By Jean Baptiste Bacquart
Published in French by éditions Assouline, Paris, 1998, and in English by Thames and Hudson, London, 1998.
Format: 23.5 x 31.5, 240 pp, 199 color illustrations, 643 B&W
Hardcover, 345 FF, £29.95, $50.This work is illustrated primarily with objects sold at public auction by Sotheby’s and pieces from private collections. It discusses the diversity of uses, the variety of forms, and the religious and cultural dimension of African art using masks, statues, and objects of daily life. Sub-Saharan Africa is divided into five major regions, which are further subdivided into 39 cultural areas, each of which is briefly described. This book is intended for those with no previous knowledge of these traditions, and is a starting point for those who wish to learn more.
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Edited by Wally Caruana and Nigel Lendon
The Painters of the Wagilag Sisters Story, 1937-1997
Published in English by the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1998.
Format: 29 x 24 cm, 176 pp, 101 full-page color plates with supplementary images in color and black and white.
Softcover: $34.95 US.Accompanying an exhibition of Aboriginal art from Central and Eastern Arnhem Land, this densely illustrated volume traces four generations of pictorial imagery that focuses on aspects of the creation myth known as the Wagilag Sisters Story. Along with striking visual imagery, it presents different aspects of the myth as transcribed from descriptions of their painting by several artists. In addition, it contains biographies of a number of the noted artists of this region, also in the words of their families or associates. The beautifully printed book is a sensitive and interesting look at one of the world’s oldest continuing artistic traditions.
Edited by J.C.H. King and Henrietta Lidchi
Published in English by the University of Washington Press, Seattle, and UBC Press, Vancouver, 1998.
Format:29.5 x 21 cm, 256 pp, extensively illustrated in black and white. Softcover.This work is a thoughtful examination of Arctic culture from Greenland to the Aleutians as it has been represented in still photography over the years. It addresses the issue of how the subjects of the images have adapted to the changing world that the medium of photography tries to capture. More importantly, however, it examines the manner in which the visual image, intentionally or unintentionally, has contributed to the way in which the region as a social, cultural, and geographical space has been collectively and subjectively “imagined.” In various essays, the more than thirty contributors examine arctic photography from a wide variety of perspectives, including documentation, sovereignty issues, the intent of the photographer, and the place of photography in contemporary Inuit life. The essays are stimulating in their content and variety, and many of the images, particularly the nineteenth-century ones, are remarkable and compelling.
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Mexique, terre des dieux. Trésors de l’art précolombien
Collective work edited by Henri Stierlin, Gérard Geiger, and Gaston Burnand.
Published in French by the Musée d’art et d’histoire de Genève, 1998.
Format: 24 x 30 cm, 295 pp., 409 color illustrations.
Softcover: 48 SFThis superbly illustrated catalogue accompanied the magnificent exhibition organized by the Musée d’art et d’histoire de Genève seen at the Musée Rath, until January 24. The catalogue quickly sold out, but a second edition is now available. The book contains essays by noted specialists on 15 civilizations and cultures of Mesoamerica that thrived before the arrival of the conquistadors in 1521. More than 400 pieces were included in the exhibition, and all are published here in color. The insightful essays about these vanished civilizations are based on the most current scholarship and present numerous hypotheses suggested by recent discoveries. Each essay ediscusses a specific region accurately and comprehensively. The book is a valuable reference and a vibrant testimony to the richness of Mesoamerican art. For information about the availability of the book, telephone 022.418.2600, or fax 022.418.2601.
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Arts et sagesses d’Afrique Noireby Ivan Bargna
Published in French by éditions Zodiaque, St.-Léger-Vauban, and in Italian by Editoriale Jaca Book, Milan, 1998.
Format: 23.5 x 30.5 cm, 256 pp, 112 color illustrations, 170 B&W
Hardcover, 450 FFIn this volume the author approaches African art from a perspective based on the present and future, abandoning the outmoded assumption that African traditions are static. The abundantly illustrated book mixes masterpieces with modest and contemporary objects; numerous photos of landscapes, both vintage and modern, are also included. The text seeks to demonstrate that African art is not characterized by the repetition of an archetype, but, instead, by its ability to articulate the present, reinvent the past, and create a future. Here, the opening of Africa to the outside world is not viewed as the beginning of cultural decay. It may have resulted in a weakening of intensity, but, the relationships established between different African cultures as well as with those of other continents allowed African art to find new forms of expression and appropriate them. The author has a background in philosophy, and the book includes an essay defining his ideas on the notions our culture has of “Africa” and “African art,” which are largely shaped by the history of relations between Africa and the West.
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Edited by Aldona Jonaitis
Published in English by the University of Washington Press, Seattle and London, 1998.
Format: 8 1/2 x 11 inches, 240 pages, 135 color illustrations, 11 B & W, maps.
Hardcover, $60.00; softcover, $35.00.This interesting book is a sampling of artwork from the collection of the University of Alaska Museum, which contains works of Alaskan art dating from prehistoric ivory carvings to paintings from this decade. At first glance the book appears to be something of a visual jumble: fine antique Yup’ik masks are shown side by side with contemporary photography and jewelry. On closer examination, however, the editor’s intent becomes clear and the illuminating essays, interviews with artists, and native poems combine with the images to create a unique view of this layered and fascinating region. The photography is well executed and the images are accompanied by lengthy and informative captions.
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By Yvonne Ayo
Eyewitness Books Series—Dorling KindersleyPublished in English by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1995
Format: 8 1/2 x 11 inches, 64 pp, profusely illustrated.
Hardcover, $19.00.This abundantly and vividly illustrated book is a marvelous introduction to African art appropriate for children but useful for novices of any age. It is arranged in terms of more than twenty themes, such as Home Life, Finding Food, Sports and Entertainment, Rulers and Leaders, Myths and Magic, Lost Wax, Masks, and Musical Instruments. These are illustrated largely by works of art but also with images of daily life in Africa. This is part of an attractive series that deals primarily with natural history, but also with ancient and tribal cultures. Other volumes cover “Aztec, Inca and Maya” and “North American Indian” peoples.
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By Nicholas Thomas
Possessions: Indigenous Art/Colonial Culture
Published in English by Thames and Hudson, New York, 1999
Format: 9 1/4 x 6 1/8 inches, 304 pp, 183 illustrations. 20-in color.
Softcover, $24.95.
Tribal art has been one of the great inspirations for twentieth century Western artists. Picasso, Matisse, Ernst, and Brancusi, to name just a few, responded in unforgettable ways to masks, sculpture, and other forms of indigenous African, Oceanic, and American art. While the result has been profound, the politics of this relationship have long been a matter of contention: is it a cross-cultural discovery to be celebrated, or just one more example of Western colonial appropriation.
This revelatory book focuses on artistic and cultural exchange in the specific and distinctive situation of the settler society—countries such as the United States, Australia, and New Zealand where large numbers of Europeans have made their home, displacing and outnumbering but never entirely eclipsing native peoples. Focusing primarily on the Australian and New Zealand experience of this phenomenon, it examines the dynamic of dispossession and resistance in which powerful indigenous art traditions are used to assert the presence of native peoples and their claim to prior sovereignty, yet settler artists and designers draw upon the same motifs in their search for national distinctiveness. Such cultural exchange proves to be a two-way process. While still affirming traditional values, much contemporary indigenous art draws on modern Western art, though it continues to reject the European appropriation of tribal culture.
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The Tribal Arts of Africa
AFRICA