African Arts articles from December 2008

African Arts archives from December 2008

Masks and modernities.(African art objects on contemporary art)(Critical essay)
December 22, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Masquerade and masking traditions in Africa have been an iconic subject of African art studies throughout the twentieth century and often have served to underline historical continuities with a precolonial past. At...

The reception of "nationalist" art: a response.(African contemporary art)(Critical essay)
December 22, 2008... I appreciate the measured responses to my piece on medium and its effect on whether an artwork is designated global or local in its content ("The (Dis)Placement of National Art in a Transnational Artworld," African Arts 41 [3]:10-12). However,...

Making history: the modernity of masquerade in Ikole Ekiti.(Report)
December 22, 2008... [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] The penetration and persistence of cultural and artistic forms into a present defined as the modern" or "modernity is an apparent and growing theme of many African art historical studies and has been well represented in...

Between authenticity and nostalgia: the making of a Yoruba tradition in southern Benin.(Report)
December 22, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This paper discusses the changing status of a Yoruba ancestor cult in the region of Abomey (southern Benin), what the evolution of this cult says about relations with the past, and the entwinement of the construction...

Masquerade politics in contemporary Southeastern Nigeria.
December 22, 2008... [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] The period following the Nigerian Civil War (1967-70) was marked by a deliberate revival of masquerade festivals and elaborate burial ceremonies by the Igbo of Southeastern Nigeria. From an Igbo perspective, the Civil...

Masking youth: transformation and transgression in Annang performance.(Report)
December 22, 2008... Browse most museum or African art gallery catalogues and you would be forgiven for thinking that Annang and Ibibio wooden mask carving is not only buoyant but that it serves a thriving masking culture. The masks of initiatory societies sell for...

"Burn the mmonwu": contradictions and contestations in masquerade performance in Uga, Anambra state in southeastern Nigeria.(Report)
December 22, 2008... [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Masked performances organized by male associations are a distinctive feature of public performance among Igbo-speaking peoples of southeastern Nigeria (Jones 1984, Cole and Aniakor 1984) and have been the subject of...

Playing to the gallery: masks, masquerade, and museums.(Report)
December 22, 2008... Masks pose vexing questions for museum curators, not only as an uncomfortable legacy of colonial collecting practices, but because they inevitably suggest an absence. This absence has been variously formulated by African art theorists; for...

Of Cloth and Culture: African Textiles from the Norma Canelas and William D. Roth Collection.
December 22, 2008... Of Cloth and Culture: African Textiles from the Norma Canelas and William D. Roth Collection Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL July 21, 2007-July 6, 2008 Where Symbols Meet: A Celebration of West African Achievement Glenbow...

Dungamanzi/Stirring Waters.(African art objects and sculptures)
December 22, 2008... Dungamanzi/Stirring Waters Johannesburg Art Gallery May 13-August 19, 2007 Apartheid may have been toppled, but it continues to influence popular thought and actions throughout South Africa. And how could it be otherwise, given a...

Von Perlen, Rost und Meeresschnecken: Drehscheibe Sahel.(Burkina Faso antiquities and archaeological finds exhibit)
December 22, 2008... Von Perlen, Rost und Meeresschnecken: Drehscheibe Sahel Senckenberg Naturmuseum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany September 8, 2007-October 28, 2007 Musee National de Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso March 15, 2008-December 10, 2008 It...

Body of Evidence.
December 22, 2008... Body of Evidence National Museum of African Art, Washington DC June 14, 2006-December 2, 2007 The exhibition "Body of Evidence" held at the National Museum of African Art from 2006-2007 was an exercise in body politics. It...

Amazigh Arts in Morocco: Women Shaping Berber Identity.(Book review)
December 22, 2008... Amazigh Arts in Morocco: Women Shaping Berber Identity By Cynthia J. Becker University of Texas Press, 2006; 225 pp., bibliography, illustrations, index. $45 cloth. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Cynthia Becker, in Amazigh Arts...

Fashioning Africa: Power and Politics of Dress.
December 22, 2008... Fashioning Africa: Power and Politics of Dress ed. by Jean Allman Indiana University Press, 2004; 256 pages, 36 b&w photos, index. $50 cloth; $21.95 paper [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Jean Allman's edited volume on African...

Museum Frictions: Public Culture / Global Transformations.(Book review)
December 22, 2008... Museum Frictions: Public Culture / Global Transformations Ed. by Ivan Karp, Corinne A. Kratz, Lynn Szwaja, and Tomas Ybarra-Frausto, with Gustavo Buntinx and Barbara Kirschenblatt-Gimblett Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006. 602 pages, 70...