What is this style of African art called?

January 6, 2010 1:20 AM

Is there a formal name for the style of African art displayed at the beginning of the film 'Pray The Devil Back to Hell'?

I've seen this style a few places before.

There is the album cover for 'Warm Heart of Africa'

And someone on metafilter once posted these Ghana film posters.

I haven't studied art. I don't know how to describe why these paintings are similar...but when you look at them you can see that they are all of a similar style.

I'm pretty much in love with the way these look, and I am trying to find a way I can explore and discover more of it.

'African Art' is too broad a search term.

Thanks.

posted by guiltpop to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

From experience I can say you find this drawing style pretty much anywhere in western africa. It's frequently used to draw advertisement for shops barbers etc.

So I may not know a name for it, but if you want to explore and discover more of it you could travel there.
posted by knz at 1:33 AM on January 6, 2010

Best answer: While travelling in Ghana I never heard anyone refer to similar art on signs and posters as anything other than "signs" or "posters."

The film poster is probably just what we would call "poster art" or "sign painting."

However, there is a whole cottage industry of people who hand-paint signs of all kinds in West Africa. If there is a word or term they use to describe their craft, it might not have migrated into common use. By and large, these artists are self-taught, so they take cues from whatever they see around them and combine that with the locale aesthetic.
posted by clvrmnky at 6:26 AM on January 6, 2010

Yeah, some might just call it "naive poster art."
posted by Miko at 6:55 AM on January 6, 2010