African art ( part 1)

African art exists since prehistoric times. The discovery of African art (by European people) started in the XV century when the Portuguese navigators travelled into Africa. The navigators wanted to convert African people to Christianity and at this time, they considered African art as fetish. Therefore a lot of African art has disappeared during this period.
Then, during the colonialism period, as the European colonizer considered African population as being a primitive population, therefore they did not show any interest for African art.
It is only in the XX century that African art is really started to be appreciated from European population. For instance, in 1905, Maurice de Vlamnick ( a French painter) bought a pair of statues in a bar and then, Picasso, Matisse and other famous painters started to collect African art. It greatly impacted some of their masterpieces.
It is also important to mention that in many occasion art production is related to ritual or tribal ceremonies.For instance a mask carver creating a traditional mask can be considered as an artist but the mask is not created for decorative purpose. It is created for a ceremony or a ritual. In Africa, most of the time, the art created is not owned by the artist but it is the expression of an ethnic group, people,divinity using the craftman skills. African art reflects the history, philosophy, religion,myths, belief, culture of the vast continent.
You can discover some great and unique African art by visiting: http://www.myafrikart.com