African Art Chronology Part 1.

African Art Chronology Part 1.

(adapted from Encyclopedia Britanica)
African art constitutes one of the most diverse legacies on earth. Though many casual observers tend to generalize "traditional" African art, the continent is full of peoples, societies, and civilizations, each with a unique visual special culture. The definition also includes the art of the African Diasporas, such as the art of African Americans. Despite this diversity, there are some unifying artistic themes when considering the totality of the visual culture from the continent of Africa. Knowledge of the history of visual arts in Africa is very fragmentary. The earliest-known sculptures are the pottery heads and figures of the Nok culture of Nigeria (500 BC to AD 200). This also provides the earliest evidence for ironworking in sub-Saharan Africa, where the Iron Age directly follows the Stone Ages. The earliest evidence for the use of copper and its alloys comes from the Igbo village of Igbo-Ukwu, also in Nigeria, where sites of the 9th century AD have revealed cast bronze regalia among other works of art. These bear no relationship in style either to the famous brass castings of the Yoruba city of Ife (11th-15th century) or to those of Benin (15th-19th century), both in Nigeria. Other examples of antique pottery sculpture include the heads from Lydenburg in South Africa dated to about AD 500. Sculptures in stone are known from Sierra Leone, probably the work of Sherbro carvers and datable to no later than the 16th century, and from the Kongo peoples of the area near the mouth of the Congo river. In the 16th century, ivory was being carved with extraordinary skill at Benin and by the Sherbro of Sierra Leone. The earliest-known sculptures in wood may be certain portrait statues of kings of the Kuba, central Zaire, thought to date from the 17th century. Some of the finest sculptures in wood date, however, only from the 1920s: for example, the works of Yoruba masters such as Olowe of Ise (d. 1939) and Areogun of Osi-Ilorin (c. 1880-1954). The earliest-known textiles in sub-Saharan Africa are the bast fibre fragments from Igbo-Ukwu (9th century AD) and the cotton and woolen cloths found in the Tellem caves of the Bandiagara region of Mali (11th century and earlier). None of these artistic manifestations represents a beginning of any kind: each appears as fully developed in style.