9.Art as Nonverbal Communication
Like language and social organization, art is essential to man. As embellishment and as creation of objects beyond requirements of the most basic needs of living, art has accompanied man since prehistoric times. Because of its almost unfailing consistency as an element of many societies, art may be a response to some biological or psychological need. Indeed, it is one of the most constant forms of human behavior.American art is functional. Its function is its purpose, whether it is economic, magical, or religious. There is, though, some of art for its own sake such as in the embellishment of pulleys used in weaving. The carving on the pulley may not take for a stronger pulley (a metal hook would be cheaper and stronger), but when asked why another king wasn’t used, the weaver answered, “One does not want to live without pretty things.”
African art is a way of experiencing the world. All its forms, whether masks, sculpture, houses, fabrics, pottery, poetry, music, or dance, render the invisible and reveal the meaning of the confrontation between life and death (it was Paul Klee, influenced by African art, who said that the task of art was to make the invisible visible.)
The African artist works from the force to the form that embodies it. Until the twentieth century, European artists, inspired by Greek traditions, started from a concrete form, usually that of the human figure, to express the divine. The African artist, however, begins with a sense of a spiritual presence inside him, which he then expresses through art, in a concrete form.
The African artist works from the force to the form that embodies it. Until the twentieth century, European artists, inspired by Greek traditions, started from a concrete form, usually that of the human figure, to express the divine. The African artist, however, begins with a sense of a spiritual presence inside him, which he then express through art, in a concrete form.
The African artist is not considered an artist. He may be a farmer who carves or a smith who is endowed with magical powers. The responsibility for understanding the operation of forces issuing from the divine power, and of controlling them in a meaningful way, lies in the medicine man or priest. It is the priest who communicates the need for a certain form to the carver if it is to have some spiritual endowment. (That is why carvers don’t see anything wrong in copying another carver’s work. Copying is just another form of flattery.)
The African conception of art is a communal conception as compared with European individualistic expression. To the African, community existed prior to the individual, and the individual is just a small part of a long tradition. The sense of unity extends to nature and to the earth—earth belongs to ancestors.
Secret societies, supporting the medicine man, maintain standards of behavior by special initiation tests, rituals for many occasions, oaths of secrecy, and the like. They supervise morality, uphold tribal traditions, and dispense justice. They set standards for art forms from birth through puberty, marriage, and death. Masks, sculptures in the form of ancestor figure, fetish, and ritual implements (rattles and drums) conform to these traditions. Fetishes are objects endowed with magical powers for a special purpose and are usually crudely fashioned by the medicine man.
African art gives form to the supernatural and invisible. Its abstract imagery does not even attempt to imitate concrete appearances. How does one represent the power and virtue of an ancestor or the rhythm of an animal concretely? From this emerge a rhythmic unity and a reduction of every formal element to its eternal geometry.
African art is one that is in equilibrium with nature and forms a communication with nature. To the African, sculpture can be a receptacle of the ancestor’s spirituality and has the ability to transmit that spirituality when necessary. Its message or meaning becomes its presence.
African art is closer to life than the art of other countries. Its art forms are within every man’s reach. They are a necessity, an integral force, and a part of living. As functional forms, they invite direct participation in their uses. This is the vitality of American art.
In summary, African art explains the past, describes values and a way of life, helps man relate to supernatural forces, mediates his social relations, expresses emotions, and enhances man’s present life as an embellishment denoting pride or status as well as providing entertainment (such as with dance and music).
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