African art is any form of art or material culture that originates from the continent of Africa. This article discusses primarily visual art; for information on African music, see Music of Africa.

The arts and material culture of the African continent constitute one of the most diverse and innovative artistic legacies on the planet. Though many casual observers tend to generalize "traditional" African art, the continent is actually full of a multitude of peoples, societies, and civilizations, each with a unique visual culture.

Despite this diversity, there does seem to be some unifying artistic themes when considering the totality of visual culture from the continent of Africa.

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Arts & Culture

Turf War
Elizabeth Kolbert Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:00:00 -0000
In 1841, Andrew Jackson Downing published the first landscape-gardening book aimed at an American audience. At the time, Downing was twenty-five years old and living in Newburgh, New York. He owned a nursery, which he had inherited from his father, and for several years had been publishing loftily . . .
The Theatre
Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:00:00 -0000
OPENINGS AND PREVIEWS Please call the phone number listed with the theatre for timetables and ticket information. ANIMALS OUT OF PAPER Second Stage’s Uptown Series concludes with this play by Rajiv Joseph, an origami-themed love story. Giovanna Sardelli directs. In previews. (McGinn/Cazale, Broadway at 76th St. 212-246-4422.) AROUND . . .
The Sister
Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:00:00 -0000
This suspenseful first novel is set in a crumbling Dorset mansion and features two aging sisters, reunited after a separation of nearly fifty years. Virginia is the sensible older sister who stayed, carrying on the family tradition of lepidopterology, while the reckless and free-spirited Vivien left to lead a . . .
The Road to Baghdad
Nancy Franklin Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:00:00 -0000
Generation Kill,” a new miniseries on HBO, is based on a 2004 book by Evan Wright, which is an expanded version of a three-part series that was published in Rolling Stone, in 2003, about the time Wright spent embedded with a Marine battalion in Iraq. It’s not necessarily the . . .
Readings and Talks
Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:00:00 -0000
MUSEUM OF MODERN ART From the fifties until his death, in 1966, Frank O’Hara worked at the Museum of Modern Art and wrote poetry during his lunch break. On July 16 at noon, the poets Lee Ann Brown, Dan Chiasson, Hettie Jones, Vincent Katz, and Philip Schultz visit the museum . . .
Past Shock
David Denby Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:00:00 -0000
In the new Batman film, “The Dark Knight,” many things go boom. Cars explode, jails and hospitals are blown up, bombs are put in people’s mouths and sewn into their stomachs. There’s a chase scene in which cars pile up and climb over other cars, and a truck gets lassoed . . .

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