Male
Head Nok, Nigeria, c. second century AD Terra cotta Purchased with funds
from the Marriner S. Eccles Foundation for the Marriner S. Eccles
Masterworks Collection, Acc. 1995.024.001Sculpture
Sculpture is generally considered Africa's greatest achievement in the visual arts, but, although sculpture is found in many parts of Africa, this medium of expression occurs with the greatest frequency in western and central Africa. The majority of sculptures are of wood, but objects are also made in metal, stone, terra-cotta, mud, beadwork, ivory and other materials. The terra-cotta sculptures associated with the Nok culture represent the earliest known sculpture yet found in sub-Saharan Africa and seems to have paved the way for the tradition of superb portrait terra cottas and bronzes that later developed at the holy city of Ife in western Nigeria.
In addition to masks examples of sculpture include figural representations such as power figures and the statues of ancestors and kings as well as objects of daily use such as cups and boxes.
Nok Culture
Nigeria is part of the Central Sudanic Stylistic Region. Nigeria is
unusual in that its modern-day inhabitants either settled there very early
in its history or adapted to the long established traditions they found
there. The first objects connected to the early Nok culture were
discovered on the site of a tin mine. They were identified as Nok by the
archaeologist Bernard Fagg in 1943. Radiocarbon dating has place the
original pieces to between 500 BC and AD 200. Terra-cotta sculptures from
c.600 BC to AD 200, associated with the Nok culture, have been unearthed
over a 300-mile stretch of uplands in the southern part of the region. The
Nok tradition represents the earliest known sculpture yet found in
sub-Saharan Africa and seems to have paved the way for the tradition of
superb portrait terra-cottas and bronzes that later developed at the holy
city of Ife in western Nigeria. The art of Ife in turn inspired and
stimulated the later Benin and Yoruba artforms.
The pieces of sculpture associated with the Nok culture seem to represent
a mature, developed style. They show none of the traces of tentativeness
usually associated with a beginning phase of an artistic tradition but
rather a stylistic unity characteristic of an established one.
The styles to be found in the art of the Nok swings between an almost
abstract stylization to that of a more naturalistic mode. This head
exhibit naturalism but in a minimal fashion. It is the earliest example in
Africa of human figural sculpture on a scale approaching life-size. From
the nature of their breaks near the neck many of the head seem to have
been part of or destined to be part of a body. Looking to later cultures
such as the Benin where naturalistic modeled bronze heads were part of
royal ancestral altars it could be hypothesized that these heads might
have been part of the art objects connected with royalty and the worship
of the ancestors. s of now there is insufficient evidence to do more than
hypothesize from later cultures that developed in Nigeria.
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