African History | Sturdevant Gallery

African Boabab Tree

Early European interpretations-a land without people?

The depiction of African landscape and its fauna has a huge history. From cave paintings, mankinds oldest continuously practiced art form, to modern day oil paintings that still search, experiment, and feel their way toward new avenues in the vibrant global art market. From elegant oil paintings of human figures, animals of rich tones and subtle hints of architecture that blend so calmly with this dramatic landscapes, still inspire admiration for the quality and sophistication.

The art of painting was brought to Africa by white European explorers who chartered their way across the vast territory of Africa, recording wildlife and landscapes they discovered. Much of this documentation was in the name of science and natural history. Naturalists and artists were willing to represent the needs of empire builders and governments who funded their trips. The oil paintings of landscapes of this time often reflected an idealized vision of the continent, an unknown Eden, empty and free of its original inhabitants.

An early nineteenth-century traveler to the Cape of Good Hope, William Burchell, who was a prolific naturalist as well as an accomplished artist who characterized this school of thought. His landscape illustration shows the kind of pleasant landscape that Europeans of the time would imagine in Africa. These idyllic paintings continued into the twentieth century with the work of JH Pierneef, and the Everard Group. For most European artists trips, the people they saw were simply part of Africa’s flora and fauna. At the end of the 19th century and early twentieth century, major European artists such as Picasso began to study African motifs and techniques. This is now called his “African phase”, where Picasso painted numerous modern oils departing from conventional aesthetic representations, thus taking his artwork to a more philosophical and emotional level.

Progressive Views Landscape – Beyond the colonial era

Attitudes towards black African artists and their use of oil in the landscape and the wildlife paintings were often criticized. There was a general desire to keep the native artist tribal. The experience of one of the first black landscape painters in South Africa, John Mohl, demonstrates this:

Mohl was approached by a white admirer and advised not to concentrate on landscape painting, but to paint figures of his people in poverty and misery. Landscape, he advised, had become the arena in which Europeans had advanced far in perfecting its painting. In response, Mohl challenged this rhetoric and said: “But I am from Africa, and when God made Africa, He also created beautiful landscapes for Africans to admire and paint.”

Through paintings of landscapes, Mohl’s rural and urban areas expressed a clear cultural defiance. In painting landscapes, Mohl triumphed over imperial ideals and expectations that many Europeans had of indigenous artists in Africa. Although this European ideology may have been detrimental to the development of landscape painting oil in Africa, one common energy unites all African artists who choose the landscape and wildlife as the subject of their artwork. No African artist whom he or she may be, can forget the material, human side, the majesty and brilliance of creation.

Contemporary Oil Paintings “The Eternal Vista”

Much has changed in Africa during the past century. Oil paintings of landscapes radiating light, heat, life and the breathtaking beauty of this unique land and its wildlife always will be admired by those not lucky enough to live there. Just as people during the colonial era marvel at this realms incredible wonders, for what people today from afar also appreciate its splendor. At the turn of last century, the only image that Africa people could watch was the beautiful fauna and landscapes created by artists.

Today in contemporary Britain, they have many different media sources to experience the spectacle that is Africa. The Internet, TV, Video-on-Demand, DVD, interactive games, multimedia, the list goes on. Within this mirage of infinite images, the only true way to experience this grandeur is through the eyes of the artists who continue to paint the infinite and eternal scenes. Professionally produced and hand painted oil landscapes really can connect with the essence that is Africa. If you have visited Africa and followed in the footsteps of the first European artists, who without doubt have fond memories of that continent. However, to have a contemporary painting induces feelings and wonder far richer than the memories themselves.

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