This innovative and comprehensive book approaches African Art from a historical perspective rather than an anthropological perspective. A History of Art in Africa shows how African Art has developed from beliefs, traditions, cultural and historical influences. It challenges current perceptions of African Art and presents it as intellectual and intentional in it's own right, rather than as intuitive or “primal” impulses, as it has been previously perceived. The book also covers the entire continent of Africa, including Egypt, and incorporates the creative influences of Islamic and Christian religious artistic traditions as well. A discussion of contemporary Africa Art includes the works of the Diaspora. Five part organization of the book's content allows the user to select which geographical area of the continent to explore first. Useful to anyone interested in African Art or art history.

A History of Art In Africa

Arts & Photography

Harris, Michael D.

Cole, Herbert M.

Visonà, Monica Blackmun

Poyner, Robin

History & Criticism

Pearson College Div

Informed by the latest scholarship yet written for the general reader, this has been the first comprehensive study to present the arts of Africa in art historical terms. A History of Art in Africa covers all parts of the continent, including Egypt, from prehistory to the present day and includes the art of the African Diaspora. Many aspects of visual culture are given detailed consideration, including sculpture, architecture, and such quintessentially African forms as masquerades, festivals, and personal adornment. The arts of daily life, of royal ceremony, and of state cosmology receive compelling discussions. Throughout, the authors emphasize the cultural contexts in which art is produced and imbued with meanings.Among the ancient works illustrated are masterpieces in brass, gold, ivory, stone and terracotta. Religious arts serving Islamic and Christian communities are presented, as are fascinating hybrid arts that periodically arose from African interactions with Europe, Asia and the Americas. Twentieth-century arts are explored as part of the vibrancy of modern Africa and as ingenious responses to historical change. 'Twenty-first-century African artists, and artists of the African Diaspora, are presented in the context of changing global economies and new theoretical positions.This expanded and revised second edition provides a new chapter on African artists working abroad, and five new short essays on cross-cultural topics such as tourist arts, dating methods, and the illicit trade in archaeological artifacts. The illustrations - featuring a vast and rich array of images of artworks, archival and contemporary field photographs, explanatory drawings and plans, and individual objects displayed in museums and in use - have likewise been greatly extended, with many more pictures now shown in color.

History of Art in Africa: Second Edition

Poynor, Robin

Discontinued 3PD

One of the most fascinating artistic phenomena in tropical Africa, mbari houses are little known outside Igboland. Art historian Herbert M. Cole has drawn from his extensive research in eastern Nigeria to produce the first book-length study of this unusual art form. Cole describes the building of a mbari mud house to honor the gods, a process rich in tradition and ritual, marked by body painting, drumming, dancing, singing, and chanting. The ecology, socio-cultural systems, and religion of the Owerri area are examined as a backdrop to the elaborate stage of the building process, which may take up to two years to complete. Illustrated with rare field photographs and superb line drawings, this volume describes and interprets mbari houses not as isolated works of art but as monuments growing out of, and expressive of, the values and beliefs of Owerri Igbo culture.

Mbari: Art and the Life Among the Owerri Igbo (Traditional Arts of Africa)

Indiana University Press

On the African continent, images of mothers and children are found wherever the visual arts are, from early rock-art sites in Egypt and the Sahara to the contemporary arts of South Africa. Discovered in a variety of materials, from stone, ivory, and metals to beadwork, wood, and even paintings, images of maternity enliven virtually every type of object made in the region. Defining maternity as a biological and cultural phenomenon, the author goes beyond obvious notions of fertility to consider the importance of maternity in thought, ritual action, and worldview. Maternity images of all eras evoke deep and significant messages – well beyond what meets the eye.

Maternity: Mothers and Children in the Arts of Africa

Mercatorfonds

Looks at fundamental themes in African sculpture, shows a variety of iconic artworks, and describes their role in African society

Icons: Ideals and Power in the Art of Africa

Photography & Video

Smithsonian

Looks at fundamental themes in African sculpture, shows a variety of iconic artworks, and describes their role in African society

Igbo Arts: Community and Cosmos

Aniakor, Chike C.

Univ of California Museum of

This book celebrates and explores the sculpture and masks of the many diverse ethnic groups living in Southeastern Nigeria. The peoples of this region-the populous Igbo and a dozen nearby but smaller groups-are famous for their artistic creativity. This illuminating book focuses on the area's sculptural arts-mostly figures and masks-examining these mostly unpublished works through the dual lenses of invention and tradition, and with many early and recent contextual photographs. More than 150 examples, dating from the past two centuries, reveal both surprising similarities and differences in artwork by Igbo, Isoko, Urhobo, Ijo, Ogoni, Ibibio, Oron, Eket, Ejagham/Efut, Bokyi, Tiv, Idoma, and Igala peoples. Qualities such as the nature of realism, idealism, and abstraction, the nuances of surface and detail, and the inventiveness of facial and other features, as well as complex uses and meanings, are all addressed in this exciting fresh overview that adds considerably to our understanding of African Art.

Invention and Tradition: The Art of Southeastern Nigeria

Reference

Prestel

•Many little-known objects are included alongside a generous sampling of the thousands of masks that are perhaps the quintessential forms of Igbo art, famous for its diversity, inventiveness, and aesthetic quality This wide-ranging survey of art made by the 15 to 20 million Igbo people of southeastern Nigeria focuses on the twentieth century but also takes a look at the extraordinary ninth and tenth-century BC cast copper alloy and ceramic finds that influenced Igbo artworks created twenty centuries later. Ceremonial contexts and meanings are explained, covering art associated with individuals as well as communal works and ranging from personal decoration to architectural forms, from household objects to cult sculpture, title regalia, and public shrines.

Igbo: Visions of Africa Series

5Continents

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cole, Herbert M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Cole, Herbert M.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cole, Herbert M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A History of Art In Africa

History of Art in Africa: Second Edition

Mbari: Art and the Life Among the Owerri Igbo (Traditional Arts of Africa)

Maternity: Mothers and Children in the Arts of Africa

Icons: Ideals and Power in the Art of Africa

Icons: Ideals and Power in the Art of Africa

Igbo Arts: Community and Cosmos

Invention and Tradition: The Art of Southeastern Nigeria

Igbo: Visions of Africa Series