Arts of Africa

The sculpture of sub-Saharan Africa was made to act in the world: to honour ancestors, empower rulers, heal, judge and entertain in masquerade. The terracottas of Nok, the cast heads of Ife and the brass plaques of the Benin kingdom are court art of great technical sophistication, while wooden figures and masks from the Dogon, Fang, Baule, Kongo and many other peoples balance abstraction and naturalism in forms of striking clarity. In the early twentieth century they transformed the course of European modern art.