BOOKS
The Fabric of Moroccan Life
Edited by Niloo Imami Paydar and Ivo Grammet
Published in English by the Indianapolis Museum of Art in association with the University of Washington Press, 2002
304 pp, 195 illus, 170 in color, 9” x 12”
ISBN 0-936260-76-9
Hardcover, $45 US
This fine volume was published in association with the eponymous exhibition recently on view at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and scheduled for display at the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, DC, next year. The objects featured in this densely illustrated book are all from the collection of the Indianapolis Museum. The museum’ s collection is one of the oldest and finest in existence. The core of it was formed by Admiral Albert Niblack, who was stationed in Gibraltar in the early years of the twentieth century.The breadth of the Indianapolis collection allows this book to be far more than an illustrated catalogue, although each object is described in exacting detail. It is a comprehensive survey of the textile arts of this diverse nation, divided both by urban and rural designations and by specific regions. It contains more than two dozen essays by fourteen specialists, whose fields range from art history to linguistics to art dealing. This is an essential work for the field of Moroccan art history and is a suitable companion to the 1998 Splendeurs du Maroc, edited by Grammet and Min De Meersman.
When Rain Gods Reigned: From Curios to Art at Tesuque Pueblo
By Duane Anderson
Published in English by the Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe, 2002
156 pp, 70 color illus, 21 b&w illus, 9” x 10”
ISBN 0-89013-404-9 (hardcover), 0-89013-405-7 (softcover)
Hardcover, $45 US; softcover, $29.95 US
Clay figures were part of Pueblo ceremonial life long before the Spanish conquest, and figurative motifs are an important aspect of many prehistoric ceramic traditions in the American Southwest. Figurative ceramics found a revival at Tesuque Pueblo in New Mexico in the third quarter of the nineteenth century. These, however, were made specifically for the burgeoning tourist trade and anthropologists such as William Henry Holmes dismissed them as being “rudely made,” “semi obscene,” and a “debasement [of] the refined and artistic wares of the ancient Pueblos.” Institutions shared this point of view, and early collections tend to be largely devoid of examples, although the Austrian Archduke Franz-Ferdinand collected a group of them in 1893, though not without noting that two of them with goatees and horn-like coiffures represented the Christian devil. Despite having been dismissed as tourist “kitsch,” what came to be known as “rain god” figurines (munas) have been continuously produced for more than 120 years, making them the longest-lasting figurative art tradition in the Southwest. Over the years these figures have developed an important role as a medium for Tesuque self expression. Anderson’s work is based on a survey of more than 400 of these figures in seventy-four museum collections around the world. It traces the development of the art style and it profiles the artists who have taken the reverse path from art produced for sale to meaningful cultural expression over the course of some five generations.
Silk in Africa
By Chris Spring and Julie Hudson
Published in English by the University of Washington Press, Seattle, 2002
88 pp, 100 color illus, 8.5” x 9”
ISBN 0-295-98235-7
Softcover, $19.95 US
For many, the rich and diverse range of silk textiles from Africa is an unexpected revelation. This book focuses on more than thirty pieces from the spectacular collection of the British Museum, and brings together for the first time the highly distinctive traditions of silk weaving from throughout the African continent. These range from textiles commissioned by royalty and high-ranking officials such as the striking cloths of the Asante of Ghana and the gold-encrusted gowns of Ethiopia, to less prestigious but no less glorious pieces such as a multi-colored Merina burial shroud from Madagascar. Most of the textiles are photographed in close-up detail, which allows the weave and design to be clearly expressed. The authors examine who made these varied textiles, how ideas travelled across the continent, and the significance of pattern and symbolism. In addition, the principal weaving techniques are explained and brief commentaries highlight specific design features. This book is part of the Fabric Folios series, which now contains six small-format volumes dealing with textile design.
Art décoratif Tshokwe: La collection Henrique Quirino da Fonseca
By Dominique Remondino
Published in French by Editions D, Geneva, 2002
48 pp, 56 color illus, 2 duatone illus, 21 x 27 cm
ISBN 3-9522567-0-6
Softcover, €32
The Museu Regional do Dundo in Chitato, Angola, is well known through the publications of its ethnographic collections, particularly by Hermann Baumann in 1954 and by Marie-Louise Bastin in 1961. What is perhaps less known is that its roots lay in the perceptions of a Portuguese engineer, Henrique Quirino da Fonseca, who first traveled to Angola in 1924 to work in the diamond mining industry. While working there, he developed an intense interest and involvement in the social issues that colonialism had brought to the land. In 1936, he founded the Dundo Museum as a means of preserving aspects of the indigenous cultures of Angola that he saw were in grave peril. In 1946, after the close of World War II, da Fonseca returned to Portugal. He took with him a small and select collection of Chokwe miniature sculpture, chosen with the eye of an aesthete rather than that of an anthropologist. This small book documents that collection of miniature masterpieces. It is divided into five sections: divination figures, combs, knives, tobacco containers, and whistles. While many are simple and of pure form, each sculpture is a masterpiece of its type. The book is well designed and shows the works to their best effect, often illustrating both the front and the back.
Le Geste kôngo
By Robert Farris Thompson with an introduction by Christiane Falgayrettes-Leveau and contributions by Jean Nsondé and Erwan Dianteill
Published in French by the Musée Dapper, Paris, 2002
232 pp, 190 illus, 160 in color, 24 x 32 cm
ISBN 2-906067-85-7 (hardcover), 2-906067-90-3 (softcover)
Hardcover, €43; softcover, €26
This work examines the philosophy and arts of the Kongo, one of the most notable cultures of sub-Saharan Africa. Here, body attitudes cover a broad array of meanings. Each part of the body, including the eyes and the mouth, relates to an elaborate gestural language that references both the terrestrial and cosmic worlds. These gestures are reflected in the statuary of the culture, which is well represented in the exhibition at the Musée Dapper, for which this book serves as a catalogue. The exhibition contains one of the finest collections of Kongo and Bembe sculpture assembled in recent memory, and the book documents each piece beautifully with color photographs, primarily by Hughes Dubois, R. Asselberghs, and Ian Churchill. Additional essays trace the gestural tradition into the African diaspora.
Southwest Textiles: Weavings of the Navajo and Pueblo
By Kathleen Whitaker
Published in English by the University of Washington Press, Seattle, in association with the Southwest Museum, Los Angeles, 2002
432 pp, 356 illus, 313 in color, 10" x 12"
ISBN 0-295-98226-8
Hardcover, $65 US
The significance of Pueblo and Navajo textiles transcends simple artistic expression. Through the spiritual activity of weaving, male and female weavers beautify their world and integrate their art into the “web of life.” Both the Pueblo and the Navajo believe that the culture hero Spider Woman taught them to create with patience, understanding, and sensitivity. Yet over the centuries Pueblo and Navajo textiles have developed along distinct paths, which reflect the unique historical and individual experiences within each culture. The textiles collection of the Southwest Museum illustrates the rich interplay between these two peoples and their art.This weighty tome (at nearly 7 lbs) tells the fascinating story of the history and evolution of Pueblo and Navajo fabric arts. Over 250 outstanding examples from the Southwest Museum’s collection are reproduced in full color, along with 125 illustrations showing details of these works and historical photographs of Native American craftspeople. Also included are absorbing accounts of the early collectors of these superb textiles and some of the colorful individuals who were instrumental in founding the Southwest Museum and shaping its collections.
An accompanying CD-ROM includes comprehensive charts of the fiber and construction analysis performed on each of the textiles illustrated in the book. The charts are prefaced by an overview of the analysis. Also on the CD is a complete inventory of the museum’s Southwest textiles collection.
Kaos: Parcours des Mondes No 1
Edited by Nathalie Amae
Published biannually in English and French by Picaron Editions, Paris, 2002
256 pp, fully illustrated in color and b&w, 21 x 26 cm
Softcover, €58 in Europe, €66 elsewhere
This is the first issue of a new publication that also serves as something of a catalogue for the Parcours des Mondes art fair that was held in Paris in mid September. Far from being a magazine, it is a thick compilation of articles on a variety of subjects ranging from Indonesian kris handles to ritual skulls to Chu dynasty funerary sculpture. The articles, around ten accompanied by various specialized departments, are published with color illustrations and simultaneous French and English text. The color reproductions are not the best and the translations are a bit quirky, but this is nevertheless an interesting publication that warrants looking at.
Faszination Alt-Amerika
By Ulrich Hoffmann
Published in German by Galerie Alt-Amerika, 2002
192 pp, fully illustrated in color, 21 x 28 cm
ISBN 3-9807610-2-9
This is a self-published catalogue from Galerie Alt-Amerika in Stuttgart. It features an introduction by the owner describing his progression from hippie flea-market dealer in the 1970s to the proprietorship of one of Germany’s premier galleries today. This is more than simply a vanity piece, however. Its interest lies in Hoffmann’s progression, which in some ways mirrors the development of the tribal art market as we know it today. The book is fully illustrated and attractively designed. The objects it
Ways of the Rivers: Arts and Environments of the Niger Delta
Edited by Martha G. Anderson and Philip M. Peek
Published in English by the UCLAFowler Museum of Cultural History, Los Angeles, 2002
364 pp, 448 illus, 376 in color, 9” x 12”
ISBN 0-930741-90-0
Softcover, $50 US
This is a fine catalogue for a fine exhibition that was recently organized by the Fowler Museum of Cultural History at the University of California, Los Angeles. It contains some twenty-five essays by a dozen experts that address a variety of aspects of life, culture, and history in the watery and expansive Niger River Delta area of Nigeria. This area is responsible for some of the largest and most dynamic wood sculptures produced in Africa, much of which is closely tied to the specific environment of the Delta region. Photos of the objects are interleaved with in situ images showing how they interact with the cultures that produced them in this vibrantly living area.
Shrunken Heads:Tsantsa Trophies and Human Exotica
By James L. Castner
Published in English by Feline Press, Gainsville, FL, 2002 (JLCastner@aol.com)
160 pp, 150 color illus, 23 b&w illus, 8.5” x 11”
ISBN 0-9625150-3-5
Hardcover, $75
Shrunken heads are potent ceremonial artifacts that were produced by the Jivaroan cultures of the mountainous regions where Ecuador and Peru meet. Their creation and existence fascinates some, repulses many, and intrigues almost everyone. This book seeks to explain the Jivaro (Shuar) culture and the significance to it of taking and shrinking heads. It provides a step-by-step analysis of the methods used in the process and discusses means of differentiating heads created for ritual purposes from those that have been widely produced for commercial sale, which has been ongoing since the nineteenth century. This is followed by some fifty pages of full-color “portraits,” generally featuring multiple views. If one can stomach the subject matter, this is a very informative volume.
Voices in Clay: Pueblo Pottery from the Edna M. Kelly Collection
By Bruce Bernstein and J.J. Brody
Published in English by the Miami University Art Museum, Oxford, OH, 2002
116 pp, 202 illus, 119 in color, 9” x 10”
ISBN 0-940784-21-1 (hardcover), 0-940784-22-X (softcover)
Hardcover, $49.95 US; softcover, $24.95 US
This is a lovely and well-designed catalogue featuring more than 100 fine examples of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century Pueblo ceramics, primarily from the Hopi, Zuni, Acoma, Zia, Santo Domingo, and San Ildefonso Pueblos. All are well documented and beautifully presented. Many will stun connoisseurs of Native American ceramics with their quality. Each section is introduced by personal perspectives on the process of selecting the objects for the exhibition for which this serves as a catalogue at the Miami University Art Museum in Ohio. The illustrated catalog is flanked by an introduction about the Kelly collection and a short history of Pueblo pottery, and a conclusion that looks at the Kelly ceramics that didn’t make it into the exhibition. This is a loving and personal account about a collection that is both heartfelt and important.
Statues-menhirs, des énigmes de pierre venues du fond des ages
Edited by Anne Philippon
Published in French by Editions du Rouergue, 2002
272 pp, 196 illus, 160 in color, 22 X 28 cm
ISBN 2-84156-348-0
Softcover, €38
This remarkable catalogue is dedicated to the fascinating megalith sculptures at the Musée Fenaille de Rodez, which reopened last summer. The exhibition offers a complete view of this exceptional but little-known cultural patrimony. Edited by Anne Philippon, curator at the Musée Fenaille, this art book brings together contributions by thirteen authors. Among them is painter Pierre Soulages, who speaks of these megaliths as one of the great "aesthetic shocks" of his life. And indeed, it is difficult not to be awed by La Dame de Saint Sernain, one of the nineteen monumental stone objects in the museum’s collection, discovered in 1888 at Saint-Sernain-sur-Rance (Aveyron) by the abbot Hermet. Initially identified as a tutelary divinity of the Greco-Roman period, this stone carving measures 120 cm in height. It is sculpted on both sides and represents a clothed woman wearing a belt, a necklace, and a Y-shaped pendant. Her breasts are prominent despite her garment, emphasizing her feminine aspect. Woman or goddess? The question remains.Step by step, the book leads us through the picturesque history of the discovery of these anthropomorphic steles in Rouergue, and the revelation of their existence to the scientific community, which remains unable to date them with certainty because of the lack of relevant archaeological context. The megaliths are thought to have been sculpted towards the end of the Neolithic period, between 3500 and 2200 B.C. Along with similarly mysterious sculptures found in Italy, Romania, Ukraine, and Crimea, the Rouergue megaliths are the earliest known examples of monumental anthropomorphic sculpture in the Western world.
This fascinating book, the fruit of the collaboration of researchers of varied backgrounds and areas of expertise, attempts to describe what daily life must have been like during the age of copper in this area of southern France. One chapter of the book is devoted to the story of the conservation and restoration of the Musée Fenaille’s collection, and another to the contributions that methods of scientific analysis have made towards a better understanding of the megaliths.In a conclusion by André d’Anna, director of research at the CNRS and an archaeologist specialized in Neolithic prehistory of southern France and the Mediterranean countries, the question of the meaning and interpretation of these age-old monumental works is raised. Are these sculptures of men or gods? The author wisely invites us not to dwell on the point, but instead suggests that to let the imaginations run free is the best way to experience a real connection with these works.
Pueblos de Africa
An ethnolinguistic atlas of Africa
Edited by Marc Leo Felix, director of the Congo Basin Art History Research Center, Brussels. Cartographery by Charles Meur
Limited edition in Spanish, 200 copies by Ediciones Oba-Barcelona
English edition, 800 copies by Marc Leo Felix - Tribal Arts s.p.r.l.-Bruxelles
50 color plates, 11 in black and white, A3 Format
ISBN 2-930169-04-4
€150
The fruit of ten years’ labor, this ethnolinguistic atlas is a valuable tool for anyone interested in learning about the ethnic distribution of the peoples of Africa. In 1989, Charles Meur had completed an initial work dealing exclusively with the distribution of ethnic groups in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). It proved extremely useful, and the need to expand the work to include all of Africa was obvious. Students, researchers, and even collectors were thirsty for more information, in the hopes of achieving a better understanding of a subject until now fraught with confusion. The classifications are based on one of the only things that is certain when considering an African cultural group, namely what language its members speak. A map illustrates the completed classifications. Using shades of colors from darker to lighter, and going from main groups to the most distant sub-groups, it enables not only the localization of any given group, but also offers a clear idea of the different population movements that occurred over time. No work of this scope has ever been produced. Africa, Its Peoples and Its Culture, George P. Murdock’s work of 1959, is a careful compilation of information he was able to gather in situ, but with this book it is superseded by a better tool, which benefits from today’s more advanced knowledge of the subject.The original edition appeared in English in 2001, edited Marc Leo Felix. The Spanish edition of a year later came in response to strong demand from the Spanish speaking public for a work that could offer insight into an art and culture that for so long had remained little known in Spain.
Didac Caparros
Hozho, peintures de guérison des Indiens Navajo
Edited by Sylvie Crossman and Jean-Pierre Barou, photographs by Patrick Frilet
Published in French by Editions Indigène
96 pages illustrated in color, 22.5 x 24 cm
ISBN 2 911939 40 9
Softcover, €18
This work offers the first view of a previously unpublished collection of Hozho healing sand paintings, which are the works of Fred Stevens II, the great Navajo medicine man of the twentieth century. These sand compositions were produced by Navajo medicine men (hataalii) with powdered rocks and pigments, and are dominated by four colors: black, blue, ochre yellow, and white. Each color represents a cardinal point, as well as the four stages of the day: dawn in the east, day in the south, dusk in the west, and night in the north. Seeing beyond their obvious aesthetic appeal, these paintings are rightly considered above all as a means of healing and empowering the ill, and of helping them find a renewed equilibrium.There are two forces in the Navajo universe, Hozho the female, and Naayee the male. Hozho is an inner state that dominates when all is in order. It is harmony, the order of the world, beauty, sensitivity, and calm. The corresponding masculine force is destructive. It is war, brutality, and aggressiveness. Each event in a life has a Hozho that corresponds to it. There are some 1,200 of them, and no single hataalii could know them all.
The book bears the name of the exhibition for which it serves as a catalogue. It was shown at the Galerie des Hospices de Limoges from June 1-October 13, 2002. The book immerses the reader in the Navajo universe, a thousand years old and modern at the same time. It delves into the philosophy and words of the medicine men, and also includes a fascinating account of Lori Arvison Alvord, the first Navajo woman surgeon. From the beginning of her medical studies, Alvord found that “biochemistry, chemistry, anatomy, physiology, and even mathematics offered the same internal logic as Indian cosmology.” Using the superb sand paintings as a common thread, the book explores the “points of contact” between modern scientific medicine and the traditional Navajo healing arts. The reader is invited to consider the necessity, for the common good, of uniting all forms of knowledge to treat illness, as the Navajo have started to do. In their new, ultra-modern hospital facility in Shiprock, operating rooms may be found side by side with hogans, the traditional Navajo healing houses.
This book published by Editions Indigène, a new and daring publishing house.
Tableaux de Sumatra
Antonio Guerreiro, photographs by Tiziana and Gianni Baldizzone
Published in French by Editions Arthaud, 2002
192 pp, illustrated entirely in color, 28 x 28 cm
ISBN 2 7003 13321
Hardbound, €42
For more than twenty years, Tiziana and Gianni Baldizzone, two Italian photographers, have criss-crossed the globe in search of beautiful images. Tableaux de Sumatra is their fourth book. It offers a classical presentation of the architectural marvels of the “Island of Gold” that so fascinated colonials and traders of earlier times. It is regrettable that these monuments seem to play such a minor role in contemporary Indonesian life. The photographs are supported by the well-documented text by Antonio Guerreiro, assistant curator in charge of the island Indonesian collection at the Musée du Quai de Branly in Paris.The book is a voyage into the heart of the variety of ethnic groups that inhabit the island, from the finely ornamented palaces of the Raja of the Minangkabau monarchy to the simple houses of the Batak of Lake Toba, whose figural paintings depict scenes of daily life as well as the tragic events of the Japanese occupation of northern Sumatra from 1942 to 1945. Consistent through the island are huge curved roofs, which all of these wooden constructions have. They are reminiscent of a “crescent shaped boat.” Among the Batak, in the northern portion of the island, the roofs are decorated with sculpted polychrome panels, while in the west, among the Minangkabau, the traditional houses have roofs that evoke the horns of the sacred buffalo.
Bijoux ethniques, d'Afrique, d'Asie et des îles du Pacifique
The René van der Star collection
Photographs by Michiel Elsevier Stokmans
Published in French by Editions Philippe Picquier, 2002
256 pp, illustrated entirely in color, 28.5 x 30.5 cm
ISBN 2-87730-598-8
hardbound, €40
The René van der Star collection of ethnic jewelry is as unique for its size as it is for its quality. It includes objects from Africa, the Middle East, Central and Southeast Asia, and the Pacific islands. Each of these areas has its own style of jewelry, which has specific uses and symbolic meanings. A variety of materials are used: gold, silver, and precious stones as well as leather, coral, beads, bone, teeth, and shell. This abundantly illustrated book presents some 500 pieces, each accompanied by detailed descriptions. It also contains an assortment of texts by experts on the manufacture, history, use, and style of the pieces arranged by their region of origin. Roelof J. Munneke, curator at the Ethnology Museum of Leiden (Netherlands), for example, writes that, in the nineteenth century, young brides from well-to-do families of Turkmenistan would make their appearance on their wedding day covered with more than fifteen pounds of jewelry. Many would continue to wear this amount for years thereafter.The publication of this book coincides with the exhibition of the van der Star collection at the Kunsthal Museum in Rotterdam, and serves as a catalogue for it. A selection of vintage and recent photographs complements the objects. These images testify to the age and perennial nature of these jewelry traditions, well exemplified by the cover photo, taken around 1890, of a young Nepalese Tamang woman wearing a Kantha necklace of twenty-one gold beads.
Arts et Préhistoire, naissance mythique de l'humanité
By Jean-Pierre Mohen,
Published in French by Editions Terrail, 2002
208 pp, 150 illus in color, 24 x 30 cm
ISBN 2-87939-232-2
Softcover, €25
The first surprise is the cover of this superb book—an image of a giraffe with her offspring, engraved between 5,000 and 7,000 years ago on a rock in the western Aïr region of what is now Niger. Another is six elephant ivory anthropomorphic statuettes of naked women, with bodies of varying size, hanging breasts, and arms springing from the thorax and coming together at the abdomen. They were discovered in 1928 in the Bélaïa valley near Irkutsk in Siberia and have been dated as being 14,800 years old.A century after the first discoveries of the paintings and engravings in the caves of western Europe, sixty years after Lascaux (and more recently the Chauvet cave), the artworks, some as much as 30,000 years old, continue to amaze and challenge modern viewers. This exceptional book emphasizes recent discoveries on all five continents, and demonstrates that figural drawings had great importance in the lives of certain groups. The author, Jean-Pierre Mohen, a specialist in recent prehistory, takes a scientific and global point of view in his examination of the primordial power of these images and how they shaped the development of the oldest communities. He presents and interprets the latest findings of the Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France in Paris, which he has served as the director of since its creation in 1998.
Cabinets de curiosités
By Patrick Mauriès
Published in French by Editions Gallimard, 2002
260 pps, 250 illus, 150 in color, 22.5 x 30.5,
ISBN 2-07-011738-3
Hardbound, €70 until December 31st 2002
In this book, Patrick Mauriès retraces the history of the Cabinet of Curiosities, from its golden age to its recent resurgence - Curiosity cabinets have been very much in vogue lately. Previously published in English by Thames & Hudson, Cabinets de Curiosité has just come out in French. The author has good knowledge of museums, and explores the phenomenon of this type of collection, relying on the pertinent analysis of Adalgisa Lugli. Mauriès isolates and examines the various characteristics of the “theater of imitation, between art and nature, that was the cabinet.” He emphasizes the importance of the notions of space and the emblematic object, and cites several private collectors.Although the non-European objects illustrated are not otherwise shown than in the context of their cabinet, the book’s abundant illustrations offer some seldom seen views of some extraordinary collections. There is the cabinet of the Halle an der Saale, which was recently recreated, as well as some private interiors, where just a look cast at an object seems to invest it with new meaning. Each piece is a bit of the “miraculous.”
Roland Kaehr
