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Changing Face of African Art

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I am often asked if Africans continue to make the objects we see in museums. They do, but Africans, like people everywhere, are constantly changing and adapting to new challenges and developing different strategies for dealing with the unpredictability of life. While many Africans use art to solve the same kinds of problems their ancestors faced, others have adapted to life under colonial governments, to life after independence in 1958-62 and to life in contemporary African cities. Additionally, change continues to be brought about by contact between groups of people, as it has since the beginning of time. Objects like the mask seen here continue to be made in changing forms and colors to deal with the new challenges of life.

Mask, nwantantay

Bwa people, Burkina Faso Wood / H. 250 cm. (98.4") The University of Iowa Museum of Art CMS #516 photo by Ecco Hart

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Changing Face of African Art

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African art is as durable as Africans themselves. It changes to meet new needs. It is more appropriate to define African art as an art driven by change than an art driven by conservatism. If African art serves as a tool for dealing with adversity, then just as a carpenter uses a new tool to deal with a new task, Africans invent new art to solve new problems. The ability of Africans to adapt to new economic, social and political pressures has allowed them to survive, and their art continues to flourish as an expression of their resilience and as a weapon in their struggle. As an example the figure of Mamy Wata carved by Thomas Chukwu in 1972 is an African response to the introduction of capitalism in Africa and to the measure of personal well-being by the accumulation of material goods.

Thoms Chukwu, 1972 Figure of Mamy Wata

Anang Ibibio people, Nigeria Wood, Fiber, Pigment / H. 24" The University of Iowa Museum of Art Collected by Jill Salmons,gift of Prof. Pamela Brink photo by Ecco Hart

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