Heroic Africans : legendary leaders, iconic sculptures / Alisa LaGamma.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

LaGamma, Alisa.

Contributor:

Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)

Museum Rietberg.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Figure sculpture, African--Exhibitions.

Figure sculpture, African.

Portrait sculpture, African--Exhibitions.

Portrait sculpture, African.

Sculpture--Africa, Sub-Saharan--Exhibitions.

Sculpture.

Art and society--Africa, Sub-Saharan--Exhibitions.

Art and society.

Sub-Saharan Africa.

Genre:

Ausstellung -- New York (NY) -- 2011.

Ausstellung -- NewYork -- 2011.

Exhibition catalogs.

Physical Description:

xi, 298 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), color maps ; 31 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Metropolitan Museum of Art ; New Haven [Conn.] : distributed by Yale University Press, 2011.

Summary:

Over the centuries, artists across sub-Saharan Africa have memorialized eminent figures in their societies using an astonishingly diverse repertoire of naturalistic and abstract sculptural idioms. Adopting complex aesthetic fromulations, they idealized their subjects but also added specific details--such as emblems of rank, scarification patterns, and elaborate coiffures--in order to evoke the individuals represented. Imbued with the essence of their formidable subjects, these works played an essential role in reifying ties with important ancestors at critical moments of transition. Often their transfer from one generation to the next was a prerequisite for conferring legitimacy upon the leaders who followed. The arrival of Europeans as traders, then as colonizers, led to the dislocation of many of these sculptures from their original sites, as well as from the contexts in which they were conceived; thus, today, they are seen primarily as timeless representations of generic archetypes. "Heroic Africans" reexamines the sculptures in terms of the individuals who inspired them and the cultural values that informed them, providing insight into the hidden meaning and inspiration behind these great artistic achievements.

Contents:

Visual poems in praise of an ever-present past: Ife terracottas

Pageantry and ritual: the Akan

Dancing figures and effigy thrones: Grassfield chiefdoms

The golden age of Shyáám and beyond: the Kuba

Of hunter princes and cherished maidens: the Chokwe and Luluwa

Sublime chiefs and the persistence of memory: the Hemba.

Notes:

Issued in connection with an exhibition held Sept. 20, 2011-Jan. 29, 2012, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and at the Rietberg Museum, Zürich, at later dates.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0300175841

9781588394323

1588394328

9780300175844

OCLC:

711045520

Publisher Number:

99948799803