African Art In Metal

African Art in Transit is an absorbing account of the commodification and circulation of African art objects in the international art market. Christopher Steiner's analysis of the role of the African middleman in linking those who produce and supply works of art in Africa with those who buy and collect so-called 'primitive' art in Europe and America is based on extensive field research among the art traders in Côte d'Ivoire. Steiner provides a lucid interpretation which reveals not only a complex economic network with its own internal logic and rules, but also an elaborate process of transcultural valuation and exchange. By focusing directly on the intermediaries in the African art trade, he unveils a critical new perspective on how symbolic codes and economic values are mediated in the context of shifting geographic and cultural domains. He questions conventional definitions of authenticity in African art by demonstrating how the categories 'authentic' and 'traditional' are continually redefined.

The museum of the Institute of African Studies of the University of Ibadan houses a unique collection of Yoruba metal sculpture - an artistic form less well known and less proliferous than the traditional stone and wood carving, and yet as rich in variety and cultural meaning. The author describes both the museum metal sculptures, and those in other Nigerian museums, and some in private ownership in Nigeria. This resulting book, illustrated with 91 black and white plates, is both a catalogue and a study of the aesthetic quality of the objects set in the context of their cultural significance.