African Arts articles from March 2004

African Arts archives from March 2004

Art and science in Benin bronzes.(first word)
March 22, 2004... A famous social scientist once said, "In science as in love, an overemphasis on technique very likely leads to impotence." Good science combines method and intuition, accommodating the objectivity of mathematics and physics that since the...

Refraction.(dialogue)
March 22, 2004... In a First Word essay entitled "A Crisis in Connoisseurship?" in the Spring 2003 issue of African Arts, I made reference to unscrupulous dealers who sell bogus or suspect African tribal art for high prices, describing them as "frauds" and...

Two Nigerian mask attributions.(dialogue)
March 22, 2004... I would like to comment on two photographs that appeared in Christraud Geary's article, "The Incidental Photographer: Roy Sieber and His African Images," in part two of the memorial to Roy Sieber (African Arts, Summer 2003). It's true that the...

"Getting Pictures Right": a symposium honoring Paul Jenkins.(dialogue)
March 22, 2004... "Getting Pictures Right: Context and Interpretation" was the title of a symposium that took place in Basel on September 19-20, 2003. It honored Paul Jenkins, who retired last autumn as a lecturer at the University of Basel and archivist of...

Hans Himmelheber (1908-2003).(in memoriam)(Obituary)
March 22, 2004... Last November 27 the eminent German anthropologist Hans Himmelheber peacefully passed away at the age of 95 in his home in Heidelberg. Scholars and lovers of African art owe him much gratitude. In fourteen expeditions Hans Himmelheber...

Forms of Wonderment: the History and Collections of the Afrika Museum, Berg en Dal.(Book Review)
March 22, 2004... Forms of Wonderment The History and Collections of the Afrika Museum, Berg en Dal Edited by Jan-Lodewijk Grootaers and Ineke Eisenburger Afrika Museum, Berg en Dal, 2002. 2 vols. 614 pp., 734 color & 62 b/w photos, 9 maps. EUR 100...

Explorations of origins introduction.(Genesis: Ideas of Origin in African Sculpture)
March 22, 2004... This special issue of African Arts features highlights of a symposium held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on March 7, 2003, in conjunction with the exhibition "Genesis: Ideas of Origin in African Sculpture." By combining a survey of artistic...

Africa: continent of origins.(Genesis: Ideas of Origin in African Sculpture)
March 22, 2004... It has been pointed out many times that every human group in the world today has its own origin myths. Indeed, if there is one cultural universal, this is surely it. In the-Metropolitan Museum's marvelous exhibition "Genesis: Ideas of Origin in...

The need for roots.
March 22, 2004... The extraordinary objects in the exhibition "Genesis" reflect the concern of people in a particular range of societies with questions of origin. These objects, and the practices within which they were intended to live, can best be made sense of...

Origin traditions and history in Central Africa.
March 22, 2004... Historians using oral traditions must continually grapple with traditions of origin, for unlike scholars of religion, folklore, or ideology, they must determine what is historical and what is legendary in these ancient memories. Yet for Africa...

African creation myths as political strategy.
March 22, 2004... Creation myths reflect the unique contexts of their inception, revelation, and later ritual, serial, or political practice. Those myths complementing the handsome artworks from Africa displayed in "Genesis: Ideas of Origin in African Sculpture"...

Drawing tradition: Dogon children's art in the age of tourism.
March 22, 2004... On my first visit to the Dogon, in 1990, when I arrived at Sangha, Mali, as a lecturer with a museum tour group, I was told there would be a film showing that evening. (1) Few of the tourists were interested in attending, as this was not on...

Fashioning a self in the contemporary world: notes toward a personal meditation on memory, history, and the aesthetics of origin.
March 22, 2004... My invitation to the symposium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art was occasioned by my work as a poet and a literary critic much concerned with issues of personal and group origin, and the ways we try to articulate those issues in our...

Sieges d'Afrique Noire du Musee Barbier-Mueller.(exhibition preview)
March 22, 2004... This exhibition of eighty seats from sub-Saharan Africa, on loan from the Barbier-Mueller Museum in Geneva, Switzerland, opened on November 29, 2003, at the Ensemble Conventuel des Jacobins in Toulouse, France, under the curatorial supervision...

In and Out of Focus: Images from Central Africa, 1885-1960.(National Museum of African Art Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.)
March 22, 2004... In and Out of Focus Images from Central Africa, 1885-1960 National Museum of African Art Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. December 6, 2002-March 16, 2003 "In and Out of Focus" reminded us that photography simultaneously brings us...

Black President: the Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.
March 22, 2004... Black President The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti New Museum of Contemporary Art New York, New York July 11-September 28, 2003 This Is Lagos Yabis Night, Music and Fela Skoto Gallery New York, New York July 17-September 13, 2003 ...

A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal.(Book Review)
March 22, 2004... A Saint in the City Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal Allen F. Roberts and Mary Nooter Roberts With Gassia Armenian and Ousmane Gueye UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, Los Angeles, 2003. Distributed by the University of Washington...