African Arts back issues from March 2009:
Double historiography--France and Sierra Leone: the Luso-African ivories at the Quai Branly.(first word)(Critical essay)
Mar 22, 2009; ... The Musee du Quai Branly in Paris hosted a small but charming exhibition, "Ivoires d'Afrique dans les anciennes collections francaises," from February 19 to May 11, 2008. This show was put together by Ezio Bassani, who also wrote the short, well-illustrated catalogue. Over the past two ...
Beyond wide-eyed angels: contemporary expressive culture in Ethiopia.(Cover story)(Report)
Mar 22, 2009; ... [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Our intention in this issue is to present new research on Ethiopian expressive culture (1) that illuminates how some of the complexities of the modern experience, particularly within the post-Socialist period, influence art. To use a popular form of Amharic ...
Contemporary Ethiopian painting in traditional style: from church-based to tourist art.(Critical essay)
Mar 22, 2009; ... In this paper, I will explore how traditional church painting changed in the urban context of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, which was founded in 1886. These changes included how artists were educated, how paintings were marketed and sold, who bought them, and how they functioned. The ...
Icons of devotion/icons of trade: creativity and entrepreneurship in contemporary "traditional" Ethiopian painting.(Critical essay)
Mar 22, 2009; ... Aksum is one of Ethiopia's major tourist destinations. Although only a small town in the highlands of northern Ethiopia, it is the spiritual home of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC) and rich in ancient monuments. Archaeologically it has been occupied since c. 350 BCE. Later, c. 100-600 ...
Contemporary women artists in Ethiopia.(Exhibition Preview)(Critical essay)
Mar 22, 2009; ... [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] This research note explores the lives and work of six contemporary women artists in Ethiopia, both those who paint within the artistic traditions of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and those who were educated in an academic, fine art tradition and whose work ...
Christian chromolithographs in Ethiopia.(Exhibition Preview)(Critical essay)
Mar 22, 2009; ... [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] The Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC) has produced iconographic religious painting since the sixth century CE, but with the onset of mechanical reproduction and faster printing technologies, worshippers now have access to new types of religious images. (1) ...
Oromo fashion: three contemporary body art practices among Afran Qallo women.(Viewpoint essay)
Mar 22, 2009; ... [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] In 1998, when I first visited Harar, (1) a town in eastern Ethiopia, I was traveling with a young Muslim Oromo-American woman. Wherever we ventured in and around the old walled city, people stopped dead in their tracks and stared. Not at me, per se, although ...
Revered vessels: custom and innovation in Harari basketry.(Critical essay)
Mar 22, 2009; ... [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Harari women weave basketry bowls and lidded vessels that serve important functions in the ceremonial and everyday life activities of the Harari ethnic group. The traditional shapes and complex patterns found in Harari basketry, which are arduous to create, ...
Fighting HIV with juggling clubs: an introduction to Ethiopia's circuses.
Mar 22, 2009; ... [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Circus performances were unknown to most Ethiopians when the first troupe was established in the early 1990s by two expatriate residents of Addis Ababa. Today, dozens of circuses can be found throughout the country and Ethiopian circus acrobats, jugglers, and ...
The essential art of African textiles: design without end.(Exhibition Preview)(Critical essay)
Mar 22, 2009; ... To paint a picture of a real and present Africa in Dakar as in Bamako, Accra, or Lagos is to capture their dynamic marketplaces ablaze with color. Across the continent, these living tableaus that are the epicenters of their communities are defined by a lyrical cacophony of designs and ...
Permanent African Gallery.(Critical essay)
Mar 22, 2009; ... Permanent African Gallery M.H. de Young Museum San Francisco, CA The golden wall of El Anatsui's Hover II (2004) caught my eye from the ground floor and pulled me to the top of the central staircase. As I drew near, the glitter fragmented into a slightly ...
A Cameroon World: Art and Artifacts from the Marshall and Caroline Mount Collection.(art exhibition)
Mar 22, 2009; ... A Cameroon World: Art and Artifacts from the Marshall and Caroline Mount Collection Queensborough Community College Art Gallery, Queens, New York October 18, 2007-February 28, 2008 Drawing from the rich collection of Marshall and Caroline Mount, ...
Cameroon--Art and Kings.(art exhibition)(Critical essay)
Mar 22, 2009; ... Cameroon--Art and Kings Museum Rietberg, Zurich February 3-May 25, 2008 Nowhere else in West Africa, is there a larger abundance of big carvings, masks etc. [than in the Cameroon Grass fields] (Von Luschan 1908. cited in Stelzig 2004:263) Those ...
Representing Slavery: Art, Artefacts and Archives in the Collections of Maritime Museum.(Book review)
Mar 22, 2009; ... Representing Slavery: Art, Artefacts and Archives in the Collections of Maritime Museum edited by Douglas Hamilton and Robert J. Blyth Aldershot, Hampshire, UK: Lund Humphries, 2007. 320 pp., 623 color and black and white illustrations; $100.00 In 1825, a ...
A Cameroon World: Art and Artifacts from the Marshall and Caroline Mount Collection.(Book review)
Mar 22, 2009; ... A Cameroon World: Art and Artifacts from the Marshall and Caroline Mount Collection By Donna Page Bayside, New York: QCC Art Gallery, The City University of New York, 2007. 206 pp., 1 map, 182 color illustrations, notes, bibliography. $75.00 hard cover. ...
Mode in Afrika: Mode als Mittel der Selbstinszenierung und Ausdruck der Moderne [Fashion in Africa: Fashion as a Means of Self-Dramatization and Expression of Modernity].(Book review)
Mar 22, 2009; ... Mode in Afrika: Mode als Mittel der Selbstinszenierung und Ausdruck der Moderne [Fashion in Africa: Fashion as a Means of Self-Dramatization and Expression of Modernity] Edited by Ilsemargret Luttmann Museum fur Volkerkunde Hamburg, 2005. 148 pp., 8 pages of color ...
Is There Still Life?: Continuity and Change in South African Still Life Painting.(Book review)
Mar 22, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Is There Still Life?: Continuity and Change in South African Still Life Painting By Michael Godby Cape Town, Iziko: South African National Gallery, date. 64 pages, 84 color illustrations, Further reading. R120, soft cover ...