La couleur dans l'art africain

Discussing the question of color in African art means first rethinking our relationship with Africa and how this intercultural relationship is mediated by the color, the skin color above all. This background only gives a meaning to the investigation of color in art, in an anthropological and ethnoaesthetic point of view: color and art appear as cultural, historical and interpretive constructions, which refer not only to the African societies but also to our relationships with them. The perception and use of color in Africa, both in what we call "art" and in everyday life, are shaped not only by physiology but also by environment, culture and history. It is a symbolic dynamic that, far from being fixed in the abstraction of a code, redefines itself constantly in relation to specific and shifting contexts, allowing us to modulate the individual biographies on a shared social symbolism.