Makonde Art
The name Makonde art refers to East African sculptures or, less frequently, to modern paintings created by craftspeople or artists belonging to the Makonde people of northern Mozambique and southern Tanzania, separated by the Ruvuma river. Art historians, dealers and collectors have created this genre of African art, that can be subdivided into African traditional artifacts or modern artistic works. This genre can be traced back to the 1930s, when the first documented exhibition of Makonde art was held at the ''Centro Cultural dos Novos'' in Mozambique. Traditional and contemporary styles Makonde art can be subdivided into different styles. Traditionally, the Makonde have carved secular household objects, ritual figures and masks. After the 1930s, Portuguese colonizers and other missionaries arrived at the Mueda plateau in Northern Mozambique. They showed great interest and fascination for the Makonde wood carvings and began to order different pieces, from religious to politic ...
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African Sculpture
Most African sculpture was historically in wood and other organic materials that have not survived from earlier than at most a few centuries ago; older pottery figures are found from a number of areas. Traditional African masks, Masks are important elements in the art of many peoples, along with human figures, often highly stylized. There is a vast variety of styles, often varying within the same context of origin depending on the use of the object, but wide regional trends are apparent; sculpture is most common among "groups of settled cultivators in the areas drained by the Niger and Congo rivers" in West Africa. Direct images of List of African mythological figures, African deities are relatively infrequent, but masks in particular are or were often made for Traditional African religions, traditional African religious ceremonies; today many are made for tourists as "airport art". African masks were an influence on European Modernism, Modernist art, which was inspired by their ...
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Contemporary African Art
Contemporary African art is commonly understood to be art made by artists in Africa and the African diaspora in the post-independence era. However, there are about as many understandings of contemporary African art as there are curators, scholars and artists working in that field. All three terms of this "wide-reaching non-category ic are problematic in themselves: What exactly is "contemporary", what makes art "African", and when are we talking about art and not any other kind of creative expression? Western scholars and curators have made numerous attempts at defining contemporary African art since the 1990s and early 2000s and proposed a range of categories and genres. They triggered heated debates and controversies, especially on the foundations of postcolonial critique. Recent trends indicate a far more relaxed engagement with definitions and identity ascriptions. The global presence and entanglement of Africa and its contemporary artists have become a widely acknowledged f ...
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Smithsonian Libraries And Archives
Smithsonian Libraries and Archives is an institutional archives and library system comprising 21 branch libraries serving the various Smithsonian Institution museums and research centers. The Libraries and Archives serve Smithsonian Institution staff as well as the scholarly community and general public with information and reference support. Its collections number nearly 3 million volumes including 50,000 rare books and manuscripts. The Libraries' collections focus primarily on science, art, history and culture, and museology. The archives include materials documenting the history of the 19 museums and galleries, the National Zoological Park, 9 research facilities, and the people of the Smithsonian. The Smithsonian Libraries and Archives is dedicated to advancing scientific and cultural understanding as well as preserving American heritage. The organization's Book Conservation Lab and other preservation efforts work to ensure long-term access to library and archival resources. ...
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Google Arts & Culture
Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world. It utilizes high-resolution image technology that enables the viewer to tour partner organization collections and galleries and explore the artworks' physical and contextual information. The platform includes advanced search capabilities and educational tools. A part of the images are used within Wikimedia and Wikipedia. Collections in Wikimedia The following list of collections is based on the Wikimedia category Google Art Project works by collection. The "Visit" link redirects to the museum's official page on the Google Arts & Culture platform. See alscollections in Google Arts & Culture The "Assigned works" link redirects to the images of the works shown in this collection available in Wikimedia. Painters in Wikimedia The following alphabetically ordered list of painters ...
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Culture Of Tanzania
Following Tanganyika's independence (1961) and unification with Zanzibar (1964), leading to the formation of the state of Tanzania, President Julius Nyerere emphasised a need to construct a national identity for the citizens of the new country. To achieve this, Nyerere provided what has been regarded by some commentators as one of the most successful cases of ethnic repression and identity transformation in Africa. With over 130 ethnic groups and local languages spoken, Tanzania is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in Africa. Despite this, ethnic divisions have remained rare in Tanzania, especially when compared to the rest of the continent. Natural history The territory of Tanzania is home to some of the world's important archaeological excavations and their scientific interpretation: Olduvai Gorge The Olduvai Gorge is one of the most important paleoanthropological localities in the world; the many sites exposed by the gorge have proven invaluable in further ...
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Makonde Chess Set
Makonde chess sets are made by the Makonde tribe of south-west Tanzania and Mozambique who have for centuries been greatly skilled in wood carving and Makonde art is a distinctive style. Chess sets were originally made for export to Europe but the pattern of the pieces follows traditional Makonde designs rather than any established chess pattern. History The European market for Makonde art developed from the 1930s through Portuguese colonization. Chess sets were first exported by Norman Kirk, a New Zealander who owned a lime and cashew nut plantation in Tanzania (then Tanganyika). Kirk had been impressed by the work of the Makonde artist Likenikeni Sabini after visiting his workshop at Ndanda mission in the 1950s. After this visit he began buying and exporting Makonde art to Europe. Kirk enticed Sabini to come and work for him at his plantation where Sabini trained other carvers for Kirk. At some point Kirk initiated production of chess sets and the product became popul ...
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African Blackwood
''Dalbergia melanoxylon'' (African blackwood, grenadilla, or mpingo) is a flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to seasonally dry regions of Africa from Senegal east to Eritrea and south to the north-eastern parts of South Africa. The tree is an important timber species in its native areas; it is used in the manufacture of musical instruments and fine furniture. Populations and genomic resources for genetic biodiversity maintenance in parts of its native range are threatened by overharvesting due to poor or absent conservation planning and by the species' low germination rates. It is a small tree, reaching 4–15 m tall, with grey bark and spiny shoots. The leaves are deciduous in the dry season, alternate, 6–22 cm long, pinnately compound, with 6–9 alternately arranged leaflets. The flowers are white and produced in dense clusters. The fruit is a pod 3–7 cm long, containing one to two seeds. Uses The dense, lustrous wood ranges in colour from redd ...
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Realism (arts)
Realism in the arts is generally the attempt to represent subject matter truthfully, without artificiality and avoiding speculative and supernatural elements. The term is often used interchangeably with naturalism, although these terms are not synonymous. Naturalism, as an idea relating to visual representation in Western art, seeks to depict objects with the least possible amount of distortion and is tied to the development of linear perspective and illusionism in Renaissance Europe. Realism, while predicated upon naturalistic representation and a departure from the idealization of earlier academic art, often refers to a specific art historical movement that originated in France in the aftermath of the French Revolution of 1848. With artists like Gustave Courbet capitalizing on the mundane, ugly or sordid, realism was motivated by the renewed interest in the common man and the rise of leftist politics. The Realist painters rejected Romanticism, which had come to dominate Fre ...
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Makonde Carving 1
Makonde may refer to: * Makonde people, an ethnic group from East Africa * Makonde art, the art of the Makonde people * Makonde language, the language spoken by the Makonde people * Makonde (District), a district of the Mashonaland West province of Zimbabwe * Makonde Plateau, a plateau in the Mtwara Region of Tanzania. The adjacent Mueda Plateau The Mueda Plateau, also known as the Maconde Plateau, is a plateau in Cabo Delgado Province of northeastern Mozambique. Geography The Mueda Plateau lies between the Ruvuma River on the north, which forms the border with Tanzania, and the Messal ...

Makonde Sculpture Shetani 01
Makonde may refer to: * Makonde people, an ethnic group from East Africa * Makonde art, the art of the Makonde people * Makonde language, the language spoken by the Makonde people * Makonde (District), a district of the Mashonaland West province of Zimbabwe * Makonde Plateau, a plateau in the Mtwara Region of Tanzania. The adjacent Mueda Plateau The Mueda Plateau, also known as the Maconde Plateau, is a plateau in Cabo Delgado Province of northeastern Mozambique. Geography The Mueda Plateau lies between the Ruvuma River on the north, which forms the border with Tanzania, and the Messal ...

Ujamaa
Ujamaa ( in Swahili) was a socialist ideology that formed the basis of Julius Nyerere's social and economic development policies in Tanzania after it gained independence from Britain in 1961. More broadly, ujamaa may mean "cooperative economics", in the sense of "local people cooperating with each other to provide for the essentials of living", or "to build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together". Ideology and practice In 1967, President Nyerere published his development blueprint, the '' Arusha Declaration,'' in which he pointed out the need for an African model of development and that formed the basis of ujamaa as policy. The Swahili word ''ujamaa'' means 'extended family', 'brotherhood'; it asserts that a person becomes a person ''through the people'' or community. The spirit of 'others' or 'community' bringing units of families together, and fostering cohesion, love, and service. Nyerere used Ujamaa as the basis for a n ...
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Makonde Sculpture Ujamaa
Makonde may refer to: * Makonde people, an ethnic group from East Africa * Makonde art, the art of the Makonde people * Makonde language, the language spoken by the Makonde people * Makonde (District), a district of the Mashonaland West province of Zimbabwe * Makonde Plateau, a plateau in the Mtwara Region of Tanzania. The adjacent Mueda Plateau The Mueda Plateau, also known as the Maconde Plateau, is a plateau in Cabo Delgado Province of northeastern Mozambique. Geography The Mueda Plateau lies between the Ruvuma River on the north, which forms the border with Tanzania, and the Messal ...