ART AS LIFE
The conception of african art is different from the occidental one in so far as it is intrinsic in ordinary life: art, politics, education, religion, work and entertainment are correlate and art unify every element of the cultural background and all the members of the community.  The artist is at the service of the traditional ideology and his duty is to represent the values of the society in the objects he creates.
Finally african art gives a symbolic vision of reality rather than a representative one: its aim is to express concepts more than define precisely their nature. For this reason it is highly stylized and proportions are distorted. Art is a complex of symbols accesible to every person of the group. belongig to the group.

SCULPTURE

THE SACRED
Sculpture has a preeminent part in the religious rituals, where statues and masks are the vehicles through which spirits and naturals forces are made visible (disclosed) to/for men. Actually the spirit is not embodied in the material object: there's not divine worship for them, but only respect and awe (veneration).
 

ART AND SOCIAL CONTROL Sculpture can represent authority: regal symbols, such as the leopard, the buffalo or the elephant, indicates power,strength and courage.

MASKS

Masks are the means through which spirits made their will known to the population. Often masks are auxiliar to the teaching: in fact they show the ideas and the values that the teacher/wizard wants to transmit.
Especially, masks are important in funeral cerimonies and rites of passage.

FETISHES
Fetishes are little wooden statues, portraits of the ancestors, with a cruel expression on their faces, pierced by dozens of nogs. They are used to throw the evil eye on the enemies (" the more nails stab my body, the more disgraces I will cause to my adversaries"). The first portuguese explorators gave the name "fetico", bewitched thing , to these tools.
 

 

maschere gèlèdè della Nigeria e Benin