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An illustrated study of African traditional figurative arts that reflects the continent's rich artistic and cultural heritage. The marvelous achievements of African artists over thousands of years are revealed in this book. The artworks range in date from the beginning of the first millennium all the way through the early twentieth century.
The seat is an object of great cultural and artistic importance in Africa. This beautifully illustrated volume offers a fascinating look at the dazzling variety of chairs, stools, backrests, and thrones that have been used throughout in sub-Saharan Africa for centuries. Made from wood, stone, iron, and fibers; elaborately carved, beaded or bejeweled, as well as rough-hewn, basic and crude, these artifacts tell us as much about the social customs of the civilizations that created them as they do about their people's incredible artistry. In gorgeous, full-color plates as well as numerous black and white photographs, nearly two hundred examples of African seats are portrayed in geographical context. Essays by leading ethnologists and specialists in the field of African art offer revealing insights into the symbolic importance of the seat. Whether for cooking, weaving, giving birth, reclining or ruling; whether offered in friendship or war; whether worn smooth by constant use or preserved by non-use, each of these seats possesses an unmistakable beauty and exceptional sculptural power.
Many elements converge in the construction of a high-quality art collection, making it a fascinating, intellectual and emotional adventure, a journey of discovery and a labour of love. Formed over the course of thirty years by Udo Horstmann and his wife, the Horstmann collection is rather exceptional inasmuch as it offers a captivating vision of the variety of solutions adopted by black artists over the course of the centuries: nearly 120 extraordinary sculptures, figures, masks, household objects and weapons from Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Swaziland, Mozambique, Kenya and Sudan. The ...
"Many masterpieces of central African sculpture were created to amplify the power of sacred relics that affirm a family's vital connection to its ancestral heritage. This important volume, focusing on some 130 works representing a diverse variety of regional genres, illuminates the purpose and significance of these icons of African art, which first came to prominence because of their appeal to the Western avant-garde. While providing an overview of sources ranging from colonial explorers, missionaries, critics, artists, and art historians, the book breaks new ground in its examination of the complex aesthetic and spiritual dimensions of the reliquaries. Its interdisciplinary approach brings together the perspectives of scholars in African and medieval art history along with those in African history, religion, and ethnography." -- Publisher.
This groundbreaking volume examines the extraordinary artistic and cultural traditions of the African region known as the western Sahel, a vast area on the southern edge of the Sahara desert that includes present-day Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, and Niger. This is the first book to present a comprehensive overview of the diverse cultural achievements and traditions of the region, spanning more than 1,300 years from the pre Islamic period through the nineteenth century. It features some of the earliest extant art from sub Saharan Africa as well as such iconic works as sculptures by the Dogon and Bamana peoples of Mali. Essays by leading international scholars discuss the art, architecture, archaeology, literature, philosophy, religion, and history of the Sahel, exploring the unique cultural landscape in which these ancient communities flourished. Richly illustrated and brilliantly argued, Sahel brings to life the enduring forms of expression created by the peoples who lived in this diverse crossroads of the world.
A fascinating account of the trade patterns and consumption practices that arose following European colonisation of the Atlantic world. Focusing on textiles and clothing, Robert DuPlessis reveals how globally sourced goods shaped the material existence of virtually every group in the Atlantic basin during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
A thought-provoking study of how knowledge of provenance was not transferred with enslaved people and goods from the Portuguese trading empire to Renaissance Italy In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Renaissance Italy received a bounty of "goods" from Portuguese trading voyages—fruits of empire that included luxury goods, exotic animals and even enslaved people. Many historians hold that this imperial "opening up" of the world transformed the way Europeans understood the global. In this book, K.J.P. Lowe challenges such an assumption, showing that Italians of this era cared more about the possession than the provenance of their newly acquired global goods. With three detailed case st...
"This impressive volume succeeds in bringing Italian colonialism into the space of today’s most important debates regarding colonialism and multiculturalism."—Graziela Parati, author of Mediterranean Crossroads "A significant collection that really has no equal to date. The essays in this volume investigate profoundly the relationship between Italian colonialism and Italian society, past and present."—Anthony Tamburri, author of A Semiotic of Rereading
Art of Conversion: Christian Visual Culture in the Kingdom of Kongo