African Art 1

   Chinua Achebe, in his book MORNING YET ON CREATION DAY (New York:  Anchor Press? Double Day, 1975), P.29. stated that "Art is, and was always, in the service of man. Our ancestors created their myths and legends and told their stories for human purposes; they made their sculptures in Wood and Terra-cotta, Stone and Bronze to serve the needs of their times! Their artists lived and had their being in society and created their works for the good of the society".
   By virtue of our thoughts and imagination, great works of Art have always been produced. Under the control of artists, images are reflections of the society and the the artists opinion and thoughts
   In the not too distant past, folklore and traditional African Art have been intergrated into every day life, functioning as indicators for social, political, religious and economic beliefs and concerns, interweaving the philosopical and spiritual frame work of tradition and culture.
   African Art has exhibited a continuity which has survived till date, though conditions are varying in present day Africa;- materials, theme/subject matter , patronage etc- the works of  African artists reflect the past. they belong to the same artistic continuum in African Art which treat  forms as symbols or aggregation
symbols and relate forms to metaphysics.
   African Art is interwoven with every day life in ways very different from Western Art. Religious beliefs and cultural ideals find artistic expression not only in ancestral figures, fetish objects, ritual/worship objects and masks, which are created primarily for ceremonial or ritual purposes; but also as practical/personal objects for day to day existence.
   These Art objects gives the people a sense of order to the diversity and complexity of day to day life. There's no where else in that the interplay between Art and personal objects is more prevalent than in African society - which may be responsible for the fact that Art is taken for granted in African societies.