Classical Africa – The Rigour of Form
Catalogue of recent acquisitions by Dalton Somaré Gallery.
Year: 2007
Texts: Dalton Somaré
Format: 21 × 28 cm
Pages: 55, 22 black and white images
Language: Italian
Africa Classica – Il Rigore della Forma
Classical African art and historical definition
Classical African art represents one of the most coherent and refined expressions of African sculpture. In 1912, art critic André Warnod suggested that Art Nègre might replace Greek art in the education of young artists. He was referring to a more restricted and coherent body of works than what we now broadly define as African art.
This vision excluded both the naturalistic traditions of Ife and Owo and the more radical forms later associated with Art Brut. Dealers and scholars such as Paul Guillaume, René Rasmussen and Charles Ratton contributed to defining an early canon of African art, based on works that moved beyond realism toward formal and conceptual clarity.
These works are characterised by harmony of proportion, architectural structure and stylistic coherence. They reveal a transition from representation to conceptual construction, demonstrating a mature and highly developed artistic tradition. As recognised by the 20th-century avant-garde, African sculpture articulates space through structured volumes, establishing a visual language based on balance and formal logic.
The selection presented in this catalogue follows this early definition of Art Nègre, developed between the two World Wars and now understood as a classical phase in African art.
Classical Africa represents a key moment in Dalton Somaré’s research, contributing to the definition of African art as a structured and sophisticated visual system.
