By focusing on the original scholarly contributions, rather than secondary description, this reader in tribal arts exposes the reader to the best original scholarship of 29 noted scholars in anthropology and art history. Each scholarly essay is well-illustrated, often with original field photographs as well as museum objects. For artists, art historians, sociologists, and all those interested in the arts of the fourth world.

An engaging explanation of Oceanic art and an important gateway to wider appreciation of Oceanic heritage and visual culture

Peggy Guggenheim (1898 - 1979) challenged boundaries as a patron and collector. She is celebrated for her groundbreaking collection of European and American modern art. The volume will focus on a lesser-known but crucial episode in Guggenheim's own migratory path: her turn to the arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas in the 1950s and '60s. In these years, Guggenheim acquired works created by artists from cultures worldwide, including early twentieth-century sculpture from Mali, Côte d'Ivoire, and New Guinea, and ancient examples from Mexico and Peru. 'Migrating Objects' emerges from an extended period of research and discussion on this largely ignored area of Guggenheim's collection by a curatorial advisory committee, which has led to exciting findings, including the reattribution of individual works, among them the Nigerian headdress (Ago Egungun) produced by the workshop of Oniyide Adugbologe (ca. 1875-1949), which is illustrated in the catalogue.

This Bulletin and the exhibition it accompanies, "The Nelson A. Rockefeller Vision: In Pursuit of the Best in Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas," reflect on an extraordinary act of philanthropy that was also a catalyst for momentous change in the art world. In establishing the Museum of Primitive Art (MPA) in 1956—the precursor to what is today the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas (AAOA) at the Metropolitan Museum—Nelson Rockefeller was a true pioneer, assembling what remains the greatest collection of fine art from these disparate fields. Perhaps even more important than this singular achievement, however, was Rockefeller's long campaign to place his collection at the Metropolitan Museum as a gift to the city and to the world, which he finally achieved in 1969 after nearly forty years of effort. Rockefeller's gift carried the unequivocal message that artists from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas are equal in every respect to those of their peers across the globe and throughout history. Yet until that time there was, famously, skepticism in the Western art world on this point as well as resistance from earlier generations of Metropolitan directors in viewing non-Western art as part of the institution's mission. Relying on his formidable powers of persuasion, Rockefeller eventually brokered an agreement to transfer the collections, staff, and library of the of the MPA to the Metropolitan, an astounding triumph that fundamentally changed the character of the museum, making the collections truly encyclopedic.

Pending the opening of the Musee du Quai Branly in 2004, this Pavillon des Sessions display represents the first step towards realising the ambition stated by the President of the Republic: namely to endow France with a modern institution dedicated to the arts and civilisations of Africa, Asia, the Pacific Islands and the Americas."--BOOK JACKET.