Women in African art
African art offers a rich diversity of feminine representations, reflecting the various conditions and status assigned to women.
These images of women simultaneously evoke the notions of sensuality and fecundity. The figures can be solitary or carrying a child, reflecting the woman's role as spouse or progenitor and mother. Indeed, maternity is the single most prominent theme in feminine representations in African art. The female body is depicted at all ages in a woman's life. It can be nubile, or fecund as in the masks shaped like a convex abdomen. With pointed breasts, curving stomach, arched back and protruding buttocks, the woman's body constitutes one of the most fertile sources of inspiration in African art.
