Arts of Africa

The African continent has remarkable diversity in topographical features and ecology: three enormous rivers – Nile, Niger, and Congo – with countless tributaries; large, dense forests and hilly grasslands; huge deserts; and snow-capped mountains. Social and political systems, equally varied, range from great empires to small villages: large kingdoms and city-states, small chieftaincies, and nomadic bands of hunters or semi-nomadic herders. Thus there are many different Africas, and consequently, great diversity in the arts and their histories. Art forms date from 27,000 BCE to yesterday, with countless interactions among native Africans themselves over time; with Muslims, beginning around 1000 CE; and with Europeans, beginning in the late 15th century.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.