BOOKS
ETHNIC RINGS FROM AFRIQA, ASIA, AND THE AMERICAS
By Anne van Cutsem
Published by Skira Editore, Milan, 2000. French edition, Editions du Seuil, Paris; English edition, Abbeville for the US and Canada, Thames and Hudson for the rest of the world; German edition, Gingko Press Gmbh.
Format: 25 X 28.5 cm, 230 pages, 167 color plates.
Hardcover, 295FF, $50, £29.95 UK, DM98, 90,000 Italian Lire
Since time immemorial the ring has served as an insignia of power, a symbol of alliance, fidelity, wealth, social status, and nobility. This work presents 967 round, square, oval, and hexagonal rings of steel, bronze, gold, and silver-some with precious stones or ivory-from all over the world. All the pieces in the book are from the private collection of ethnic jewelry of Colette and Jean-Pierre Ghysels. Continent by continent, the author explains the historical and cultural context in which these simultaniously ornamental and functional objects were produced. An index and glossary supply additional information. This book will be followed this autumn by a volume on earrings.[back]
AFRICAN FORMS
By Marc Ginzberg
Published by Skira Editore, Milan, 2000. French edition, Editions du Seuil, Paris; English edition, Abbeville for the USA and Canada, Thames and Hudson for the rest of the world; Italian edition Skira Editore, German by Gingko Press Gmbh.
Format: 25 X 28.5cm, 230 pages, 167 color plates.
Hardcover, 500FF, $75, DM148, £48 UK, 140,000 I. Lire.
In Africa, no clear distinction is made between art and craft, but in the West books and publications devoted exclusively to African crafts and the remarkable utilitarian objects African cultures have produced are all too rare. This work addresses these objects, which were collected and studied along with the better-known masks and figural sculptures but have been so long neglected. The author, himself a well-known collector, seeks both to heighten our artistic perceptions and to provide a better understanding of Africa by presenting these "humble" ethnic craft objects as remarkable works of form and utility. They deserve the attention-ritual and utilitarian objects have equal value as testimonies to the evolution of aesthetic sensibilities and are both tangible expressions of the symbolically charged African material cultures.
Though not truly encyclopedic, this superbly illustrated book features objects of daily life from all over Africa that bridge the material and spiritual lives of the cultures they come from. While many of these objects-which include weapons, jewelry, textiles, musical instruments, and furniture-are of relatively simple manufacture, they are often truly refined. The objects are thoroughly described and presented in this manner attain the status of true works of art.[back]
AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF TRADITIONAL MONEY
by Charles J. Opitz
Published in English by First Impressions Printing, Ocala, Florida, 2000.
Format: 11" x 8 1/2", 410 pp, 150 color illustrations, 1,050 b&w.
Hardcover, $80.00.
This extensively illustrated book is the product of the author's lifelong fascination with objects used as currency around the world. After a short introduction, a dizzying array of currency objects from cultures as diverse as Highland New Guinea, Coptic Ethiopia, and Depression-Era United States is presented in more-or-less alphabetical order, sometimes by object name, sometimes by material, sometimes by culture. Despite the fact that many of the illustrations are of poor quality and that the introduction readily admits that the information between the covers is often anecdotal and subject to error because of the wide variety of sources drawn upon, the book has value as a general identification guide to an insufficiently published object genre. Collaboration with a scholarly editor and more extensive references to source material could make a future edition of this work a valuable reference tool. Interestingly, the book is accompanied by a price guide for the object types which provides an exogenous scale of value in U.S. dollars for the various currency types in question.[back]
WEAVING THE DANCE: NAVAJO YEIBICHAI TEXTILES (1910-1950)
by Rebecca M. Valette and Jean-Pierre Valette
Published in English by Adobe Gallery, Albuquerque, in association with the University of Washington Press, Seattle, 2000.
Format: 10" x 9 1/2", 72 pp, 51 color illustrations, 6 b&w, maps.
Softcover, $19.95.
Yeibichai textiles are artistic interpretations of the Yeibichai dance, a sacred rite that concludes the nine-day Navajo ceremony known as Nightway. Despite their theme, even the earliest of these textiles were never intended for sacred use but were produced specifically for sale to an Anglo clientele. Early scholars dismissed these novel weavings as bad examples of tourist art and a "passing fad," but the textiles continued to be produced and now form a unique and important substyle of Navajo weaving. Weaving the Dance is the first book to focus exclusively on the early development of this special category of twentieth-century Navajo textiles.[back]
NOTES ON THE PORO IN NIGERIA AND MASKS AS AGENTS OF SOCIAL CONTROL IN NORTHEAST LIBERIA
by George W. Harley, 1941 and 1950[back]
ANASAZI PAINTED POTTERY
by Paul S. Martin et Elizabeth Willis, 1940[back]
PUEBLO POTTERY MAKING
by Carl E. Guthe, 1925
Facsimile editions republished in English by Ethnographic Arts Publications, Mill Valley, California, and Martino Publishing, Mansfield, Connecticut, 2001.
Format: 11" x 8 1/2", 115 pp, 284 pp, and 131 pp, respectively; profusely illustrated in b&w.
Hardcover, $95, $185, and $120. Available from the publishers.
See www.tribalartbooks.com
These are three well-printed and well-bound facsimile editions of rare and seminal works in African and Southwest Indian ethnology. Martin and Willis's work is based on the collection of 5,000 unbroken specimens in the Field Museum in Chicago excavated primarily in the 1880s and 1890s in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. This methodical typology established the taxonomy used today to classify this tradition of Prehistoric pottery. Guthe's work is an astonishingly detailed discussion of technical and artistic considerations relating to pottery making in the San Ildefonso Pueblo in New Mexico, renowned as the home of Maria Martinez, whose photo appears on the frontispiece. Harley's two short papers are bound together in a single volume. His early research about secret initiatory societies among the Dan complex is still of interest, but the extensive photographs of Dan artwork make the new availability of these two papers particularly exciting. Each of these three works has been reprinted in a limited edition of between 100 and 200 copies.[back]
THE TRANSFORMING IMAGE: PAINTED ARTS OF NORTHWEST COAST FIRST NATIONS
by Bill McLennan and Karen Duffek
Published in English by the University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver/Toronto, and the University of Washington Press, Seattle, 2001.
Format: 10 3/4" x 9 1/4", 320 pp, 193 color illustrations, 711 b&w, maps. Hardcover, $60.00.
This book was intended to accompany an exhibition of the same name, but has considerably expanded upon the material that was originally displayed to create a comprehensive survey of Northwest Coast painting styles. Its source is the Image Recovery Project of the University of British Columbia, which is a database of infrared photographs of historical Northwest Coast paintings from around the world that has been compiled over a period of nearly twenty years. The process of infrared photography provides clear definition for antique painted motifs that may otherwise appear as worn or faded elements on such objects as bentwood storage boxes, chiefs' chests, drums, and other objects that served as the canvas for Northwest Coast painters in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This book illustrates the paintings on hundreds of such objects, along with stylistic and technical analysis and historical notes. In many cases the recovery of these paintings appears little short of miraculous; the photographs taken in visible light show only an age-darkened surface while the infrared images reveal a complex masterpiece of heraldic art. Dozens of historic photographs and engravings showing examples of painted objects as they looked early in the last century or earlier complement the object photos. Innumerable fine volumes on Northwest Coast art have been published in recent years, but this one stands unique as a record of the variety and complexity of painting in the region.[back]
TRADITIONAL WEAPONS OF THE INDONESIAN ARCHIPELAGO
By Albert G. van Zonneveld
Published in English by Verre Volken Art Books/C. Zwartenkot, Leiden. Available July 2001. For information: fax 31 (0) 71 52 89 128, e-mail info@ethnographicartbooks.com
Website: www.ethnographicartbooks.com
Format: 23.5 X 30.2 cm, 160 pages, 600 color and b/w illustrations.
Hardcover.
This is an in depth study of the traditional weapons of the Indonesian archipelago, the culmination of the author's twenty years of research. The six hundred illustrations are of objects from the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, as well as from private collections, and the book will be an invaluable reference tool. Weapons are classified not only by their names, but also by characteristics, for instance by the shape of blade. This will enable the user to identify a type without knowing its name. The author was assisted in his research by Nico de Jonge, specialist in the art and culture of the Moluccas and eastern Indonesia, and curator at the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, by David van Duuren, a Kris specialist and curator at the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam, and by David Stuart Fox, librarian at the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden.[back]
KUNST DER WELT IM RAUTENSTRAUCH-JOEST-MUSEUM, KÖLN
Edited by Gisela Völger
Published in German by Prestel, Munich/London/New York, 2000.
Format: 24.5 X 30.5 cm, 232 pages, 91 color illustrations, 11 duo-tone, 91 b/w.
Hardcover.
This catalogue was published in conjunction with the Kunst der Welt (Art of the World) exhibition produced by the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum of Cologne and features objects from its newly reinstalled collections. After an introduction which pays tribute to various donors, in particular to the Joest and Rautenstrauch families, each continent is represented with a selection of the most significant objects in the collections. The full-page illustrations are accompanied by thorough descriptions written by specialists and by field photographs and old illustrations showing people and objects in situ. The presentation of the collections is extended with a chapter devoted to the photographic archives and ends with a history of the museum's collections, which pays tribute to the collectors, travelers, and researchers without whom the museum's collection would not be what it is today.[back]
ARTS D'AFRIQUE
Edited by Christiane Falgayrettes-Leveau
Published in French by the Musée Dapper and Editions Gallimard, Paris, 2000.
Format: 25 x 32.5 cm, 359 pp., 242 col. ill., 27B/W.
Hardcover, 300FF; Softcover (at the museum), 200FF.
This book is abundantly illustrated (albeit many of the illustrations are of objects previously published) and celebrates the opening of the Musée Dapper's new space and its eponymous exhibition, which will be on view until June 30. The various represented cultural areas are each accompanied by an essay which places each work in its social, ritual, and symbolic context. Marianne Cornevin attempts to establish a chronology of the history of Nigerian art. Stefan Eisenhofer writes about the courtly art of the kingdom of Benin, and of its relationship with the West. Henry John Drewal, a Yoruba specialist, writes about the Yoruba vision of the universe and about the relationship of objects to ancestors and gods. Christiane Falgayrettes-Leveau contributes an essay on African society and its approach to art. Youssouf T. Cissé devotes one chapter to Dogon culture with "From Myth to Reality" and another to Bambara culture with "Gods and Men." Daniela Bognolo explains the concept of "Thil," a vital principle among the Lobi. Vincent Bouloré explores the many styles of the Ivory Coast. Jean-Paul Notué offers an interpretation of Cameroon and Fang sculpture. Jean Nsondé shares the complex Kongo vision of the world with us, and Constantin Petridis discusses the concepts of power and religion through an analysis of the arts of the Congo basin. Raphael Visocekas concludes with an article on the various dating techniques which are used on African art objects.[back]
MAINS DE MAÎTRES.
À LA DÉCOUVERTE DES SCULPTEURS D'AFRIQUE
Edited by Bernard de Grunne.
Published by Banque Bruxelles Lambert, bilingual French/Dutch, Brussels, 2001.
Format: 24 X 30 cm, 272 pages, 166 color illustrations, 15 b/w.
Softcover, 1,200BEF.
This important catalogue was published in conjunction with a magnificent exhibition currently on view in Brussels. The book brings together a collection of essays by several experts (Ezio Basani, Bernard de Grunne, Bettina von Lintig, Louis Perrois, Sandra Klopper, and Klaus-Jochen Kruger), each with special expertise in one specific area or cultural group in Africa. The authors share in common the desire to find out more about the attribution of African art works to specific individuals and to learn more about the styles of individual artists. The present study limits itself to statuary. The authors examine, make formal comparisons, and study the iconographic details of a large corpus of material in an attempt to trace the individual styles of great sculptors. This in-depth study makes fascinating stylistic comparisons and offers an identification key for various works executed by the same hand or school. It concludes with both stimulating questions about, and hypotheses on, the traditional art of Africa.[back]
TLINGIT. ALTE INDIANISCHE KUNST AUS ALASKA
Edited by Judith Rickenbach.
Published in German by Vontobel/Rietberg Museum, Zurich, 2001.
Format: 23.5 X 30.5 cm, 256 pages, 154 color illustrations, 40 b/w.
Hardbound, 48 Swiss Francs.
The Rietberg Museum has done well to publish this work in conjunction with its exhibition of ethnographic objects from Alaska, drawn primarily from the remarkable collections of the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography in St. Petersburg. The exhibit shows 110 sculptures, masks, weapons, and wickerwork pieces from the Museum, to which another 11 from the Rietberg's own collections are added.
The objects featured here were collected by Russian voyagers, merchants, and explorers in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and are remarkable for their beauty and variety. There are Eskimo ivories and masks, exceptionally fine Aleut hats, and rare Athabascan Indian items. Most important of all are the Northwest Coast Indian objects, which certainly constitute one of the greatest and oldest collections in existence. The majority of the material is Tlingit. By virtue of its abundant illustrations and its complete and concise text, this book is destined to become an important reference source.[back]
