British Museum: African Art

I had the time and the privileged to go to the British Museum. I know, I know not really wow, but it's one of those places in London that are freely available for all yet so few of us attend. I went along with my friend (aka nerd: sorry i cannot mention names) who took me to see the African cultural art section as well as others. Overall it was amazing for the simple reason that I came to the conclusion that African art has so much cultural and metaphorically depth and meaning. Many of the artifacts on display weren't pieces of art by itself, barring a few more contemporary pieces, but a depiction of how people actually lived. The range and diversity of art, particularly intrigued me from the simplicity of it's shapes to the intrinsic of it's patterns.

My guide, opened my eyes to the different styles of art in Africa and how each represent its own  region in a number of different ways, from the very colors used to the shape and style of it. For the first time I realized that there is so much to African art. The art that we know today represented a cultural way of doing things, that consolidated various ways and traditions.

These people working in glass, in brass, in copper, in terra cotta, were absolutely masters of their trade and again this confounds some people's ideas of Africa - people who have ideas of primitivism and primitive art and so on... But these were people, at the same time as the great Renaissance drawings of Europe, who were producing art of comparable if not greater quality. African art is profound and more than a series of simple shapes that portray the simpleness of Africa, but a collective of cultural artifacts that tell a story.

Ife is regarded by the Yoruba people today as the creator of mankind, the place where the world was created...So works from Ife have taken on an iconic status, which so many in the African continent do. In a nut shell, the British Museum is a place everyone who is series about understanding heritage on a more meaningful way should go.