. EARLY AFRICAN ARTISTS AND AFRICAN CULTURE A. History of African Arts. The African culture is duly considered to be a joined culture, as different culturally based people tend to live together in Africa. Therefore, the artists can get the idea from such diversified cultural people in order to make the new design of African arts. The history of African arts plays the most vital role in the African culture, as this signifies the sculpture structure, which is a part of Nigeria. The culture of Africa can also be defined based on the traditions, dress up and the behaviors of the people of Africa. The culture of East Africa is recognized to be different from that of the culture of West along with Central Africa (De Young, “The African Art Collection at the De Young Museum”). B. Information about African Artists.The people of East Africa are found to be much active in designing mask arts, but the artists of East Africa mainly do not participate in making mask art. The African culture gets vary on making the arts as per the thinking of the people along with their respective behaviors. The thinking of people as well as artists has changed over the years due to the development in trends (Brooklyn Museum, “Collections: Arts of Africa: Epa Mask”). Justifiably, in earlier trends, essential materials were not accessible for making the arts, but now several materials are readily available in the communities to make various designer arts or painting. The artists of Africa also made the arts based on ironic stone. From the earlier trends, the artists of Africa mainly focused on designing mask arts in comparison with other art forms (De Young, “The African Art Collection at the De Young Museum”). C. Mask of African Art. Source: (De Young, “The African Art Collection at the De Young Museum”) The above depicted picture shows the mask art of Africa, which has been made through the mask mould with the help of creative ideas of the artists. While designing this art, the artist initially took into concern the ceramic base and then the design was made based on the concept and the theme of the stated art. The Epa helmet mask is regarded as another form of African art, which differs from other art forms. The artists of Africa has strong influence on Epa mask arts along with the modern arts based on their respective ideas and creativity (De Young, “The African Art Collection at the De Young Museum”). V. CONCLUSION A. Main Points of the Thesis.From the above analysis and discussion, it can be ascertained that african art is famous worldwide, as people easily get influenced by the arts as well as the paintings of Africa. The arists belonging to this particualr region are deemed to be telented and creative. Therefore, several students visit Africa to see the historical along with the traditional arts for making a project based on the African art. Throughout the discussion, it can be apparently observed that the artists of Africa usually get involved into making variety art forms that entail traditional art, historical art, mask art and modern art that are different from one another. In earlier years, the artists of Africa used wooden crafts and stones to make the art design, however, in this preseent day context, they often use bronze materials for producing variety of designer arts. B. Statement of Relevance.Based on the viewpoints of the African artsists, it is to be affirmed wood is reckoned as one of the prime materials for making a variety of art forms. In this similar concern, the provided Epa mask has several names such as ‘mother with children’. The African artists focused on the excellence as well as the productiveness along with the uniqueness of arts so that the people can easily get influenced by the same. Thus, from the standpoint of the cultural experiences of the early African artists, it can be infered that the differences could be reflected on the design of various art forms of Africa such as Epa helmet mask based on the materials used in making the same and also the traditions hold by the African people. Works Cited Arterial Network. Contemporary Arts and Culture Discourse: African Perspectives. 2010. Web. 2 May. 2015. African Art & Culture. Epa Mask. 2014. Web. 2 May 2015. Brooklyn Museum. Collections: Arts of Africa: Epa Mask. 2015. Web. 6 May 2015. De Young. The African Art Collection at the De Young Museum. 2015. Web. 2 May 2015. De Young. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. 2015. Web. 6 May 2015. Read More