"Insightful and profound."--Arthur P. Bourgeois, Governors State University, University Park, Illinois "More than just another exhibition catalogue. . . . The conceptual framework and orientation of the essay are original. [Poynor suggests] the complexity of African religious beliefs and the diversity of roles art plays in their manifestation."--Barbara Frank, SUNY-Stony Brook With dramatic color and black-and-white photographs of ninety-three pieces of art, African Art at the Harn Museum introduces the notable collection of West African art from the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art. In the traditional view of many Africans, the spiritual and temporal worlds depend upon each other for companionship and material well-being. As the inhabitants of either realm cross and recross their world boundaries, art objects function as intimate links between the two domains, allowing both spirit and human to see and to manipulate each other. This work specifically addresses the role of the art object--a bowl from Cameroon, a mask from Burkina Faso or Sierra Leone, an ancestral altar from Nigeria, a fertility figure from Ghana--as a medium through which each world gains entrance into the other. Poynor's essay presents each work in its geographic and cultural context. Line drawings and abundant field photographs enhance the text and support the idea that the objects assist communication between two worlds. Robin Poynor, associate professor of art at the University of Florida, is guest curator of the "Spirit Eyes, Human Hands" exhibition of the university's Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art. He is the former curator of the Tweed Museum at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. He has written principally on the art of the Yoruba Kingdom of Owo, Nigeria, where he did field research, and he has curated a number of exhibitions of African art, writing essays, catalogues, and display texts for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Birmingham Museum of Art, and Indiana University Art Museum. He has published extensively in African Arts.

In advance of celebrating its twentieth anniversary, the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art presents this beautiful catalog of highlights of American art drawn from its permanent collection. Each work is represented by a full-page photograph and an accompanying description that places the piece and its creator in artistic and historical context. American Selections features eighty-eight works selected from the 2,490 American works in the museum's modern, contemporary, photography, and works on paper collections. The artists represented include Diane Arbus, Georgia O'Keeffe, Childe Hassam, Andy Warhol (the only artist included in the book twice), and many others, both well known and emerging. American painting of the first half of the twentieth century was one of the core collections when the Harn Museum opened its doors in 1990. In the two decades since, the American holdings have been greatly expanded, particularly with paintings, drawings, installations, and photographs from the second half of the century, thanks to the generosity of many donors.

Explores the transatlantic connections between Central Africa and North America over the past 500 years in the visual and performing arts of both cultures.

This collection of essays encourages a critical evaluation of the concept of "Florida" as a cultural and geographical entity and the influences and effects of the numerous African and Africa American-influenced cultures.