Picasso’s African influenced period is a phase in Pablo Picasso’s career when Picasso’s Art was heavily influenced by West African Masks and Art.
Like all great Artists, Picasso was determined to give expression to his authentic inner voice.
African Art influenced Picasso and enabled the expression of Picasso’s own unique Artistic vision during what is known as Picasso’s African influenced period.
The early 1900s saw the traditional African abstract aesthetic style used in sculpture and Tribal Masks gaining momentum within Europe’s avant-garde Art circles.Â
The abstract Cubist shapes prominent in West African Art would give birth to Modern Art which influenced Picasso on his journey.
West African Art was abstract yet functional and spiritual, and consequently appealed to universal subconscious Human Archetypes which Picasso explored.
Drawn to the abstract spirituality of West African Art, European Artists including Picasso had found an avenue to transcend the strict naturalist boundaries imposed by earlier Renaissance Art.
Picasso’s talent lay in his ability to identify, absorb and use the universal Human Spirit wherever he could find it in his own Art and during his African period, West African Art greatly influenced Picasso’s style and artistic motifs.
In the final analysis, Picasso’s African period is evidence of African Art’s influence on not only Picasso but Modern Art in general, particularly the Cubist movement.
Picasso’s African period is also proof that the distant Village voices of Ancient Africa’s brilliant Artists have continued to echo from Africa all the way to the Galleries of the modern World through the works of Picasso and others they influenced.
Picasso’s African period is evidence that the motifs and style of Traditional West African Art were able to transcend the borders of Space and Time because the African Art appealed to universal archetypes embedded in our collective Unconscious.
This speaks to the transcendent and futurist nature of Traditional West African Art, and it may possibly represent the earliest instance of African Futurism.
Its no surprise therefore that the appeal of West African Art still continues to influence today’s Afrofuturist aesthetic.
The power of the West African Art that influenced Picasso’s African period also stands as a testament to the state of African Civilization which was able produce Art and Culture with global appeal.
