Africa is enormous—more than three times the size of the continental United States—and the art produced in this vast land reflects its rich and varied culture. Yet African art, perhaps more than any other, is widely misunderstood. Far from being "primitive," it represents a highly developed aesthetic expressed by accomplished professional artists who have complete mastery over their materials and techniques.The study of African art is in its infancy, and Westerners are only beginning to learn the complex system of symbols embodied in the carved, cast, and painted objects that altered the course of modern art early in this century. Most African art is functional, with decoration that is often secondary. Many objects are made to express and support fundamental spiritual values essential to the survival of the community. Much African art serves a directly religious function—as tribute to a spirit or as a diviner's aid. Some objects insure fertility, not only in humans, but in crops, game, and livestock as well. Cultural traditions are transmitted across the generations through works of art used in rites of initiation. Other art is political in function; images of kings proclaim their wealth and power; the possession of a crown, for example, can prove the legitimacy of a leader's succession. The arts also serve politics in the objects created for use by the men's societies that govern many villages.The 150 objects discussed and illustrated here are from the collection of Paul and Ruth Tishman, whose interest in African art began more than twenty years ago. Since then, the Tishmans have constantly refined their collection, which now contains the full range of African sculptures, from delicate sixteenth-century Sherbro-Portuguese ivories to boldly conceived wooden figures from Cameroon (front cover).For Spirits and Kings presents the art of six major regions south of the Sahara: the Western Sudan, the Guinea Coast, Nigeria, Equatorial Africa, Central Africa, and the Southeast. Susan Vogel, curator of African art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, has contributed a valuable general introduction and a brief essay on the art of each area listed. Outstanding examples of the art of each area are then illustrated with striking photographs and discussed by seventy-one eminent specialists from the United States, Europe, and Africa. Each author has written about objects in his area of expertise, and many writers have supplemented their texts with field photographs showing related objects in traditional contexts. The result is a splendid book that Philippe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan Museum, has called "an ambitious scholarly achievement, a veritable anthology of the most recent scholarship, . . . a major contribution to the field of African studies." [This book was originally published in 1981 and has gone out of print. This edition is a print-on-demand version of the original book.]

For Spirits and Kings: African Art from the Paul and Ruth Tishman Collection

Arts & Photography

Ezra, Kate

Vogel, Susan

History & Criticism

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Closeup: Lessons in the Art of Seeing African Sculpture from an American Collection and the Horstmann Collection

Thompson, Jerry L.

Museum for African Art

Closeup Lessons in the Art of Seeing African Sculpture

Center for African Art

San Francisco Private Schools (K-8)

Reference

Catalogs & Directories

Susan Vogel

Working Parents Guide to San Francisco Elementary Schools

Parenting & Relationships

Parenting

Pince-Nez Press

Working Parents Guide to San Francisco Private Elementary Schools

Education & Teaching

Schools & Teaching

Private High Schools of the San Francisco Bay Area

Becoming Pablo O'Higgins tells the intriguing story of how a blond-haired, blue-eyed Presbyterian from an upper middle-class family in Salt Lake City, Utah, became a celebrated Mexican muralist. Born Paul Higgins in 1904 into a Republican family of Mayflower English and Protestant Scots-Irish ancestry, O'Higgins boldly traveled to Mexico at age 20. He became an assistant to Diego Rivera, working with him on three of his most important murals. Rivera said if he had a son he'd want him to be like O'Higgins.O'Higgins lived in Mexico for the rest of his life gaining a reputation as an artist "of the people" who dedicated his life to the struggle of Mexico's workers. He is well-known as a muralist and co-founder of Mexico's famous Taller de Gráfica Popular. In the U.S. he is an inspiration to Chicano artists: he appears in a mural in San Diego's Chicano Park alongside Mexico's revolutionary heroes.
The transformation of Paul Higgins to Pablo O'Higgins began under Rivera's political tutelage. O'Higgins joined the Communist Party just before its Sixth Congress when it began eliminating its "middle class element." To be accepted as a populist, he distanced himself from his upbringing, suggested native Irish heritage, and kept secret his father's role as a state attorney in the execution of miner and labor martyr Joe Hill.
As an artist promoting revolutionary ideals, O'Higgins was drawn into Mexico's volatile politics. He went into hiding when the Communist Party was illegal and the Cristero Rebellion was raging, as well as after an assassination attempt on Leon Trotsky. He followed radical photographer and fugitive Tina Modotti to Russia. He left the Communist Party in the late 1940s, yet landed on the U.S. attorney general's blacklist during the 1950s. In his later years, however, he isolated himself in his studio, creating stunning landscape paintings for wealthy collectors.
Becoming Pablo O'Higgins reveals O'Higgins as a complex person who sought to reconcile his U.S. citizenship (which he held onto for most of his life) and his blue-blood ancestry with his love of Mexico and his deep desire to be accepted as a Mexican. There was no dual citizenship during O'Higgins's lifetime; he essentially created it for himself. Today, O'Higgins is admired not only for his art but for his determination to bridge these two countries and their cultures.

Becoming Pablo O'higgins

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Pince Nez Pr

Africa Explores: 20th Century African Art

Prestel Pub

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