Mentawai Art
Edited by Frank Wiggers and Bruce Carpenter
Published in English by Archipelago Press, Singapore, for Editions Didier-Millet, 1999. Contact insulinde@aol.com.
Format: 29.5 x 21 cm, 112 pages, large color photographs of objects accompanied by field photographs and drawings in color and b/w.
Hardcover: $100.00; softcover: $45.00.
This is a book eagerly awaited by some that will be an astounding surprise to
many others. The art of Mentawai has been represented only minimally in public
and private collections of tribal art of Indonesia. It is a minimalist
aesthetic, which is well-represented in the array of architectural panels,
paddles, and other objects gathered by Frank Wiggers and Bruce Carpenter,
dealers who collaborate as Insulinde Indonesian Arts. This handsome publication
reinforces the recent presentation of more than seventy Mentawai pieces by the
Douglas Dawson Gallery of Chicago. An introductory essay by noted scholar Jerome
Feldman situates us in this distinctive environment so different from that of
Nias, its aristocratic and and better-known neighbor, and explores the role of
the shaman that is evident directly or indirectly in almost every object. The
fine quality of the photographs compliments the detailed commentary on each
piece.
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Art & Life in Africa
Christopher D. Roy, Editor, L. Lee McIntyre, Developer
CD-ROM produced by the Art & Life in Africa Project, The University of Iowa, Ames, Iowa. Fax 319/335-4097 or e-mail<africart@uiowa.edu>
$50.00
This CD-ROM can be used with a MacIntosh or Windows 95/Windows 98 system, and can be installed or run directly from the CD without installing. Either way it needs a version of QuickTime as well. Once you are into the content, there are abundant alternatives, including extensive text and commentary. It more closely approximates an in-depth college textbook than a "coffee-table" browsing book. Information is organized according to Peoples, Countries, Themes, and other modes. The images of objects are not always clear, but they can be rotated, and some are accompanied by video clips. There are extensive anthropologically-oriented commentaries as well, by a galaxy of stellar authors, and a bibliography for the true omnivore. Although this disc is somewhat complex to install and the information sometimes is organized in a manner that takes getting used to, this is probably the most comprehensive approach to the subject available in this format.
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LeMusée des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie
Collective work.
Published in French by the Editions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris, 1999.
21 X 28cm, 135 pages, 124 color illustrations.
Softcover, 145FF.
Following an introduction devoted to the Art Deco architectural features of the MAAO building, which was built to house the Colonial Exhibition of 1931, and of the aquarium that is in it, this book presents a three-chapter overview of the arts of three major areas of its collection. The arts of the Maghreb countries (Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria) and their longstanding links with the East and with Europe are the subject of the first chapter. The second deals with the arts of Mali, Nigeria, Central Africa, and its Atlantic coast, and the third explores the realm of Oceanic art, with discussions of the Australian bark paintings collected by Karel
Kupka, as well as through art works from New Guinea, New Zealand, and Polynesia. The book is a feast for the eyes, and a superb introduction for all those interested in learning more about the arts from these areas.
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