Not many people realize this but the great beauty of African art is that it’s not simply something you place in your room or throughout your house to give it a better look but it’s also something that has an enticing history that will always leave room for conversation.
Not many people realize this but the great beauty of African art is that it’s not simply something you place in your room or throughout your house to give it a better look but it’s also something that has an enticing history that will always leave room for conversation.
Whether we may want to accept it or not there is a big difference between a decorating object that is simply there and one which tells a story of his own, leaving it’s mark not only on the room it’s in but also on the people that take their time to explore its wonders. Works of art of African design are exactly the kind of a decorating object that will certainly get us and our guests thinking, developing new ideas about what was and what could have been, simply by exploring the great symbolism that lies engraved, sculpted or painted. If the symbols could speak they would tell a tale of each of the tribes that enjoyed the simple things in life whilst fearing and appraising gods and mythical creatures. A tale of the world that man has fought to keep at bay, a land barely fit to live in with wild animals and enemy tribes that wait for the moment in which they can strip the life out of the son of man.
The most popular works of art of African design are the masks and, to some extent, the jewelry. It’s not hard to tell why masks are appreciated so much, given the fact that they are complex representations of humans, animals and even mythical creatures. They myth behind the masks is that whomever wears them becomes possessed by the spirits of the masks, granting them either communion with the departed ancestors or glimpses of the future. Even though we may think that masks are objects of art we should not be surprised to find out that the use of masks is still a regular custom in some of the tribes of contemporary Africa.
Some of the most sought after objects of African design remain the luscious pieces of jewelry which range from the most simple and yet highly appealing to the most complex that can make even some of the objects of jewelry we use seem pale in comparison. What is so great about the African art and especially the jewelry is the number of materials used to create them. While for most of the sculptures the materials used was wood, ceramic or carved out stone like the famous Shona sculptures, objects of jewelry can be made from such materials as Tiger's eye stone, haematite, sisal, coconut shell, beads and ebony wood. These are, of course, the original materials which were used by the local tribes to create these items. Modern african artists and artisans can use other various materials.
The fact is that until not very long ago these seemingly works of art were not created simply to be displayed such as ordinary art. Each object that we now consider African art was actually created for a specific purpose either utilitarian, religious, symbolic or celebratory. We can only imagine the many gods, spirits, ceremony dances and other rituals for which these works of art of African design were used.
Browsing various works of art of African design http://karibu-store.com/index-en.php can be a good alternative to common objects of decoration. African art http://karibu-store.com/index-en.php is now available for anyone.