From shaping pottery and turning it into beautiful natural household items, to carving wood and rocks and turning them into materials for interior and exterior decoration of modern buildings, a new style of African art prevails that tends more towards addressing issues of reality, ending the era of purely imaginative art that lasted thousands of years.
Researchers in African art say that of the more than 100 art exhibitions held during 2022 in Nairobi, Kampala, Accra and other other capitals, the art of reality was present in more than 90 of them.
Building materials and household appliances factories in Africa take advantage of the designs and works produced by artists to develop modern tools that are not of high aesthetic and artistic value. Rather, this phenomenon has important environmental advantages, as it uses environmentally friendly materials and from natural elements that are safe for human use.
Head of the Department of Fine Arts at Makerere University Uganda, Effie Francis, speaking to Sky News Arabia:
• “African art has witnessed great developments during the last five decades, benefiting from its ancient history that dates back to tens of thousands of years.”
• “The great changes in life and the need to use art for human needs prompted many artists to move towards an artistic product that suits the applications of daily life, by employing natural materials in the production of artistic models and household utensils that suit the African environment.”
• “Increasing environmental concerns have reinforced the trend of artists towards converting natural materials that are abundant on the African continent into environmentally friendly products.
According to Nairobi-based artist Al-Tayeb Daw Al-Bayt, art has always been affected by life changes and was the direct reason behind the emergence of new artistic styles in Africa, and the tendency more towards meeting people’s needs.
Daw Al-Bayt explains to “Sky News Arabia”, that “interacting with the changing requirements and the need to benefit from art in industrial and architectural applications, created a kind of dynamism that made art turn into a lifestyle.”
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