African painting is painting in African art.
African traditional culture and tribes do not seem to have great interest in two-dimensional representations in favour of sculpture and relief. However, decorative painting in African culture is often abstract and geometrical. Another pictorial manifestation is body painting, and face painting present for example in Maasai and Kĩkũyũ culture in their ceremony rituals. Ceremonial cave painting in certain villages can be found to be still in use. Note that Pablo Picasso and other modern artists were influenced by African sculpture and masks in their varied styles. Contemporary African artists follow western art movements and their paintings have little difference from occidental art works.
Sudanese
The Kingdom of Kush in ancient Nubia (i.e. modern Sudan), bordering Ancient Egypt, produced a wide variety of arts, including wall paintings and painted objects. At the Sudanese site of Kerma, center of the Kerma culture that predated the Kingdom of Kush, a circa 1700 BC fragmentary painting from a royal tomb depicts a sailing ship and houses with ladders that are similar to scenes in reliefs from the reign of Egyptian queen Hatshepsut (c. 1479–1458 BC).Hatke, George (2013). Aksum and Nubia: Warfare, Commerce, and Political Fictions in Ancient Northeast Africa. New York University Libraries: Ancient World Digital Library. Accessed 12 May 2018.Boivin, N. and Fuller, D. Q. (2009). "Shell Middens, Ships, and Seeds: Exploring Coastal Subsistence, Maritime Trade and the Dispersal of Domesticates in and Around the Arabian Peninsula." Journal of World Prehistory 22: 113–80 [p. 140]. The ancient tradition of wall paintings, first described by Abu Salih during the 12th century AD, continued into the period of medieval Nubia.Nadig, Peter C. (3 April 2009) [16 January 2003]. "Derek A. Welsby, The Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia. Pagans, Christians and Muslims along the Middle Nile. London: The British Museum Press, 2002." Bryn Mawr Classical Review. Accessed 12 May 2018.
Ethiopian
The Christian tradition of painting in Ethiopia dates back to the 4th century AD, during the ancient Kingdom of Aksum. During their exile to Axum, the 7th-century followers of Muhammad described paintings decorating the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion. However, the earliest surviving examples of church paintings in Ethiopia come from the church of Debre Selam Mikael in the Tigray Region, dated to the 11th century AD. Ethiopian paintings in illuminated manuscripts predate the earliest surviving church paintings. For instance, the Ethiopian Garima Gospels of the 4th-6th centuries AD contain illuminated scenes imitating the contemporary Byzantine illuminated style.
Influence on Western art
At the start of the 20th century, artists like Picasso, Matisse, Paul Gauguin and Modigliani became aware of, and were inspired by, African art.Murrell, Denise. "African Influences in Modern Art", The Metropolitan Museum of Art, April 2008. Retrieved on 31 January 2013. In a situation where the established avant garde was straining against the constraints imposed by serving the world of appearances, African Art demonstrated the power of supremely well organised forms; produced not only by responding to the faculty of sight, but also and often primarily, the faculty of imagination, emotion and mystical and religious experience. These artists saw in African art a formal perfection and sophistication unified with phenomenal expressive power.Johnson, Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon and the Theater of the Absurd. 102–113Richardson, J. Picasso's Apocalyptic Whorehouse. 40–47Release: Tête – Amedeo Modigliani . Press Release, Christie's Paris. 26 May 2010. Accessed 20 October 2011.Matisse may have purchased this piece from Emile Heymenn's shop of non-western artworks in Paris, see PabloPicasso.org. References