Art In African Museum

African Art in Museums

Africa is known for its larger cultural diversity and has many different types of beauty and art (one in the same). From the aesthetics view, African ideals of visual art are very different from the ideals in Europe and America. Most African artists have designed both ritual and everyday objects to be pleasing to the eye, colorful, and using many different designs. An example of art like this is the Male Chi Wara antelope headdress. If you were viewing this piece from a museum you would only think, “that’s a nice hat”, but you would never guess that it takes a huge part in African dance and expressing ones self. In our textbook its states that dance is a major part of Africa culture. In Africa, people dance at funerals, wedding, and many other occasions. In these dances their clothing and headdresses usually symbolizes the significance of that person’s role in the ceremony. Like all artists they chose materials, displaying the skill of sculpting, and molding and in return they create forms that interest the viewer with color, shapes, and movements. …show more content…
When some people visit art museums they may only glance at the pieces and never learn anything about them or what their purpose was. From a different perspective though, some African pieces can be self-explanatory such as tools or masks, but one may still not learn the significance the piece. Another example of why African art cannot be as appreciated in most art museums is the “Head from Jemaa. Nigeria, Nok.” Nobody would know or appreciate the importance of this piece just by looking at it and realize that they were major parts in funerals. They may not realize that the piece is actually just a part of a while body. They may not realize that all terracotta Nok pieces are unique and hand