African Mud ClothAfrican Mud

Painting

Getting to Know the World’s Great Artists

Tulsa Public Schools-Seventh Grade Visual Arts Assessment

African Mud ClothAfrican Mud Painting

Getting to Know the World’s Great Artists

Oklahoma Fine Arts Standard Two: Visual Art History and Culture

African Mud ClothAfrican Mud Painting

Getting to Know the World’s Great Artists

You will look at the work of the Ndbele African culture. The artists in this culture all use color and pattern to enhance

their homes, their clothing and their lives. .

African Mud Cloth

African Mud Cloth

Describe and place a variety of specific significant art objects by artist, style and historical and cultural contest

Identify themes and purposes of works of art and artifacts in history and culture

Demonstrate a basic knowledge of several fields of art such as painting, sculpture, drawing, computer graphics, printmaking, architecture, and fiber arts

Identify how visual art is used in today’s world including the popular media of advertising, television, and film

The student will recognize the development of Visual Art from an historical and cultural perspective.

Oklahoma Fine Arts Standard Two: Visual Art History and Culture

South Africa is home to some of the most ancient and beautiful art in the worldThe Ndebele people of South Africa live in a region called The Transvaal.

Introducing the Art Work of the Ndebele People

They make art work of all kinds. Their vibrant colors and symbolic repeated patterns are distinctively African. Whether they are decorating fabric, pottery or even the walls of their homes they are much appreciated all around the world.

Introducing the Art Work of the Ndebele People

This is an example of the Ndebele Mud Cloth Painting. How was it made? The Ndebele use the concept of repetition of shapes to create a pattern. Here you see the bars of yellow, blue and brown colors repeated.

The artist has also repeated the leaf pattern and the geometric design within the bars. Often the design shapes are taken from nature such as leaves, waves, lightning, insects, fish or other animals.

This pattern is more intricate but is still based upon repetition of symbols found in nature.

After the artist decides on his or her symbols he/she sketches those onto the cloth or fabric. Then they mix clay or mud with lots of water and make a thick, gravy-like paste. Where ever they wish the white of the cloth to remain, they paint with the mud. Here the white is within the lightning bolts and at the very bottom where the bird symbols are located.

When the mud dries, the artist paints on the other colors. This pillow has several colors of brown and black. He or she paints those colors in where he or she chooses. If some paint gets on the mud areas, that is ok because the mud will shield the cloth from paint.

When the paint is dry, the artist brushes off the mud from the white area and then washes the pillow to set the paint.

The white dots and curvy white lines were done with a tube much like aglue bottle.

This mud cloth can be ordered over the internet. African artists todayare making a living selling their work around the world.

This man has put together several different patterns of textiles.

This woman poses with her colorful textiles in front of her beautifully painted home.

These people also reflect the beautiful bright colors of their home with the choices of clothing and accessories they are wearing.

Many people around the world decorate their homes both inside and outside.

In Africa, the Ndebele People used the dyes that they foundin their environmentto paint beautiful patterns on theoutside of their homes..

Originally houses were painted to give a cooling or beneficial effect to a home by applying an extra coat of earth pigment to a wall.

Many of the colors and shapes chosen have symbolic meaning.

The geometric patters painted here are much like large flowers.

Here you see a woman painting her home. The colors she has chosen are thesame colors as her clothing. They are the colors of the environment around her.

Mothers pass down their painting techniques and designs to their daughters.If a house is well painted, the woman of the house gets great respect.

Sometimes the patterns painted are very bold and simple.

Sometimes the patterns center and focus on a particular architectural element. In this case, the window is highlighted.

In this case, the door is highlighted by the pattern design.

Here a man is framed in a window with a beautiful painted pattern.

Here is a sampling of how a variety of different doors are highlighted with beautiful bold patterns.

Here is a sampling of a variety of windows that are highlighted with bright and beautiful repeated patterns.

These children are playing a game with a mask. In the background you can see someone’s home and the beautiful blue window painting.

More children play in front of their home. Do you think they know how beautiful their home is?

This is an interior room. There is a picture of Nelson Mandela on the wall. Do you know why he is a hero in South Africa?

This home is painted in the colors of South Africa

The ANC is the “African National Congress”. When Apartheid was made illegal, Nelson Mandela was elected president of the ANC. People all over South Africa had great respect for him and their fellow patriots.

Soon many people were painting their homes in the colors of the ANC. Still others took up more brilliant colors to express their joy.

After Apartheid was abolished in Africa, great leaders like Nelson Mandela held the country together with the philosophy of “Ubuntu”. He and a famous minister, Desmond Tutu, preached forgiveness and reconciliation over and over again to all of the people in South Africa.

Ubuntu is a traditional African philosophy that offers us an understanding of ourselves in relation with the world. According to Ubuntu, there exists a common bond between us all and it is through this bond, through our interaction with our fellow human beings, that we discover our own human qualities. Or as the Zulus would say, “Umuntu Ngumuntu Ngabantu”, which means that a person is a person through other persons. We affirm our humanity when we acknowledge that of others.

The South African Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu describes Ubuntu.“It is the essence of being human. It speaks of the fact that my humanity is caught up and is inextricably bound up in yours. I am human because I belong. It speaks about wholeness, it speaks about compassion. A person with Ubuntu is welcoming, hospitable, warm and generous, willing to share. Such people are open and available to others, willing to be vulnerable, affirming of others, do not feel threatened that others are able and good, for they have a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that they belong to a greater whole.”

People who practice Ubuntu know that they are diminished when others are humiliated, diminished when others are oppressed, diminished when others are treated as if they were less than who they are. The equality of Ubuntu gives people resilience, enabling them to survive and emerge still human despite all efforts to dehumanize them.

Since the downfall of Apartheid in South Africa, Ubuntu is often mentioned in the political context to bring about a stronger sense of unity. Ubuntu is seen as one of the founding principles of the new republic of South Africa and is connected to the idea of an African Renaissance.

African Mud Cloth

Let’s think about Art

If you were to make a drawing or a painting in the style of one of these artists what would you include?

•Would you think of several symbols from nature to repeat into a pattern design?•Would you use colors that symbolized something or just made you feel happy?•Would you paint on an unusual surface like the wall of a building or on some kind of cloth?•Would you think about Ubuntu and the goodness of people?

Think about one of the artists in this slide show and make either a wall or cloth design. The symbols you use should be from nature and should be repeated in a balanced pattern. If you don’t have cloth, you can take a paper sack turned inside-out or a piece of drawing paper that is crumpled. You may use crayons and paint in place of mud and paint.

The EndMany thanks to the Visual Arts Assessment Committee:

Carole Odierno-Memorial High SchoolCarol Dvorak-Carver Middle SchoolFran Kallsnick-Byrd Middle SchoolJoe Sizemore-Nimitz Middle School

Linda Barnett-Wright Elementary SchoolJanet Gillis-Carnegie Elementary School

Janet Lefler-Key Elementary SchoolAnn Tomlins-Fulton