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| The ] of ] (], ] and ], also including parts of ], ] and ]) are responsible for one of the finest artistic traditions in Africa, a tradition that remains vital and influential today.<ref name=Drewal>{{cite book |last1=Drewal |first1=Henry John |last2=Pemberton III |first2=John |last3=Abiodun |first3=Rowland |editor-last=Wardwell |editor-first=Allen |title=Yoruba : nine centuries of African art and thought|year=1989|publisher=Center for African Art in Association with H.N. Abrams|location=New York|isbn=0-8109-1794-7}}</ref> | The ] of ] (], ] and ], also including parts of ], ] and ]) are responsible for one of the finest artistic traditions in Africa, a tradition that remains vital and influential today.<ref name=Drewal>{{cite book |last1=Drewal |first1=Henry John |last2=Pemberton III |first2=John |last3=Abiodun |first3=Rowland |editor-last=Wardwell |editor-first=Allen |title=Yoruba : nine centuries of African art and thought|year=1989|publisher=Center for African Art in Association with H.N. Abrams|location=New York|isbn=0-8109-1794-7}}</ref> | ||
| Much of the art of the Yoruba, including staffs, court dress, and beadwork for crowns, is associated with the royal courts. The courts also commissioned numerous architectural objects such as veranda posts, gates, and doors that are embellished with carvings. Other Yoruba art is related shrines and masking traditions. The Yoruba worship a large pantheon of deities, and shrines dedicated to these gods are adorned with carvings and house and array of altar figures and other ritual paraphernalia. Masking traditions vary regionally, and a wide range of mask types are employed in various festivals and celebrations.<ref name="Brooklyn Museum">{{cite book|last1=Adande |first1=Joseph |last2=Siegmann |first2=William C. |last3=Dumouchelle |first3=Kevin D. |title=African art a century at the Brooklyn Museum|year= |
Much of the art of the Yoruba, including staffs, court dress, and beadwork for crowns, is associated with the royal courts. The courts also commissioned numerous architectural objects such as veranda posts, gates, and doors that are embellished with carvings. Other Yoruba art is related shrines and masking traditions. The Yoruba worship a large pantheon of deities, and shrines dedicated to these gods are adorned with carvings and house and array of altar figures and other ritual paraphernalia. Masking traditions vary regionally, and a wide range of mask types are employed in various festivals and celebrations.<ref name="Brooklyn Museum">{{cite book|last1=Adande |first1=Joseph |last2=Siegmann |first2=William C. |last3=Dumouchelle |first3=Kevin D. |title=African art a century at the Brooklyn Museum|year= | ||
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| ==History== | |||
| Abundant natural resources enabled the Yoruba to develop one of the most complex cultures in sub-Saharan Africa. By the beginning of the second millennium CE, ], their most sacred city, had become a major urban center with highly sophisticated religious, social, and political institutions.<ref name=Clarke>{{cite book|last=Clarke|first=essay by Babatunde Lawal ; exhibition co-curated by Carol Thompson, Christa|title=Embodying the sacred in Yoruba art : featuring the Bernard and Patricia Wagner Collection|year=2007|publisher=High Museum of Art|location=Atlanta, Ga.|isbn=1-932543-20-1}}</ref> | |||
| In the period around 1300 C.E. the artists at ] developed a refined and naturalistic ] tradition in ], ] and copper alloy - ], ], and ] many of which appear to have been created under the patronage of King Obalufon II, the man who today is identified as the Yoruba patron deity of brass casting, weaving and regalia. <ref name="Blier Art and Risk">{{cite book|last=Blier|first=Suzanne Preston|title=Art and Risk in Ancient Yoruba: Ife History, Politics, and Identity c. 1300|date=2015| publisher=Cambridge University Press|ISBN=978-1107021662}}</ref> The dynasty of kings at ], which regarded the Yoruba as the place of origin of human civilization, remains intact to this day. | |||
| There have been a series of Yoruba kingdoms over the past nine centuries. Ife was one of the earliest of these; ] was also early and the Owa kingdom in the southwest maintained close ties to Oyo. Ife also experienced the artistic and cultural influence of ] dating back to the 14th Century or earlier. Owa artists supplied fine ivory work to the court at Benin and Owa royalty adapted and transformed many Benin institutions and the regalia of leadership. | |||
| Yoruba kingdoms prospered until the ] and warfare of the nineteenth century took their toll. One of the effects of this devastation was the dispersal of millions of Yoruba all over the world. This resulted in a strong Yoruba character in the artistic, religious and social lives of Africans in the New World.<ref name=Drewal /> | |||
| ==Art and life in Yoruba culture== | |||
| The custom of art and artists among the Yoruba is deeply rooted in the ] literary corpus, indicating the ]s Ogun, Obatala, Oshun and Obalufon as central to creation mythology including artistry (i.e. the art of humanity). | |||
| In order to fully understand the centrality of art (onà) in Yoruba thought, one must be aware of their cosmology, which traces the origin of existence (ìwà) to a Supreme Divinity called ], the generator of ], the enabling power that sustains and transforms the universe. To the Yoruba, art began when Olódùmarè commissioned the artist deity ] to mold the first human image from clay. Today, it is customary for the Yoruba to wish pregnant women good luck with the greeting: ''May Obatala fashion for us a good work of art''.<ref name=Clarke /> | |||
| The concept of '']'' influences how many of the Yoruba arts are composed. In the visual arts, a design may be segmented or seriate- a "discontinuous aggregate in which the units of the whole are discrete and share equal value with the other units."<ref name="Drewal 1987">{{cite journal|last=Drewal|first=M. T., and H. J. Drewal|title=Composing Time and Space in Yoruba Art|journal=Word and Image: A Journal of Verbal/Visual Enquiry|year=1987|volume=3|issue=3|pages=225–251|doi=10.1080/02666286.1987.10435383}}</ref> Such elements can be seen in Ifa trays and bowls, veranda posts, carved doors, and ancestral masks. | |||
| ==The importance of the head in Yoruba sculpture== | |||
| The Yoruba people regard the human head (ori) as the most important part of a person. Likewise, the head is the most prominent part of Yoruba sculpture. An analysis of Yoruba ontology reveals that the Yoruba regard the head as the locus of the ] of ]. Therefore, the head constitutes a person's life-source and controlling personality and destiny. Babatunde Lawal identifies three different modes of representing the head in Yoruba sculpture: "the naturalistic, which refers to the external, or physical head (ori ode); the stylized, which hints at the inner, or spiritual, head (ori inu); and the abstract, which symbolizes the primeval material (oke ipori) of which the inner head was made."<ref name="Lawal Ori">{{cite journal|last=Lawal|first=Babatunde|title=Ori: The Significance of the Head in Yoruba Sculpture|journal=Journal of Anthropological Research|date=Spring 1985|volume=41|issue=1|pages=91–103 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/3630272 |accessdate=27 March 2013}}</ref> | |||
| ==Anonymity and authorship in African art== | |||
| The issue of anonymity and authorship has long troubled the field of African art history, particularly as it relates to the political disparities between Africa and the West.<ref name=Picton>{{cite book|last=Picton|first=John|title=The Yoruba artist : new theoretical perspectives on African arts ; |year=1994|publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press|location=Washington |isbn=1560983396|authorlink=Art, Identity and Identification: A Commentary on Yoruba Art Historical Studies|editor=Rowland Abiọdun, Henry J. Drewal, and John Pemberton III}}</ref> Such information was, at least initially, rarely sought in the field and deemed unnecessary and even undesirable by many collectors.<ref name="Brooklyn Museum" /> Susan Vogel has identified a further paradox. "n their own societies," Vogel writes, "African artists are known and even famous, but their names are rarely preserved in connection with specific works... More often than not, the African sculptor becomes virtually irrelevant to the life of the art object once his work is complete... Cultures preserve the information they value."<ref name=Vogel>{{cite journal|last=Vogel|first=Susan Mullin|title=Known Artists by Anonymous Works|journal=African Arts|date=Spring 1999|volume=32|issue= 1|pages=40, 42, 50|doi=10.2307/3337537}}</ref> | |||
| The problem of anonymity in Yoruba art in particular is troubling in the context of Yoruba culture where "it is absolutely imperative for individuals to acknowledge each other's identity and presence from moment to moment, there is a special greeting for every occasion and each time of day."<ref name="Abiọdun">{{cite book|last=Abiọdun|first=Rowland|title=The Yoruba artist : new theoretical perspectives on African arts ; |year=1994|publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press|location=Washington|isbn=1560983396|authorlink=An African(?) Art History: Promising Theoretical Approaches in Yoruba Art Studies|editor=Rowland Abiọdun, Henry J. Drewal and John Pemberton III}}</ref> | |||
| Several Yoruba artists' names are known, including but not limited to: | |||
| *Bangboshe of Osi Ilorin | |||
| *Areogun of Osi | |||
| *Bandele of Osi | |||
| *Lamidi Fakeye | |||
| *] | |||
| ==Metal arts== | |||
| Yoruban blacksmiths create sculpture from iron, through hand-beating, welding, and casting. ] is honored as the god of iron.<ref name=smith> ''Cutting to the Essence – Shaping for the Fire.'' 29 March 1995 (retrieved 15 Nov 2011)</ref> | |||
| Metalworkers also create brass sculptures by ]. Brass is seen as being incorruptible by the ] Society.<ref name=smith/> | |||
| <gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="4"> | |||
| File:Ife sculpture Inv.A96-1-4.jpg|] head, ], probably 12–14th centuries | |||
| File:Ife Kings Head.jpg|] currently in the ]. | |||
| File:Africa Ife Head 1 Kimbell.jpg | |||
| File:Afrikaabteilung in Ethnological Museum Berlin 29.JPG|Sculpture of a 'Queen Mother' from Benin. | |||
| File:Edo ivory mask 18472.jpg|16th century ivory mask from Benin | |||
| File:Benin kingdom Louvre A97-4-1.jpg|One of the ], 16th-18th century, Nigeria. | |||
| File:Female figure from Oke Onigbin, Shango Shrine.jpg|Female figure from ], ] shrine. | |||
Revision as of 10:05, 6 January 2016
The Yoruba of West Africa (Benin, Nigeria and Togo, also including parts of Ghana, Cameroon and Sierra Leone) are responsible for one of the finest artistic traditions in Africa, a tradition that remains vital and influential today.
Much of the art of the Yoruba, including staffs, court dress, and beadwork for crowns, is associated with the royal courts. The courts also commissioned numerous architectural objects such as veranda posts, gates, and doors that are embellished with carvings. Other Yoruba art is related shrines and masking traditions. The Yoruba worship a large pantheon of deities, and shrines dedicated to these gods are adorned with carvings and house and array of altar figures and other ritual paraphernalia. Masking traditions vary regionally, and a wide range of mask types are employed in various festivals and celebrations.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).
Alarinjo
There is also a vibrant form of customary theatre known as Alarinjo that has its roots in the medieval period and that has given much to the contemporary Nigerian film industry.
Esiẹ Museum
Esiẹ Museum is a museum in Esiẹ, Irepodun, Kwara state. The museum was the first to be established in Nigeria when it opened in 1945. The museum once housed over one thousand tombstone figures or images representing human beings. It is reputed to have the largest collection of soapstone images in the world. In modern times the Esie museum has been the center of religious activities and hosts a festival in the month of April every year.
References
- Drewal, Henry John; Pemberton III, John; Abiodun, Rowland (1989). Wardwell, Allen (ed.). Yoruba : nine centuries of African art and thought. New York: Center for African Art in Association with H.N. Abrams. ISBN 0-8109-1794-7.
- "Esie Museum". All Africa. Retrieved 1 February 2013.
External links
- Emodying the Sacred in Yoruba Art, Newark Museum
- Nigerian Traditional Arts, Crafts and Architecture
- Yoruban and Akan Art in Wood and Metal, Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences
- For spirits and kings: African art from the Paul and Ruth Tishman collection, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Yoruba art