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 The
manifold artworks and their intense artistic design are all the more surprising,
in view of the paucity of material possessions in African societies. Besides
masks and figures in various forms and sizes, there are numerous ritual
and secular objects that carry human or animal figural ornamentation,
such as house posts, doors, ceremonial staffs, musical instruments, spoons
and others.
Well into the colonial period, woodcarvers in Africa worked almost exclusively
for indigenous clients. Only in later times were these craftsmen obliged
to produce for the tourist trade, which inevitably led to a degeneration
of older styles in African art.
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Human head
Ife, Nigeria
12th-15th century
acquired from Leo Frobenius, 1913
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