Non-Western Art Native America, Africa, and Oceania

Machu Picchu was probably the estate of Inka emperor pachacati. Large upright stones echo the contours of sacred peaks. Precisely placed windows and doors facilitated astronomical observations.

La Venta, Mexico, Olmec, ca. 900-400 BCE. Basalt, 9’4” high. Museo-parque La. Venta, Villahermosa. The identities for the olemc colossi are uncertain, but their individualized features and distinctive headgear as well as later Maya practice suggest that these heads portray rulers rather than deities.

Olmec, La Venta, Mexico, ca 900-400 BCE Jadeite, 11 ½ in old english “were” means man analogy like the were-wolf.

Pyramid of the moon (foreground) pyramid of the sun (center left), and the ciudadela (top left), At its peak around 600 CE, Teotihuacan was the 50-250 CE World’s sixth largest city. It featured a grid plan, a 2-mile-long main avenue, and monumental pyramids echoing the shapes of nearby mountains.

Ball courts were common in Mesoamerican cities. Copan’s is 93 feet long. The rules of the ball game itself are unknown, but games sometimes ended in human sacrifice of captives taken in battle. Middle plaza, Copan, Honduras, Maya, 738 CE. (looking northeast)

From Jaina Island, Mexico, Maya, 700-900 CE. Painted clay, 6 1/4” high. Maya ceramic figurines represent a wide range of human types and activities. This kneeling ball player wears a thick leather belt and arm-and knee-pads to protect him from the hard rubber ball.

Bonampak, Mexico, Maya, ca. 790 CE. Mural 17’X15’; copy by Heather Hurst at onehalf scale. The figures in this mural probably stand on a pyramid’s steps. At the top, the richly attired chan Muwan, accompanied by his wife and other nobles, reviews naked captives with mutilated hands awaiting death

Lintel of Structure 23, Mexico, Maya, 723-726 CE. Limestone, 3’7”X 2’ 6 1/2”. The carved lintels of this eighth-century Temple document the centeral role that elite women played in Maya society. Lady Xoc pierces her tongue in a bloodletting ritual intended to induce a visionary state.

Pyramid B, Tula, Mexico, Totlec, ca. 900-1180 CE. Stone, each 16’ high. Little is known about the Tiltecs, but they left behind these colossal stone statue-columns atop a pyramid-temple at Tula. The atlantids portray warriors or rulers armed with darts and spear throwers.

From northeastern Colombia, Tairona, after 1000 CE. Tumbaga, 5 1/4 “ high. The peoples of central America and the northern Andes of south America were expert of goldsmiths. This pendant with an immense ornate headdress.

Chavin, from the main temple, chavin de Huantar, Peru, ca 800-200 BCE. Incised Green diurite, 6’ high. Instituto Nacional de culture, Lima, Peru. The Raimondi Stele staff god wears a headdress of faces and snakes. Viewed upside down, the god’s face becomes two faces. The ability of gods to transform themselves is a core aspect of Andean religion.

Plain-Weave camelid fiber with stem-stitch embroidery of camelid wool, 4’7 7/8” x 7’ 10 7/8” Paracas weavers created elaborate mantles to wrap around the bodies of the dead. The flying or floating figure repeated endlessly on this mantle is probably the deceased or a religious practitioner.

Painted Ceramic, 5 1/2” high. The Nasca were masters of pttery painting. The painter of this bridge-spouted vessel depicted two crowned and bejeweled flying figures, probably ritual impersonators with trophy heads.

The earth drawings known as Nasca lines represent birds, fish, plants and geometric forms. They may have marked pilgrimage routes leading to religious shrines, but their function is uncertain.

The gateway of the Sun probably led into a sacred area. The central figure is a version of the chavin staff god. Originally painted the relief was also in laid with turquoise and covered with gold.

Ivory, greatest width 9 1/2”. Carved out of walrus ivory, this mark consists of nine parts that can be combined to produce several faces, both human and animal, echoing the transformation theme common in ancient American art.

Mississippian, Ohio, ca 1070 CE, 1200 long, 20 wide, 5’ high is one of these. It is a twisted earthwork on a bluff overlooking a creek in Ohio. It is a quarter mile long. The Mississippians constructed effigy mounds in the form of animals and birds. This mound seems to depict a serpent. Some scholars, however, think that it replicates the path of Halley’s Comet in 1066.

Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, Ancestral Puebloan, ca. 1150-1300 CE. Cliff Palace, Wedged into a sheltered ledge to heat the pueblo in winter and shade it during the hot summer months, contains about 200 stone-and-timber rooms plastered inside and out with Adobe.

Rock painting, Algeria, ca. 6000 to 4000 BCE. This Rock painting depicts a woman running. She is wearing body paint that was applied for a ritual. Her face is featureless which is a common trait in early African art. Some scholars believe she is actually a Horned deity instead of a human wearing ceremonial headgear.

From Rafin Kura, Nigeria, terracotta, 1’2 3/16” high ca 500 CE. A fragment that was originally a full figure. Fragments of other nearby sculptures indicated that sculptors created standing, seated, and kneeling figures. The heads are disproportionately large compared to their bodies. The faces are expressive with alert eyes, flaring nostrils and parted lips. The pierced eyes, mouth and ears are characteristic of Nok sculpture, that probably helped release the pressure during the firing process. The eyebrows and hair are incised. Most ceramists in Africa are women, Nok sculpture may have been created by women as well.

From Lydenburg, South Africa, ca 500 CE Terracotta, 1’2 15/16” high. Life size, found buried in a pit with six other heads. Humanlike form-inverted pot shaped the eyes, ears, nose, mouth and hairline were created by adding clay onto the head

From Igo-Ukwu, Nigeria, 9th-10th century CE. Copper-bronze-alloy bronze, figure 6 3/26” high. The earliest found lost wax cast found in Africa. Features seated figure on horse type animal, possibly a donkey. Handle elaborately embellished with beaded and threadlike patterns. The rider’s head is an exaggerated size. The prominent facial stripes are probably to symbolize a titled status. This fly-whisk was used to extend the reach of the leader and magnify his gestures. Leader’s art objects were made by the best artists, very durable and expensive to adorn themselves. Their regalia often was made with ivory, beads and other costly metals.

Zinc Brass, 1’6 1/2” The head is disproportionately large. The head is representative of wisdom, destiny, and essence of being. The man portrayed here is considered a sacred ruler. Costume, crown, and jewelry are also included. The sculpture contrasts dramatically from most African sculpture because of it’s classical characteristics. Africans have long believed that Ife life is the cradle of the Yoruba civilization. The place where their Gods Oduduwa and Obatala created the earth and their people. Their mythology states that their first ruler was Oduduwa and all Yoruba Kings are descendants of Oduduwa.

Djenne, Mali. Built in the 13th century, rebuilt in 1906-07 after a fire that occurred in 1830. Made of Adobe and Wood. Built in Middle Eastern Traditon with a large courtyard and a roofed prayer hall. The facade has a large Adboe Towers and vertical Buttresses, unlike the Middle Eastern Mosques. The vertical Buttresses resembling engaged columns that produce a majestic rhythm. Protruding wooden beams surround the complex serving in a practical way for workers to stand on as they recoat the sacred clay annually.

Lalibela, Ethiopia (ca 1220) 13th century. Christianity arrived in present day Ethiopia in the 4th century. At a much later date Lalibela, a Zagwe ruler, commissioned 11 churches to be cut from the bedrock at his capital. The church was cut in the form of a Greek Cross. A cross was sculpted in relief on the roof. The interior consists of a carved dome and frescos.

Walls and Tower, Great enclosure, Zimbabwe 14th century. Believed to be part of the royal residence. Surrounded by 30 foot high stone walls and conical towers. There were special areas for his wives, nobles, and an open court for ceremonial gatherings. At the height of the empire, as many as 18,000 people lived in this area. Commoners lived on the outside of the structure, the royals on the inside. The conical structures could have been grain bins, a symbol of royal power and generosity. The ruler would collect the grain from his people and distribute the grain at times of need.

From Great Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe, 15th century. Soapstone, bird 1’2 1/2” high. Considered part of an ancestral shrine of the ruler’s first wife. Bird at top may symbolize the ruler’s wife’s first ancestors. (Zimbabwe ancestral spirits are thought to take the form of a bird, especially eagles, believed to communicate between the sky and the earth. The crocodile may represent the wife’s elder male ancestors. The eyes of the crocodile may represent the wife’s female ancestors. The single and double chevrons may represent young female and male ancestors. Other researchers believe the crocodile and bird may represent previous rulers who are messengers between the living and the dead, the sky and earth.

From Benin, Nigeria, ca. 1520. Ivory and iron, 9 3/8” high. (Oba Esigie 1504-1550) wore it on his belt. The king’s mother (Idia) was said to of helped her son with warfare. In return, he gave his mother the name “Queen Mother” and built her a separate palace and court. The pendant is remarkable for it’s naturalism. Most likely represents Idia. On it’s crown are alternating Portugese heads and mud-fish. Giving recognitition to the diplomatic relations with Portuguese and to “Olokun,” god of the sea, wealth and creativity.

Fang, Gabon, late 19th century. Wood, 1’8 3/8” high. This was designed to sit on the edge of a cylindrical bark box of ancestral bones, ensuring no harm would come to the ancestral spirits. The wood figure is symmetrical, with a proportionately large head, suggesting power. This body resembles an infant but has the muscularity of an adult. Scholars believe that the sculptor chose this composition to reflect on the cycle of life.

From the palace of King Glele Republic of Benin (1858-1859) Iron 5’5’ high. Commissioned by the King, a prisoner of war was the creator. King Glele commissioned this artist to make a life size metal statue of a warrior. It is probably of the war God Gu for a battle shrine in Glele’s palace at Abomey, Benin. This “bocio” or empowerment figure, was the centerpiece of a circle of iron swords and other weapons set vertically in the ground. The warrior is striding forward with weapons in his hands. He wears a crown of miniature weapons. The form of the crown echoes the swords and weapons around where this statue was placed.

Yoruba, Nigeria, (1920s) Wood and Pigment 14’6” high. Olowe carved this in 1920 for the house of Chief Elefoshan of Akure. To gain more height, Olowe stacked the equestrian weapon carrying warrior atop a platform supported on the heads and up stretched arms of four attending figures, two men and two women with over sized heads. The bodies are elongated. The King wears a warrior’s tunic. The post dates to a time that the Europeans were colonizing among the Yoruba people. One of the figures wears an European style billed cap.

(1980-1990) A composite creature, combining characteristics of antelope, crocodile, warthog, hyena, and human; Sweeping horns, a head and an open jawed snout with sharp teeth. These masks incarnate ancestors and bush powers that combat witchcraft and sorcery, malevolent spirits, and wandering dead. They also attend at funerals and the coming of age for boys.

South Africa, 1992, Mixed Media, 3’7 5/6 “x 3’ 7 5/6” This artist helped protest against the apartheid (government-sponsored racial separation) and celebrated its demise and the democratic election of Nelson Mandela in 1994. This piece is a tribute to Steve Biko, the gentle and heoric leader of the South African Black liberation movement whom the authorities killed while he was in detention. The exoneration of the two white doctors in charge of him sparked protests around the world. Willie Bester filled his artwork with pictures and references to death and injustice. Biko’s picture is in the center, an image of the police minister James Kruger, is to the viewer’s right.

From New Ireland, New Guinea, 19th-20th Century, Wood, Fiber, shell, lime, feathers, 1’5 1/2”. This mask is worn to represent the spirits of specific deceased people. Made of soft wood, vegetable fiber, and rattan. The crested hair was a common style of men. The eyes are made from a sea snail. These masks are commonly colored black, yellow, white and red. Colors they associated with war, magic, and violence. These masks are reused.

Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Polynesia, 10th to 12th century, Volcanic tuff and red scoria. Monumental sculpture as much as 40 feet tall. They stand on stone platforms marking burial or sacred sites used for religious ceremonies. Most are huge, blocky figures with planar facial features-large staring eyes, strong jaws, straight noses, and elongated ears. Small red scoria cylinders serve as a hat on their heads. Scholars believe that these figures are ancestral chiefs that mediate with gods between the natural and cosmic world. Archaeologists have documented over 900 moai. Each weighing up to 100 tons. According to one scholar it would of taken 30 men a year to sculpt the monolith. 90 men two months to move one, and 90 men three months to position it on the platform vertically.

Most ball courts were adjacent to many important civic structures of mesoamerican cities, such as palaces and dates back to 3400 years ago (1500 BCE), the date of the earliest ball Court. Latex grew in the Aztec area providing a resource to make a ball. Researchers are not actually humans were sacrificied, maybe victims of many conquered people.

A bronze-casting method in which a figure is modeled in wax and covered with clay; the whole is fired, melting away the wax and hardening the clay, which then becomes a mold for the molten metal.

Missippians, constructed-mounds built in the form of animals of birds.

The art of masquerade, in which performers, almost always men, dance after donning masks, has long been a quintessential African expressive form, laden with meaning and of the highest importance culturally. Societies empowered maskers to levy fines and to apprehend witches (usually defined as socially destructive people) and criminals, and to judge and punish them. Today masks are less threatening Mask dancers usually and more secular and educational and serve as diversions from the humdrum of daily life. Mask dancers usually embody either ancestors, seen as briefly returning to the human realm, or various nature spirits called on for their special powers.

19th or early 20th century wood, with copper and iron, and brass. The Kota believed that the gleaming surfaces repel evil. This image has a simplified head and flattened hairstyle. Geometric designs embellish the hair, headpiece, headband, neck, and body. The brass or copper must have been traded from Europe. The lower portion of the images was inserted into a basket or box of ancestral relics. Kalabari Ijaw Peolple lived by the river in present day Nigeria.

Marks and Scars intentionally created to form patterns on the flesh-forehead, temples, and between the eyes. Horizontal neck bands, resemble ringed or banded necks that are considered beautiful in many parts of the continent. An unidentifiable animal is perched on top of the head.