African wooden carved sculptures

Ethnic African Ebony Bust Sculpture

ETHNIC AFRICAN WOOD SCULPTURES

   African art stretches both geographically from the Saharan area to the lower part of Africa at South Africa encompassing most of the continent. It generally stretches in Africa as from below sub Saharan

      Wood Carvings and whittled wood art  here are for reasons not just for arts and crafts sake but for reasons ranging from living usage to deep cultural and spiritual, to ritualistic events and  initiation times.

These wooden carvings and sculptures range from tokens, sculptured forms to are in the form for furniture, utility applications, or ceremonial such as coming of age or funereal or even communing with the ancestors and spirit world.

       A great deal of this wooden art is to do with whittling and wood carving of objects and sculptures. In fact the most part of African art throughout the ages is to do with that of carved wooden sculptures. Regionally speaking this is identified into four roughly speaking

East African

       This area is not as well known generally, but probably for its unique wooden pole carvings which contain animal or human figures and objects. These are subject wise about death or funeral matters and are ritualistic in nature. In Kenya warriors are carved by the Masai who are themselves warriors. There are also whittle and carve family figures such as mother and child depicted

West African

      West African carvings are around an ideal of peace and serenity so the face figures are depicted thus in the wooden carvings. The figures have elongated bodies incorporating angular lines with cylindrical shaped limbs.        Modern Cubist artists such as Picasso have been influenced by this type of art. Also Matisse in his paintings.

Central African

      These wooden sculptures differ from the other regions in that the faces are heart shaped and decorated with decoration of dot patterns over the surface. This influence has been seen to reappear in Western art forms

In Cameroon the Fang people have carved garden figures representing ancestors which stand upright. This is to evoke respect and often communion to the ancestors. They are left behind when the group migrates onward.

Southern African

             Generally this area has not been so rich in whittling and wooden carving due to the low populated areas and the migratory nature of the people. Carvings were confined to that of utility for in and around the home and for weaponry such as spears, clubs, bows and ornamentation.

Of late in contemporary times this not the case and Southern Africa has become an area of huge diversification drawn from all the cultures of Africa and richly added to. The markets and Craft fairs are bulging with a massive range of whittled and wooden carving too many to name. The volumes traded are huge