The Brooklyn Museum was one of the first North American institutions to collect and exhibit African material culture as art rather than artifact. Today the museum's collection numbers more than six thousand pieces and is noted for its artistic quality and educational value, as well as a breadth and depth that would be impossible to achieve today. Ancient as well as contemporary art is included in the collection's vast holdings, while the figurative sculpture and masks of Central Africa comprise its most significant focus. Nearly two hundred of those pieces are featured in this large-format compendium, which includes essays by the museum's curator of African art and a leading scholar on the subject. Taking readers through a cultural exploration of the continent, the collection encompasses regions from Western Sudan and the Southwestern Congo to the Equatorial Forest and Ethiopia. Carefully photographed and presented in luminous colour, these pieces create a stunning introduction to the rich traditions of African art and culture. AUTHORS: William Siegman served as the Brooklyn Museum's curator of African and Oceanic art from 1987 until his retirement in 2007. He is currently a consulting curator with the Saint Louis Art Museum. Joseph Adande lectures at the National University of Benin, Abomey-Calavi. He was the Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Kevin D. Dumouchelle is Interim Assistant Curator of the Arts of Africa and the Pacific Islands at the Brooklyn Museum. ILLUSTRATIONS 235 images

National Museums in Africa brings the voices of African museum professionals into dialogue with scholars and, by so doing, is able to consider the state of African national museums from fresh perspectives. Covering all regions of the continent, the volume’s thirteen chapters allow for a deep and nuanced understanding of the intricate interplay between past and present in contemporary Africa. Taking stock of the shifting museum landscape in Africa, with new players like China and South Korea challenging the conditions of cultural exchange, the book demonstrates that national museums are being rediscovered as important sites of political engagement and cultural negotiation. This is the first book to critically examine the roles national museums in Africa have played in the societies in which they are situated, but it is also the first to consider the roles that national museums might play in current debates concerning the restitution and repatriation of cultural patrimony taken from Africa during the colonial era. Informed by a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective, this ground-breaking book will appeal to anyone interested in museums in Africa. It will be particularly useful to scholars and students working in the areas of museum and heritage studies, African studies, anthropology, archaeology, history, art history and cultural studies.

One of the leading collections of African art in the world, the African collection at Berlin's Ethnological Museum contains important masterpieces from many different regions of the continent. This stunning book includes more than two hundred color and black-and-white reproductions of masks, ceremonial figures, musical instruments, and objects of everyday life from throughout Africa. Among the jewels in the museum are the Ife Collection from Nigeria; rare Benin bronzes; Afro-Portuguese ivories; magical figures from the Lower Congo and a host of East African sculpture and masks that have gained increasing attention in recent years. Essays by leading ethnologists supply important cultural and historical information on each region, as well as fascinating insights into the ways European and African art have traded influences over the centuries.

This ambitious publication centers indigenous perspectives on traditional artworks from Africa by focusing on the judgments and vocabularies of members of the communities who created and used them. It explores cross-cultural affinities spanning the African continent while respecting local contexts; it also documents an exhibition that is extraordinary in scope and scale. The project's overriding goal is to reconsider Western evaluations of these arts in both aesthetic and financial terms. The volume features nearly 300 works from collections around the world and from the important holdings of the Art Institute of Chicago. Although it emphasizes the sculptural legacy of sub-Saharan cultures from West and Central Africa, it also includes examples of artistic traditions associated with eastern and southern Africa as well as textiles and objects designed for domestic, ritual, and decorative functions.00Exhibition: Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX, USA (03.04. - 31.07.2022) / Art Institute of Chicago, USA (20.11.2022 - 27.02.2023).

This book is a collection of essays on the history of museums and art in Africa. The publication addresses the decolonization of African museums before analysing forms and encounter, a major aspect in the African artistic creation. The issue of repatriation is also addressed not only in the complexity of the phenomenon but also as resulting to conflicting sovereignties in Africa. The collection in the end discusses the role of art in nation building in the context of Benin Republic and how museum cooperation could enhance the museum sector. “Working without seeking any recognition and at times under very challenging circumstances Effiboley’s excellent efforts in trying to address the subject of African art, museums and restitution in a realistic and holistic way, grounded in tradition has often been thwarted by some who would have been expected to advocate for similar views. This collection of works of over 20 years demonstrates a commitment to a cause and speaks for itself not only in terms of recognizing the place of African heritage or African Art but the need to decolonize the mind, the practice and the narratives. Persistent on this journey of questioning the abnormal made normal, this body of works stands out as a true example of a cause sincerely in need of addressing.” Professor George Abungu, Emeritus Director General of the National Museums of Kenya “Effiboley gives us a pivotal work at a vital moment when African voices will define the future of museums in Africa. His voice of deep scholarly experience guides us how to change the ways we think about art, museums and culture in Africa.” Michael Rowlands, Emeritus Professor, Department of Anthropology, University College London.

A CD-ROM and DVD set extracted from the 'The Art of Africa: A Resource for Educators.' The CD-ROM "contains a PDF of 'The Art of Africa: A Resource for Educators, ' which features forty traditional works of African art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It includes a brief overview of the Metropolitan's collection of African art; a short introduction and history of Africa; an explanation of the role of visual expression in the continent; descriptions of the featured works of art and background about the materials and techniques that were used to created them ... The DVD, 'Ci Wara Invocation, ' "presents the highlights of a dozen ci wara performances in Bamana communities in present-day Mali that were recorded by five different observers between 1970-2002. Among the Bamana, oral traditions credit a mythical being named Ci Wara, a divine being half mortal and half antelope, with the introduction of agriculture to the Bamana. The ci wara performances are part of biannual celebrations that either launch or conclude the farming season."--Container

This beautifully illustrated book showcases 110 objects from the Dallas Museum of Art's world-renowned African collection. In contrast to Western "art for art's sake," tradition-based African art served as an agent of religion, social stability, or social control. Chosen both for their visual appeal and their compelling histories and cultural significance, the works of art are presented under the themes of leadership and status; the cycle of life; decorative arts; and influences (imported and exported). Also included are many fascinating photographs that show the context in which these objects were originally used. Distributed for the Dallas Museum of Art