Aafrika kunstide suursugususest

Abstract

There are thousands of tribes in Africa, but not all of them have created statues or other objects of art that can be regarded as the creative masterpieces of their handicraftsmen. Eastern and Southern Africa are more passive in their creative expression than Western and Central Africa, which have given the majority of the rich and beautiful legacy of sculptural art. African idols have always been created only by settled tribes. Aesthetics never exists there without the force of the sacred. An African regards a work of art positively as long as it corresponds to the need of the person who ordered it and who wishes to contact the ancestors by means of a mediator. A sculptor - often also a village blacksmith - is, depending on the tradition and situation, hated, feared or admired among his close relatives. In 2003 I introduced the art of the Baule and Lobi in my collection in Rakvere, Estonia. The aesthetics of the Baule was one of the first to capture the attention of the Western world already in the early 20th century, whereas the Lobi art was discovered only recently. The Estonian National Museum holds valuable Mangbetu and Bembe objects, given to the museum by the Solomentsev brothers already before the World War II. These items have been collected in the areas of the present Democratic Republic of the Congo