CategoriesCultural and Religious Styles
Art of the Ivory Coast
Art from Côte d'Ivoire, including Baule, Dan, Guro and Senufo sculpture and masks, and the modern art of Abidjan.
No works indexed yet · 1 related artist
No open-access works for Art of the Ivory Coast are in the index yet. They will appear here as more collections are indexed.
About
Côte d'Ivoire brings together more than sixty ethnic groups, and its carvers have long been admired across West Africa. In the centre, Baule sculptors make highly finished standing figures, among them images of spirit spouses from the other world, and portrait masks that honour a particular person, who may dance alongside their likeness. Guro masks from the centre-west have slender faces, arched brows and sometimes graceful horns. Dan carvers in the far west give their masks smooth oval faces with narrowed eyes and a dark, glossy surface. In the north, Senufo workshops make figures and masks for the Poro association, and painters around Korhogo decorate cotton cloth with animals and figures.
Modern Ivorian art took shape in Abidjan. Frédéric Bruly Bouabré devised a script for the Bété language in the 1950s and spent decades drawing small illustrated cards, and from the late 1970s the Vohou-Vohou painters worked with earth, bark and sand rather than imported materials.
Related artists
More in Cultural and Religious Styles
Art of the Upper Paleolithic
Art of Tonga
Asante Art
Aztec Art
Bamileke Art
Benin Art
Buddhist Art and Architecture
Byzantine Art
Cambodian Art
Celtic Art
Cheyenne Art
