Afghan art

Art

Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

has spanned many centuries. One of the most famous kinds is the Gandhara art between the 1st and 7th century based on Greco-Buddhist art

Greco-Buddhist art

Greco-Buddhist art is the artistic manifestation of Greco-Buddhism, a cultural syncretism between the Classical Greek culture and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 1000 years in Central Asia, between the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE, and the Islamic...

. Since the 1900s, the nation began to use Western techniques in art. Afghanistan's art was originally almost entirely done by men but recently women are entering the arts programs at Kabul University

Kabul University

Kabul University is located in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. It was founded in 1931 but officially opened for classes in 1932. Kabul University is currently attended by approximately 7,000 students, of which 1,700 are women. As of 2008, Hamidullah Amin is the chancellor of the university...

. Art is largely centered at the National Museum of Afghanistan, the National Gallery of Afghanistan and the National Archives of Afghanistan in Kabul

Kabul

Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...

. There are a number of art schools in the country. The Center for Contemporary Arts Afghanistan (CCAA) in Kabul provides young people to learn contemporary paintings.

Jewelry

Afghan art includes jewelry and gold pieces. A famous collection of this art is in the Bactrian Hoard, which was found in burial mounts in Sheberghan

Sheberghan

Sheberghān or Shaburghān , also spelled Shebirghan and Shibarghan, is the capital city of the Jowzjan Province in northern Afghanistan.-Location:...

 in Jowzjan Province, Afghanistan.
Some of these artifacts were briefly displayed in the United States. The artifacts are a mixture of coins, necklaces, bracelets, and other assorted gold jewelry. Some of these treasures date from the Bronze Age.

Sculpture in Afghanistan

Art in Afghanistan includes sculpture as well, with ancient works such as the Buddhas of Bamiyan

Buddhas of Bamiyan

The Buddhas of Bamiyan were two 6th century monumental statues of standing buddhas carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan, situated northwest of Kabul at an altitude of 2,500 meters...

. These works were destroyed by the Taliban after they denouced the works as idols.

Greco-Buddhist Art

Greco-Buddhist art was prevalent in Afghanistan from the 4th Century BCE to around the 7th Century CE due to the Islamic Conquest. Many of these art forms have been found in the archaeological site of Hadda, Afghanistan.

Islamic Art

After the Islamic conquest of Afghanistan, Afghan art changed dramatically from previous Greco-Buddhist works, due to the adoption of Islam. Afghan local materials such as lapis lazuli were adapted for use in Islamic Art

Islamic art

Islamic art encompasses the visual arts produced from the 7th century onwards by people who lived within the territory that was inhabited by or ruled by culturally Islamic populations...

. Mosques built in Afghanistan and in the Arab world are built with elaborate tiling styles. Many of these styles were influenced from Chinese ceramics Afghanistan served as a conduit for introduction to these Chinese ceramic styles and techniques due to its strategic location on the Silk Road.

Performance Art

Buz-baz

Buz-baz

The most common definition found in a web search describes Buz-Baz as "Ancient Persian - A showman who makes a goat and monkey dance together."Buz- baz is a musical puppetry tradition found in Northern Afghanistan. The puppet is a goat which is controlled by a string connected to the wrist of the...

 is a form of musical puppetry

Puppetry

Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance which involves the manipulation of puppets. It is very ancient, and is believed to have originated 30,000 years BC. Puppetry takes many forms but they all share the process of animating inanimate performing objects...

 found in Afghanistan. The puppeteer manipulates a markhor

Markhor

The Markhor is a large species of wild goat that is found in northeastern Afghanistan, Pakistan , India, southern Tajikistan and southern Uzbekistan...

 marionette

Marionette

A marionette is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a manipulator. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed to an audience by using a vertical or horizontal control bar in different forms...

 while simultaneously playing a dambura.