These included basket-weaving,
pottery making, woodworking and iron-working. Archeological
evidence shows that West Africans were making pottery and
terracotta sculpture as much as two thousand years ago, Three-
dimensional forms seem to have held a particular interest for West
African artists. During the last century, art critics have gone
beyond considering this art as "primitive" and have begun to
appreciate its aesthetic qualities. In fact, in recent years, African
art has had considerable influence on contemporary artists.
The two forms of African art best known outside Africa are music
and the dance. African music contrasts with European music in its
use of a different scale and in concentrating less on melodic
development and more on the creation of complex and subtle
rhythmic patterns. Musicians used to view African music as simple
and undeveloped, but now musicologists admit that African
rhythms are more complex and highly developed than rhythms in
European music. Africans like to sing and to develop songs for all
occasions: religious songs, work songs, and songs for leisure.
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