Tribal Art

cInspired by the museum's three finest works of African sculpture, Crosscurrents explores the art of three neighboring peoples whose territories are located in the river systems of southeastern Congo.
The Luba, Songye and Hemba peoples have a long history of contact, while maintaining differences in language, social and political systems, cultural memory and artistic expression.
The ancestral figures of the socially engaged art of the Hemba people share the same elegance of form but are mainly male figures. Songye art is marked by a more geometric style and an emphasis on spiritual power. The museum's prestigious male and female stools were first attributed to the hand of a Luba artist and are now identified as two of fifteen such works known to have been produced by a ...

This book, which is published on the occasion of the museum's opening, reveals a collection of 77 important works from the Royal Museum for Central Africa. A series of scholars, curators, and experts in African art offer an examination and analysis of each of these pieces. Many of the works collected here are in the gallery assigned to the temporary exhibition "Unrivalled Art". Others can be found in the rooms devoted to the permanent exhibition. Finally, some of the works allow us to take a look behind the scenes of the RMCA, in the muffled atmosphere of the repositories, of which the general public knows nothing. Researcher and curator Julien Volper has selected pieces that come not only from the Congo, but also from other countries, such as Angola or Gabon. They are sometimes physical ...

Momentary out of stock.
This book, which is published on the occasion of the opening of the museum, unveils a collection of 77 important works from the Royal Museum for Central Africa collection. A series of scholars, curators, and experts in African art offer a review and analysis of each of these pieces.
Many of the works collected here are in the gallery assigned to the temporary exhibition "Unrivalled Art". Others can be found in the rooms dedicated to the permanent exhibition. Finally, some works allow us to take a look behind the scenes of the RMCA, in the hushed atmosphere of the depots, which the general public is unaware of. Researcher and curator Julien Volper has selected pieces that come not only from the Congo, but also from other countries, such as Angola and ...

For the past twenty years, the Barbier-Mueller Museum has organized exhibitions that have traveled throughout Europe, North America and the Far East. The museum has presented to all its visitors its vast collections of "tribal" art, gathered for more than three-quarters of a century by three generations of the same family.
These exhibitions have been seen in some of the world's leading art institutions, the Metropolitan Museum of New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Los Angeles County Museum and the Brooklyn Museum.
In general, no less than three exhibitions are open to the public at a time, each with a catalog written by the most competent specialists in the field. This explains the museum's worldwide renown, as it is indeed ...

The carefully selected objects in this publication from West, Central and East Africa, through their distinctive forms, invite us to renew our perception and understanding of the messages they contain.
The humble acceptance of our fragmented knowledge can turn into an enigma. This approach to the object, considered as a secret, awakens the mind and the heart to realities that we hardly suspected. To accept the enigma is to recognize that part of the mystery of the object escapes us and that the other part, invisible, can appear to us. Such is the path proposed in this book: to find keys to knowledge and deepening on the stylistic and aesthetic levels.

Authors: François Neyt and Hugues Dubois
Color photographs
Condition: NEW
Language: French and ...

Over 130 works from the collection assembled by Drs. Nicole and John Dintenfass over fifty years.
The Dintenfass Collection serves as a model and inspiration for both beginning and seasoned collectors. An alternative approach to collecting that goes beyond buying from dealers. A richly illustrated book that traces the origin of a collector's interest in African art and analyzes the psychological aspects that drive collecting passions.
The Nicole and John Dintenfass collection is well known and aesthetically based, and the works have been reproduced in numerous publications. They have collected with passion, diligence, depth and rigor monumental sculptures and wooden miniatures from most parts of Africa.
Focusing on pieces of the highest artistic quality, this book ...

More than 130 works from the collection gathered by Drs Nicole and John Dintenfass over fifty years.
The Dintenfass collection serves as a model and source of inspiration for beginners and experienced collectors alike. Another approach to the collection that is not limited to buying from dealers. A richly illustrated book that traces the origin of a collector's interest in African art and analyzes the psychological aspects that drive a collector's passions.
The Nicole and John Dintenfass collection is well known and aesthetically based, and the works have been reproduced in numerous publications. They have collected with passion, diligence, depth and rigor monumental sculptures and wooden miniatures from most parts of Africa.
Focusing on pieces of the highest ...

Visions of Grace: 100 Masterpieces from the Collection of Daniel and Marian Malcolm highlights 100 works from the famous collection assembled by Drs. Daniel and Marian Malcolm. Gathered over more than four decades, it is one of the finest private collections of pre-colonial African art and as such serves as a model and source of inspiration for both beginning and established collectors.
Focusing on pieces of the highest artistic quality, the Malcolm's are particularly fascinated by creative expressions that reflect the religious beliefs, social structures and traditional values of the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa.
The author focuses on the diversity and depth of the collection, providing historical, sociological, and religious contexts while exploring the source of ...

If the Maya are famous for their architectural achievements, notably the magnificent sites of Chichen Itza, Tulum or Tikal, they did not become less famous in other artistic forms, starting with sculpture. Today, the Pinacothèque de Paris would like to highlight this lesser-known aspect of their culture.

Author: Sofia Martinez del Campo Lanz
Condition: NEW
Language: French
Number of pages: 311
Dimensions: 280 x 250 mm
ISBN : 9782358670227

The Royal Museum for Central Africa offers an exhibition of a new kind. Indeed, it stages and confronts African sculptors, in this case Songye, with a Western and Belgian photographer.
Known as a collaborating photographer in the publication of catalogs, Hugues Dubois presents today his artistic work, begun many years ago. Impressed by the strength and sensitivity of certain African masterpieces, he has undertaken to translate this emotion into photographic portraits.
It is this work that he exhibits today and that the museum has proposed to put in relation with the sculptures that inspired him.To do this, the Ethnography section has selected, with Hugues Dubois, some major pieces in the reserves and participated in the choice of other masterpieces in public and private ...

The sixth exhibition organized by the Society of Amateurs of African Art has as its subject "Horse and rider in the art of Black Africa".
The works are about the horse and the rider, even other mounts and other riders. These objects in wood, brass, silver, iron come from various peoples; they have been selected with exigency for their aesthetic qualities, for their originality, for their antiquity and for the cultural charge they represent.

Author: Gabriel Massa
Condition: NEW
Language: French
Number of pages: 167
Dimensions: 290 x 220
ISBN : 978-2842801236

As a preamble to any presentation of African masks, it should be remembered that the mask is a complex ensemble covering the dancer's body.
All too often, everything that has been transmitted to us from an African mask brings it back to the condition of an art object now regarded as such. Therefore, in order to go beyond the aesthetic vision, it seemed necessary to incorporate in this work ethnic indications and a few selected photographs of dancers to situate the masks in their social and religious context.

Authors: Gabriel Massa and Chantal Dewé
Photographs: Chantal Dwé
Condition: very good
Language : French
Number of pages : 143
Dimensions : 290 x 220 mm
ISBN : 978-2842801755

Earth mosaic, rich in the diversity of ethnic groups that compose it, Côte d'Ivoire has been and remains a crossroads of immigration, the melting pot in which different populations have been able to develop a plastic art with multiple expressions.
Masks, statuary, everyday objects translating in their humblest details a constant aesthetic research, all these works, of style, materials, of very varied subjects, are however the particular expression of one and the same aspiration to beauty.

Authors: Alain-Michel Boyer, Patrick Girard and Marceau Rivière
Condition: NEW
Language: French
Number of pages: 138
Dimensions: 290 x 220 mm
ISBN : 978-2842800086

The art of the Fangs, the Batekes, the Bakotas and other African peoples is probably best known to today's public through the impact they have had on modern culture and the translations given by Picasso, Braque or Modigliani.
These so-called "primitive" arts are however based on a set of presuppositions, cultural contexts, histories, worldviews absolutely other, which, often, we ignore everything. Frank Willett's book has been called by the Times Literary Supplement "the best general introduction to the study of African art, full of first-rate information, stimulating and fascinating."

Text: Frank Willet
Condition: very good
Language: French
Number of pages: 282
Dimensions: 210 x 150 mm
Paperback
ISBN: 978-2878110142

Copy: Fondation Georges Arthur Forrest.
After independence, the first popular paintings appeared on the walls of Congolese interiors. These paintings have been described as "conversation pieces" - they are "in conversation" - because more than as objects, they are important, first of all, by the image they convey.
The meaning attributed to the images is not always fixed: each person can then go about his or her own interpretation, reflecting on the concerns of everyday life. Often considered as a colonial genre, Congolese popular painting is in fact part of a long history of drawing in the Democratic Republic of Congo that precedes colonization. (...)

Authors: Bambi Ceuppens and Sammy Baloji
Royal Museum of Central Africa
Status: NEW
Language: ...

The present work is divided into different parts: "African arts recounted: Roots of Eurocentrism, When the object becomes a subject of study and History and civilizations", "The primer" as well as the appendices. Throughout the notes, and thanks to the cross-references indicated by the asterisks, the reader travels as he pleases in the primer.

Text: Laurick Zerbini
Condition: very good
Language: French
Number of pages: 120
Dimensions: 220 x 120
Paperback
ISBN: 978-2080106964

The purpose of this book is to present in a descriptive and analytical way the African puppet theater - without neglecting the mask theater - hoping to open some avenues for further study.
For a long time ignored in the West, the African puppet theater reveals itself, according to the most recent research, at least as important as the theater of masks, however more known.
The fruit of 35 years of research, matured during several years of stay in Africa, this study is aimed at both readers wishing to deepen their general knowledge and professionals in the performing arts. Theater historians, psychologists, therapists, and teachers will find information and, without a doubt, food for thought. Finally, the variety of forms, the richness of the materials used as well as the ...

This book accompanies the fifth thematic exhibition produced by the Société des Amateurs de l'Art Africain, entitled "L'oiseau dans l'art de l'Afrique de l'Ouest". Particular attention has been paid to the selection of pieces and the quality of the photos. The selection of pieces, especially for a thematic exhibition, is always a difficult undertaking. It was carried out in two stages. First of all, from the pieces proposed, a first selection was entrusted to the members of the exhibition committee set up (...), three essential criteria, aesthetic quality, age and finally originality, having been retained.

Text: Francine Ndiaye and Gabriel Massa
Condition: very good
Language: French
Number of pages: 165
Dimensions: 290 x 220 mm
Paperback
ISBN ...

Publications of the Barbier-Mueller museums: "Japanese armors and helmets" (collection J. Gabriel Barbier-Mueller), "The childhood of art" (by Raphaël Enthoven), "The mummy of the peat bogs", "A tarasque bird vase" and "Ernst Beyeler and the distant arts".
A magnificent work proposed by the Association of Friends of the Barber-Mueller Museum.

Condition: excellent
Language : French
Number of pages : 300
Dimensions : 330 x 230 mm
Paperback

Nok terracotta, Igbo-Ukwu, Ife, Benin bronzes and Yoruba cult sticks from Nigeria: Bamana crest masks from Mali or Baga from Guinea: Senoufo or Baoulé statues and wé war or dan race masks from Côte d'Ivoire; Gurunsi zoomorphic masks from Burkina Faso; Mahongwe reliquaries from Gabon...
This approach to sculpture in Black Africa brings together and comments on twenty or so emblematic representations of an art that is almost always religious in nature, a link between the tangible world and the beyond, dedicated to providing man with the help of invisible forces in a hostile environment. Each ethnic group representing this link in its own way, according to its myths and beliefs, African art owes its extreme richness to this very diversity.

Text: Laure Meyer
...

This book, the first of its kind, opens new perspectives in the study and knowledge of the arts and the functioning of African thought.
Starting from the principle that each human community has its own conception of the symbol and makes use of it according to its particular existential experience, the first part of the book shows, through concrete examples, the importance of the elements that make up the content of a culture, namely language, symbols, ritual practices, values and cultural references. (...)
The second part questions the concept of "art" from the conceptual fields constituted by the words that designate luba art objects. (...)
The third part proposes some analyses of symbolic objects in their natural contexts, from which emerge original suggestions of a ...