African Sculpture Speaks

PABLO PICASSO: “...when the form is realized, it is there to live its own life.” HENRY MOORE: “The sculpture which moves me most is full-blooded and self-supporting, fully in the round; giving out something of an energy and power of great mountains, it has a life of its own independent of the object it represents.” African Art Speaks, the first full appraisal of African art published in the United States, describes and illustrates the sculpted works of more than 150 West African tribes. Ladislas Segy approaches African art from several different but interrelated perspectives, considering the sculptures first as products of a distinct African culture, then as high-quality works of art. Seeking to bring the African carver’s work within the scope of the Western observer, Segy stresses the need for appraising African art within in its own context, suspending established procedures for art appreciation and viewing the object as it actually is, not as we think it is or should be. Bringing to bear the disciplines of aesthetics, anthropology, psychology, and phenomenology, Segy shows how the deep-seated magico-religious beliefs of the tribal carver creates such powerful emotional tension in his work that the viewer can recapture this emotion and identify it as part of his own experience. This present edition is the Third Printing, originally published in 1961, and provides a systematic Style Guide, analyzing the characteristic features of the different styles of tribal sculpture. A special chapter for the collector tells how to buy and care for African art. Segy also discusses the styles of the main sculpture-producing tribes in East and South Africa. Included are maps, a bibliography and a list of illustrations. “While much has been written about African sculpture within recent years, Mr. Segy’s book is undoubtedly among the finest published in this country.”—The San Francisco Chronicle

Includes a brief analysis and history of African sculpture followed by a pictorial survey of this art grouped according to region

A lavishly illustrated selection of highlights from the Art Institute of Chicago’s extraordinary collection of the arts of Africa Featuring a selection of more than 75 works of traditional African art in the Art Institute of Chicago’s collection, this stunning volume includes objects in a wide variety of media from regions across the continent. Essays and catalogue entries by leading art historians and anthropologists attend closely to the meanings and materials of the works themselves in addition to fleshing out original contexts. These experts also underscore the ways in which provenance and collection history are important to understanding how we view such objects today. Celebrating the Art Institute’s collection of traditional African art as one of the oldest and most diverse in the United States, this is a fresh and engaging look at current research into the arts of Africa as well as the potential of future scholarship.

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

"The first book on Zimbabwean Shona sculpture to be printed in the West will forever change the way you think and feel about contemporary art. Discover the stunning beauty of the stone sculpture, the extraordinary people who create it and the ancient African land which inspires such profound expressions of love and hope."--front cover

Pictures grotesques, masks, and headdresses of various African tribes as well as exploring the psychological and ideological meaning, and ritual function of masks