The tribal arts of Africa

“The Tribal Arts of Africa reveals and portrays the marvelous achievements of black African artists over thousands of years. The earliest pieces date from the beginning of the first millennium, the most recent from the early twentieth century before the commercial production of art for the tourist trade. All were made by Africans for their own use. In the nineteenth century European imperial expansionism provided the background for public display of tribal objects in Berlin’s Museum für Völkerkunde or Paris’s Musée d'Ethnographie. The impetus provided by Braque and Picasso, Derain and Vlaminck in the ear;y years of the twentieth century focused on the artistic value of the African achievement. In 1911 Paul Guillaume opened the first gallery in Paris concentrating on black African art and, between the wars, exhibitions in New York, Paris and Antwerp helped to make African art fashionable. Since the, the end of colonialism and the search for roots have continued to fuel interest in an art whose full riches are now revealed. Jean-Baptiste Bacquart has divided Africa south of the Sahara into forty-nine cultural areas. Each section studies the most important tribe within that area, surveying its social and political structures as well as its artistic production. The art is analyzed according to type – in most instances masks, statues and everyday objects such as utensils, furniture and jewelry. Where appropriate, further information on artistically related tribes is provided. Each section contains its own bibliography and both lavishly presented color photographs of all the major object types and documentary black-and-white illustrations.”–Publisher’s description.