Tribal Art
In such ways, Tribal styles often pass beyond the boundaries of a tribe, thus ceasing to fulfill their original conservative social mission. However, it has been established that despite the genetic connection between African art and tribal society, that art did not become extinct because it crossed the boundaries of the tribe or because the community left behind the tribal stage of development. Like all great art, African art has proved capable of surviving independently of the social organization which gave birth to it and the functions it originally performed. This fact may even provide the answer to the frequently discussed question of the future of African art in an age of continuing de-tribalization and developing nation-states. There is nothing in the makeup of African art to prevent its further development. Its present degeneration caused by the death of some social institutions which were the source of its traditional themes and by the commercialization resulting from foreign demand may prove to be a transitory phenomenon.
Like tribal art in general, African art is usually described as being of anonymous authorship. It was perhaps this designation that led to a long standing lack of interest in its creators, the African artist. One reason for this was that the first collectors of African art, in the 19th century, did not think of what they were collecting as art, let alone recognize the superiority of its masterpieces to the academic European art of their own time. In so far as their interest went beyond souvenir hunting, it was directed towards the religious or cultic significance of these objects rather than their aesthetic quality. Such an attitude resulted from their 'primitive' appearance, and perhaps also from the fact that these first collectors seldom came into direct contact with African artists. Wood carvings and other works of art were often acquired by Europeans by chance and indirectly - through the mediation of coastal tribes, sometimes as spoils or, later on, from traveling Muslim merchants who had neither religious nor aesthetic sympathy with these works.
This situation changed only slowly. From the 19th century onwards, scholars and travelers did record various remarks about African works of art; but these remarks were either too fragmentary of too generalized and superficial to be very useful. It is only since the 1930's that attention has been systematically paid to the creators of African art, the development of which has become the subject of specialized research. We still do not know the position of artists and their conditions of work in all African tribes, and we shall probably never know them in places where this work has ended; but African art has at least ceased to be a mysterious art form and in many cases has shed its anonymity
Like tribal art in general, African art is usually described as being of anonymous authorship. It was perhaps this designation that led to a long standing lack of interest in its creators, the African artist. One reason for this was that the first collectors of African art, in the 19th century, did not think of what they were collecting as art, let alone recognize the superiority of its masterpieces to the academic European art of their own time. In so far as their interest went beyond souvenir hunting, it was directed towards the religious or cultic significance of these objects rather than their aesthetic quality. Such an attitude resulted from their 'primitive' appearance, and perhaps also from the fact that these first collectors seldom came into direct contact with African artists. Wood carvings and other works of art were often acquired by Europeans by chance and indirectly - through the mediation of coastal tribes, sometimes as spoils or, later on, from traveling Muslim merchants who had neither religious nor aesthetic sympathy with these works.
This situation changed only slowly. From the 19th century onwards, scholars and travelers did record various remarks about African works of art; but these remarks were either too fragmentary of too generalized and superficial to be very useful. It is only since the 1930's that attention has been systematically paid to the creators of African art, the development of which has become the subject of specialized research. We still do not know the position of artists and their conditions of work in all African tribes, and we shall probably never know them in places where this work has ended; but African art has at least ceased to be a mysterious art form and in many cases has shed its anonymity
