The language of beauty in African art / edited by Constantine Petridis ; contributions by Yaelle Biro, Herbert M. Cole, Kassim Kone, Babatunde Lawal, Constantine Petridis, Wilfried van Damme, and Susan Mullin Vogel.
Edition:
First edition.
Publisher:
Distributed by Yale University Press
Copyright Date:
℗♭2022
Description:
356 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), portraits ; 33 cm
Published on the occasion of an exhibition at the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, April 3-July 31, 2022 and The Art Institute of Chicago, November 20, 2022-February 27, 2023. Includes bibliographical references (pages 333-343) and index.
Contents:
Index. Wilfried van Damme -- Acknowledgments / Constantine Petridis -- Note to the reader -- Lenders to the exhibition -- Methods in the study of African aesthetics / Susan Mullin Vogel -- Plates 1. Whose aesthetics? -- Visions of virtue : the aesthetics of African art / Constantine Petridis -- Plates 2. Deducing aesthetic preferences : Prestige ; Value ; Extravagance -- "A great audacity of taste" : aesthetic judgments of African sculpture at the turn of the twentieth century / Yaelle Biro -- Plates 3. Western appreciations and appropriations : Abstraction ; Expressionism ; Naturalism -- Beauty and ugliness in African art and thought / Wilfried van Damme -- Plates 4. Standards of beauty : Clarity ; Youthfulness ; Moderation ; Balance -- Iwalewa : the dialectics of inner and outer beauty among the Yoruba / Babatunde Lawal -- Plates 5. Meanings of beauty : Beauty and goodness in one ; The virtue of personal adornment ; Nurturing womanhood ; Forceful manhood -- Plates 6. Functions of beauty : Enticing the spirits ; Appeasing the spirits ; Honoring the spirits ; Gracing the body and the head -- Ugly as a Kɔmɔ mask : an aesthetics of horror among the Bamana / Kassim Kone -- Plates 7. Intentional ugliness : Objects of terror and fear ; Horrifying masks ; Evil masks ; Humorous imperfections ; Perfect pairings ; The brave and the beautiful -- Beauties and beasts among the Igbo / Herbert M. Cole -- Plates 8. Awesome art -- Appendix 1. A brief history of research into African aesthetics / Wilfried van Damme -- Appendix 2. Methods in the study of African aesthetics / Wilfried van Damme -- Checklist of the Exhibition -- Works Cited -- Contributors -- Index.
Summary:
"This ambitious publication centers indigenous perspectives on traditional artworks from Africa by focusing on the judgments and vocabularies of members of the communities who created and used them. It explores cross-cultural affinities spanning the African continent while respecting local contexts; it also documents an exhibition that is extraordinary in scope and scale. The project's overriding goal is to reconsider Western evaluations of these arts in both aesthetic and financial terms. The volume features nearly 300 works from collections around the world and from the important holdings of the Art Institute of Chicago. Although it emphasizes the sculptural legacy of sub-Saharan cultures from West and Central Africa, it also includes examples of artistic traditions associated with eastern and southern Africa as well as textiles and objects designed for domestic, ritual, and decorative functions."-- Description provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.