History on South African Art

Posted on By october


by: South-African-art.com


South African has a rich history of art with the oldest art objects in the world being discovered in a South African cave. Dating from 75,000 years ago, these small drilled snail shells could have no other function than to have been strung on a string as a necklace. The scattered tribes of Khoisan/San/ Bushman peoples moving into South Africa from around 10000 BCE had their own fluent art styles seen today in a multitude of cave paintings. They were superseded by Bantu/Nguni peoples with their own vocabularies of art forms.

New forms of art evolved in South Africa in the mines and townships. A dynamic art evolved using everything from plastic strips to bicycle spokes. Add to this the Dutch-influenced folk art of the hardy Afrikaner Trek Boers and the urban white artists earnestly following changing European traditions from the 1850s onwards, and you have an eclectic mix in South African art which continues to evolve today.

Information on South Africa

South Africa is located at the southern tip of Africa. South Africa’s coast stretches 2,798 kilometers and borders both the Atlantic and Indian oceans.To the north of South Africa lies Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Swaziland, while the Kingdom of Lesotho is an independent enclave surrounded by South African territory. Known for its diversity, South Africa has eleven official languages with English as the most commonly spoken language in official and commercial public life. South Africa is ethnically diverse, with Black, Caucasian, Indian, and racially mixed communities. In 2006, South Africa’s population was estimated at 47.4 million people. South Africa has three capital cities with Cape Town as the legislative capital, Pretoria the administrative capital, and Bloemfontein the judicial capital.