Tribal Art

Based on an exhibition of 85 exceptional works from private American collections and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C., this book joins the few publications devoted to the artistic traditions of southern Africa.
Surprisingly diverse and limitless in their inventiveness, materials, forms and styles, the works from this part of the continent defy any specific ethnic attribution. Small and portable in nature - snuff containers, pipes, headrests, sticks, beer vessels, beaded clothing - they were created by semi-nomadic cattle-raising peoples and are mainly intended for everyday use.
Their softened edges and glossy patinas are obvious signs of wear. Whether figurative or abstract, carved in wood, ivory or horn, or made of fabric, ...

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A fascinating collection of ritual wooden objects called "spirit boards" made in the Gulf of Papua New Guinea. They represent the spirits that protect the clans from disease, evil spirits and death.
The first book, devoted exclusively to this subject, places the various works in their local context with the help of historical and field photographs. The sculptural forms called "spirit boards" are known by different names in the many ethnic regions of the Gulf of Papua, and are called gope in several languages.

Author: Virginia-Lee Webb
Color and black and white photographs
Condition: nine
Language: English
Number of pages: 355
Dimensions: 360 x 250 mm
Bound
ISBN : 978-8874397051

Spirits incarnate. Gulf of Papua Votive Boards presents a selection of wood carvings designated as "votive boards", made in the Gulf of Papua, Papua New Guinea, and coming from important collections. Known by different names in the many ethnic regions of the Gulf, they are called gope in several languages. They are the embodiment of powerful spirits and are traditionally made of wood salvaged from ancient dugout canoes and most often decorated on one side with painted and carved patterns that reflect the identity of a clan. This is the first book devoted exclusively to this subject and places the works in their local, historical and contemporary context, thanks to texts by Robert L. Welsch and Thomas Schultze-Westrum, as well as Virginia-Lee Webb's work on ancient photographs taken by ...

"Singes Baule" is the first book dedicated to these sculptures so far removed from the refined and delicate artistic canon of Baule masks and effigies. These frightening cup bearers harboring invisible forces both evil and beneficial served their community through diviners. Based on a remarkable set of statues from the Africarium Collection, this book studies the creation, morphology, and use of cup bearers in their ritual and cultural context.
The product of extensive research of existing texts and the observation of hundreds of objects, this book presents fascinating discoveries, an original map and unpublished field photographs, and illustrates fifteen objects from the Africarium and forty cup bearers from public and private collections.

Authors: Bruno Claessens ...

"Singes Baule" is the first book dedicated to these sculptures so far removed from the refined and delicate artistic canon of Baule masks and effigies. These frightening cup bearers harboring invisible forces both evil and beneficial served their community through diviners. Based on a remarkable set of statues from the Africarium Collection, this book studies the creation, morphology, and use of cup bearers in their ritual and cultural context.
The product of extensive research of existing texts and the observation of hundreds of objects, this book presents fascinating discoveries, an original map and unpublished field photographs, and illustrates fifteen objects from the Africarium and forty cup bearers from public and private collections.

Authors: Bruno Claessens ...

Expressing one of the many Luba sub-styles, the great male figures created by the master sculptors of the Hemba culture in southeastern Congo since at least the mid-1800s are undoubtedly among the noblest sculptural representations of the human figure in sub-Saharan Africa. With their serene gaze and meditative expression, they exude a tranquility and dignity appropriate to these idealized portraits commemorating the esteemed leaders of the past. Imbued with a vital force, these objects invested by the spirit were capable of communicating between the living and the dead. Through their inner power, they had the ability to impact the material sphere by enabling ancestors to positively influence the well-being of their surviving relatives.
In this publication, through the insightful ...

Legendary, the fabulous gold resources of West Africa are well known. But in the collections, the jewels rarely date back beyond the beginning of this century. The others, the oldest, have mostly been melted down.
Laure Meyer has therefore endeavored to make the surviving documents speak for themselves. To make archaeology speak, to draw from oblivion the ornaments of a mythical queen of the Tuareg. To make speak the texts of the Arab authors of the Middle Ages, evoking the slow caravans loaded with gold which crossed the Sahara.
For gold as for silver, the techniques of the goldsmiths are exhibited here with precision, so that nothing disturbs this precious vision of a sumptuously adorned Africa.

Author: Laure Meyer
Color photographs
Condition: ...

The traditional art forms of the Admiralty Islands occupy an important place in the art of the South Sea Islands. The originality of their work is manifested in monumental sculptures and beautiful wooden bowls and dishes as well as small instruments of virtuoso design. The works are decorated in a rich palette of red, black, brown and white tones that give severe and strongly contrasting visual effects.

Rietberg Museum
Condition: NEW
Language: English
Number of pages: 211
Dimensions: 300 x 230 mm
ISBN : 978-3907077023

African images of motherhood dominate wherever the visual arts are valued, from early rock art sites to recent forms, from ancient Egypt to Ethiopian Christianity. Available in a variety of materials - sculptures in wood, terracotta or metal, but also in ivory, stone, gold leaf or painted - everyone, from the little people to the king, uses images of mothers and children.

Author: Herbert M. Cole
Color photographs
Condition: NEW
Language: French
Number of pages: 373
Dimensions: 300 x 250 mm
Bound
ISBN : 978-9462301818

African images of motherhood dominate wherever the visual arts are valued, from early rock art sites to recent forms, from ancient Egypt to Ethiopian Christianity. Available in a variety of materials - sculptures in wood, terracotta or metal, but also in ivory, stone, gold leaf or painted - everyone, from the little people to the king, uses images of mothers and children.

Author: Herbert M. Cole
Color photographs
Status: NEW
Language: English
Number of pages: 373
Dimensions: 300 x 250 mm
Linked
ISBN : 978-0300229158

Within the teeming Yoruba pantheon, Shango is one of the most powerful deities: he embodies a fearsome force of nature that strikes with lightning and meteorites.
At once man, king and force of nature, he is a particularly complex support of Yoruba thought in Benin and Nigeria, between energy and balance.
As part of his cult, the faithful surround themselves with objects of remarkable symbolism. The oshe, a stick decorated with a double axe, is the most varied of all: held in the hand during the dance of possession, it extends the arm and gestures of the person holding it and enhances them with its refined aesthetics, sometimes very descriptive, or on the contrary very abstract. It contributes to assert by its beauty and diversity the magnificence of the altar where food ...

The first monograph devoted to the artistic and symbolic production of the Babembe people, established on the shores of Lake Tanganika, this richly illustrated book presents the anthropomorphic wooden sculptures that this people devoted to the cult of ancestors. The majority of them are reproduced here for the first time; their decoration bears witness to the tattoos, scarification and skin ornaments that the Babembe used to embellish their bodies during initiation rituals.

Authors: Raoul Lehuard and Alain Lecomte
Color photographs
Condition: NEW
Language: French and English
Number of pages: 211
Dimensions: 290 x 250 mm
Linked
ISBN : 978-8874395446

This catalog format was produced to accompany a traveling exhibition of Walter Bareiss' collection of African art.
The collection, although only recently established, is intriguing because of its high quality and because it focuses on East and South Africa, regions that are often neglected.
Roy's introduction is incisively critical of the overemphasis placed by scholars and collectors on West African art. His essay describing the main categories of objects represented in the collection is not innovative in its approach but will be useful to the general reader.
The greatest strength of this book lies both in George Meister's exquisite photography, which highlights the visual power of the collected objects, and in Roy's catalog entries, which have been thoroughly ...

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This comprehensive study of how African and Oceanic arts were introduced to Europe and the United States in the late twentieth century uses the highly regarded Genevieve McMillan Collection as a prism to examine collecting strategies at the intersection of the political conditions of colonialism and independence, and the ongoing study of African and Oceanic arts.
The objects that comprise it include sculptures, textiles and musical instruments, some of which were collected in the field, others passed through international art trade centers such as Paris and Brussels, and still others arrived with African "runners" who helped locate items for sale.
As the market expanded, more and more types of objects joined the canon of what constituted art, ...

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Focusing on a unique and extensive collection of figurative sculpture from sub-Saharan Africa, this book examines not only each distinctive piece, but also the ways in which these works of art express value systems and cultural relationships within and outside Africa.
The Richard H. Scheller Collection, presented in this book and exhibited at the de Young in San Francisco, offers a diverse portrait of sub-Saharan African sculpture. More than 100 distinct ethnic groups from over 20 countries today are represented in this book by works of art spanning several centuries and encompassing a wide range of styles, from realism to abstraction. In their original context, these objects represent ancestors, express community values, and serve religious and ...

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Kastom: Arts of Vanuatu showcases an impressive array of traditional arts through a field collection program that took place on the islands of Ambrym and Malakula.
At the heart of many traditional practices, better known as "kastom", are masked performances and exhibitions of sculptures, including emblematic vertical split drums.
A selection of these intensely visual works, created for ritual events, made of wood, overmodeled with clay, feathers, pig's tusks, stone and other surprising media such as tree fern, is presented.
These arts are remarkably unchanged from those of more than a century ago; kastom is an inseparable part of Ni-Vanuatu culture.

National Gallery of Australia
Color photographs
Condition: ...

Ralph T. Coe has been collecting Native American art for half a century, forming a renowned collection that represents all regions and periods of Native American art. This catalog presents two hundred works from Coe's remarkable collection. It includes exquisite examples of prehistoric stone objects, button blankets, crest objects, masks, canoe and tipi designs, dolls and figurines, woven basketry, tobacco paraphernalia, and a selection of contemporary works, all of which bring to life the living cultures of American Indians through the centuries.
In the accompanying text, Coe describes his many trips to the United States and Canada in search of items for his collection. The catalog also includes an essay by Eugene V. Thaw on Coe's contribution to awareness of the artistic legacy ...

Living between the Lubudi and Kasai Rivers in south central Democratic Republic of Congo, the Luluwa are known for their intricate figurative carvings, masks and decorative arts.
Constantin Petridis, director of the Department of African and American Arts at the Art Institute of Chicago, draws on first-hand reports written by explorers, missionaries, colonial officials, anthropologists and art historians between 1880 and 1970 to situate Luluwa art in the environment where it was originally produced and used.
Through the analysis of published and unpublished sources, as well as collectibles and archival photographs, this monograph sheds new light on the historical context of one of Central Africa's most spectacular artistic heritages.

Text: Constantin ...

Living between the Lubudi and Kasai Rivers in south central Democratic Republic of Congo, the Luluwa are known for their intricate figurative carvings, masks and decorative arts.
Constantin Petridis, director of the Department of African and American Arts at the Art Institute of Chicago, draws on first-hand reports written by explorers, missionaries, colonial officials, anthropologists and art historians between 1880 and 1970 to situate Luluwa art in the environment where it was originally produced and used.
Through the analysis of published and unpublished sources, as well as collectibles and archival photographs, this monograph sheds new light on the historical context of one of Central Africa's most spectacular artistic heritages.

Text: Constantin ...

cOne of the most comprehensive overviews of weapons in Central Africa.
Catalog of the Central African weapons collection of the Museum für Völkerkunde, Frankfurt/Germany.
It presents in images on 390 pages about 350 swords and knives, axes, spears, shields, etc..

Black and white photographs
Condition: NEW
Language: English - German
Number of pages: 388
Dimensions: 210 x 210 mm
Bound
ISBN : 978-3882703542

Momentary out-of-stock.
If the foundations of the Josette and Jean-Claude Weill collection are based on painting, their passion for the search for new forms quickly led them to embrace the infinite diversity of tribal art. Expanded over the decades, under the enthusiastic direction of their son Jean-Pierre, the collection now includes more than 120 works of the highest level, covering Africa, Oceania and the Americas.
This book will be an opportunity to unveil the Parisian collection wrapped in mystery, whose importance is equaled only by its confidentiality. In order to allow the reader to grasp the richness and diversity of its contents, the books are all accompanied by notes written by experts, including Viviane Baeke (Museum of Africa, Tervuren), Philippe Dagen ...