Art from Africa : long steps never broke a back / Pamela McClusky ; with a contribution by Robert Farris Thompson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McClusky, Pamela.

Contributor:

Thompson, Robert Farris.

Seattle Art Museum.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Seattle Art Museum.

Art, African--Exhibitions.

Art, African.

Art, Black--Africa, Sub-Saharan--Exhibitions.

Art, Black.

Art.

Ethnology.

Masks.

Sub-Saharan Africa.

Masks--Africa, Sub-Saharan--Exhibitions.

Ethnology--Africa, Sub-Saharan--Exhibitions.

Art--Washington (State)--Seattle--Exhibitions.

Seattle Art Museum--Exhibitions.

Washington (State)--Seattle.

Genre:

Exhibition catalogs.

Physical Description:

302 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 28 cm

Place of Publication:

Seattle, Wash. : Seattle Art Museum ; Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, [2002]

Summary:

This strikingly unusual and beautifully illustrated book represents a turning point in African art history. The authors draw on personal memories, interviews, and oral narratives to present twelve "case histories" of objects -- or clusters of objects -- in the Seattle Art Museum's renowned collection of African art. Each case history is enriched by comments from artists, art historians, writers, community members, and patrons who guide readers back into the markets, places, ceremonies, shrines, and streets where African art originated.

Often sitting still and silent in a museum display case, African art is frozen in an alien frame. Vibrant music, movement, debate, and cryptic voices are among the missing elements that once surrounded the mask, sculpture, ring, or stool. Reframing the objects, Art from Africa proposes looking at what was once done with them while also listening carefully to what was once said in their presence. As the case histories reveal, the gross mislabeling of objects as "fetishes," "idols," and "devil masks" dissolves as art becomes better known as medicine, philosophy, personality correctives, and blessings for the future.

Known for his scintillating analyses of African art, Robert Farris Thompson devotes his opening essay to introducing the missing dimension of motion, exploring the meaning of postures and gestures in various African cultures. A curator dedicated to telling the stories behind such art, Pamela McClusky explores subjects ranging from royal art of the Kom and Asante kingdoms, masquerades from the Yoruba, Dan, and Mende cultures, hunters' shirts from the Mande empire, sculpture from the Kongo kingdom, Mercedes-Benz coffins from the streets of Ghana, photographs from Mali, and Maasai body ornaments. This book accompanies a special exhibition of the museum's collection, but, as all art lovers who look beyond museum walls will appreciate, it is much more than an exhibition catalogue.

Pamela McClusky, who was raised partly in Liberia, West Africa, was instrumental in 1980 in establishing a department at the Seattle Art Museum devoted to the art of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. Currently serving as the curator of African and Oceanic Art, she has experimented with new approaches in displaying and interpreting collections, including quotations from a wide range of sources, as evidenced in this publication.

Contents:

African Art in Motion / Robert Farris Thompson 17

Case Histories: Art Steps from Africa to America / Pamela McClusky

Heroes Go Solitary Walking: Hunters' Shirts 63

An Art of Persuasion: Regalia from the Asante Kingdom 79

Assembling a Royal Stage: Art from the Kom Kingdom 115

The Fetish and the Imagination of Europe: Sacred Medicines of the Kongo 143

A Sculpture Hungry for Aggression: Ivwri Figure 169

Forest Spirits Far from Home: Dan Masks 179

Beauty Stripped of Human Flaws: Sowei Masks 197

"God's Medicine" against Witchcraft: Costume for Basinjom 215

The Ultimate Spectacle for Powerful Mothers: Gelede Masks 227

Riding into the Next Life: A Mercedes-Benz Coffin 245

"Negatives That Brathe Like You and Me": Photographs from Bamako 253

Collecting Beads and Wishes for the Future: Ornaments for a Maasai Bride 261

Appendix Sande Society Stories 279.

Notes:

Published in conjunction with an exhibition held at the Seattle Art Museum, Feb. 7-May 19, 2002.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0691092753

0691092958

OCLC:

47995643