Masks can be found amongst almost all cultures around the globe. Search by artist or object, browse highlighted themes or exhibitions inside our collection, or create your individual record to share. Wrought-iron sculptures are found in various traditions, largely in West Africa, including the Dogon , Bambara , Fon , and Yoruba peoples.

The Ivorian folks use masks to signify animals in caricature to depict deities, or to symbolize the souls of the departed. The Ekpo society makes use of black masks, typically of naturalistic look and with movable jaws, to keep up social order and propitiate the ancestors; some of these masks characterize illness and deformity.

James M. Osborn, and in 2004 with the present of the collection of practically 600 African objects from Charles B. Benenson, B.A. 1933. African art, the visual arts of native Africa, significantly sub-Saharan Africa, together with such media as sculpture, painting, pottery, rock art , textiles, masks, private ornament, and jewelry.

Nonetheless, he’s more and more known for earlier wooden works, incorporating parts of Igbo art and other African symbols and scripts. One effectively-known Luba substyle has been called the lengthy-face type” of Buli It contrasts strongly with the roundness of different Luba figures.

The northern and southern components of Nigeria might be thought of a part of the western Sudan and Guinea Coast, respectively; but, because of the wealth of proof for an inventive tradition of some 2,000 years, it is convenient to contemplate Nigeria separately.