Contemporary African art is an expression commonly used to defined the sum of styles and national productions of the African continent, the production of African artists, the production of Africa analyzed as a hole, the artistic, cultural and institutional dynamics of the African continent, the contemporary art so-called African or a contemporary artistic production linked to Africa-"wikipedia"The countries of Africa are well known for indigenous and culturally representative sculptures, textiles, and paintings. In the past, artists, art historians, and collectors have focused primarily on "traditional" African art, consisting of ceremonial masks, wood and ivory statues, and mud-cloth textiles. Today, Contemporary African Art has transformed beyond traditional subject matter and media into an art movement being exhibited, collected and discussed internationally. The styles of Contemporary African Art differ greatly from region to region and are highly affected by Africa's history: colonialism; religion; politics; racism; slavery; war; contact with the West; and the urban experience.
For a long time African art, were of more interest to, If I should say anthropologists than to art historians. As artist started to portray art as being tied to specific histories and colonial and postcolonial conditions Avant grade art movements began to take an interest in sculpture from West and Central Africa, which came to the notice of art historians through its influence on their work. What was its appeal? Artists described their perceptions of remarkable formal qualities quite different from those in their own cultural tradition. They read into them the kinds of symbolic meanings they were seeking to express in their own work, promoting the view that Africans could create art, but of a very particular kind. To those struggling against the constraints of the naturalistic artistic tradition of Europe, such African art offered a refreshing and potent vision of the creativity of 'natural man', which scholars had already compared to the work of children or psychotics. This was particularly appealing to those seeking creative inspiration from impulses, which their own culture defined as psychologically deep, intuitive and primitive. For Africa, the issues in this one-sided Western debate with other cultures have moved from the export of Africans as slaves to the conquest of their lands, more recently to the formation of nation states, and now to the promotion of capitalist economies through aid and development programmes.
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