In sub-Saharan Africa, sculpture is made and used for particular, practical purposes. In many instances it is used to mark events or stages of life, like fertility, birth, transition, death. For example, among the Yoruba in Nigeria, Ibeji twin-figurines (from ibi=first born and eji=two) are produced at the birth of someone's twins (a common occurance in this ethnic group). Among the Ashante in Ghana fertility figurines are carved, the Akuaba doll (akua=born on Wednesday and ba=child), to be worn by a young female in order to ensure her fertility. Ikenga figures embody protective spirits for worldly success and to protect the house-hold. Ancestor figures remind the people of those gone. Other carvings are used for initiation and coming-of-age rituals, for harvest festivals and celebrations, for funeral occasions.
As sculptures in African society had a practical purpose, they were made for these occasions only, i.e. on commission from a patron. The client and the artisan would discuss the purpose of the work and agree a price before the sculptor set to work. The client would then rely on the artist to produce a familiar form in a familiar style. For him only the object would be important, not the carver. As most sculptures in Africa have a limited life span due to the climate (humidity, dampness, heat) and insect attack (woodworms, termites), carvings had to be replaced frequently. Nevertheless, "the artist is not a passive copyist, even though one of his major responsibilities is to replace destroyed works" (from African Art in the Cycle of Life, by Roy Sieber & Roslyn Adele Walker, 1887:20). In fact, in this way he represented his generation's link with the past. In other words, "each sculpture had its particular reason for being among the people that supported it" (ibid:17).
Each culture developed its own sculptural style, which thus had a limited geographical distribution. Hence, in terms of style, most Africans would have known little of what was produced at any distance from their home areas. African patrons of sculptures make no evaluation of quality. To them all carvings associated with their culture are good and beautiful because they are accepted and consecrated in the codes of their cultures. A carver is expected to produce a sculpture in the style, size, colour and material expected of him by his clientele. Skill rather than creativity is the ability to create recognizable, acceptable variations of a shared stylistic, formal and aesthetic norm (ibid:14). Talent in a carver was recognised and if a piece was particularly well made was limited to use as an object associated with high status. Such carvers ended up working exclusively for Royal households, chiefs and the priviledged.
African sculptures only became “Art” in the Western sense of the word in the late 19th /early 20th century when artists and critics in Europe discovered it for themselves, e.g. Modigliani, Picasso, Brancusi and the expressionists. They applied it to their own work as a means of introducing new forms to break away from the established, traditional European styles, regarded by then as aesthetically bankrupt. “Studied for its formal impact on Western Art, no attempt was made, however, to discern the role, meaning or aesthetics from the point of view of the African producers” (ibid:14). As a result, only parts of the original forms have frequently been preserved, e.g. a mask without its costume, leave alone all the other associations like music, dance, drama, myths and beliefs that surround the carving. The sculptures that survive in Western collections are, therefore, often but a small part of the full object for which they were originally made, e.g. the Chi-Warra head dresses.
The issue, however, has not always been quite as clear cut. From the 16th century onwards when Europeans first made trading contacts with West Africa, carvers and sculptors already produced work for some
traders, and later as of the 19th century, wooden carvings were sold to explorers and colonial officials who began to collect them. High-quality ivory carvings and bronzes, for example, were produced for Portuguese
traders in 16th century Benin. 19th century acquisitions, now in Western collections, had their provenance recorded as proof. Therefore, African sculptors, it seems, produced figurines on commission for all
kinds of clients, as long as the produced work was of a style and quality that both agreed upon.
C.B.Steiner writes in his book African Art In Transit that: “In the course of this fascinating trans-cultural journey, African art acquires different meanings. It means one thing to the rural villagers who create
and still use
it in ritual and performance, another to the Muslim traders who barter and resell it, and something else to the buyers and collectors in the West who purchase it for investment and display it in their homes”.
Occasionally there is a shortcut. Susan Vogel shows a photo of a Baule carver at work with the subtitle: “ Zehue Koffi Nestor carving a small mask for sale [directly] to Muslim traders” (African Art Western Eyes
p.286), thus cutting out the rural consumer.
One could therefore argue that today’s African carvings for the tourist trade might be seen in a similar light, even though they are not strictly on commission for an end-user (if one discounts the itinerant trader).
They could thus be regarded as a continuation of a long tradition, especially in view of the constantly decreasing local market. Furthermore, one should not forget that some carvers have always produced the
occasional figurine and mask for stock. Producing art on commission was also a common method in Europe during the Middle Ages. The works of famous icons of the western art world, paintings as well as
sculptures were produced in workshops on commission for the Church, or for wealthy merchants and the privileged.
The other day I heard on the news that the American sculptor Jeff Koons has a staff of 150 helpers who make his sculptures for him - under his guidance, of course. So, one does not have to go back to the Middle Ages to encounter the system. And as the prices for his works are usually in the six figure bracket, it is obvious that his output is also reserved for the wealthy and priviledged.
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