African Art Club

 Benin

Barbara Plakensteiner…

Stating that this book is a masterpiece is an understatement. Certainly the best book I’ve bought about Benin City (pre-colonial Nigeria). The 500 color photos of the bas-relief plaques, heads and ivory are beautiful. This book is a great resource for the art of Benin City and its culture. When I received this book in the mail and started reading and viewing the photos, it took me on a journey of West African ancient history. I was not disappointed at all with this book. (By  wysingm (California))

 Benin  

Kathleen Bickford … 

In the late 15th century, the Kingdom of Benin (located in present-day southwestern Nigeria) established a mercantile relationship with Portugal, significantly increasing its wealth and might. Benin became a regional powerhouse and, under a long lineage of divine rulers, or obas, it wielded great economic and political influence. The obas also supported guilds of artists—chief among them brass casters and ivory carvers—whom they employed to produce objects that honored royal ancestors, recorded history, and glorified life at court. The sophisticated creations of Benin’s royal artists stand among the greatest works of African art.

 This stunning book Benin: Royal Arts of a West African Kingdom (Art Institute of Chicago) (Paperback) features a selection of Benin’s extraordinary artworks that range from finely cast bronze figures, altar heads, and wall plaques to ivory tusks, pendants, and arm cuffs embellished in detailed bas relief. An insightful essay outlines the kingdom’s history and sheds light on these masterworks by describing their production and function in the context of the royal court.

 Early Art and Architecture of Africa… Peter Garlake

This new history of over 5,000 years of African art reveals its true diversity for the first time. Challenging centuries of misconceptions that have obscured the sophisticated nature of African art, Garlake focuses on seven key regions–southern Africa, Nubia, Aksum, the Niger River, West Africa, Great Zimbabwe, and the East African coast–treating each in detail and setting them in their social and historical context. Garlake is long familiar with and has extensive practical experience of both the archaeology and the art history of Africa. Using the latest research and archaeological findings, he offers exciting new insights into the works native to these areas, and he also puts forth new interpretations of several key cultures and monuments. Acknowledging the universal allure of the African art object, this stunning book helps us to understand more about the ways in which this art was produced, used, and received.

 Art, Performance and Ritual in Benin…

Charles Gore is an artist and lecturer in the History of African Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

This book explores the roles of contemporary urban shrines and their visual traditions in Benin City. It focuses on the charismatic priests and priestesses who are possessed by a pantheon of deities, the communities of devotees, and the artists who make artifacts for their shrines. The visual arts are part of a wider configuration of practices that include song, dance, possession and healing. These practices provide the means for exploring the relationships of the visual to both the verbal and performance arts that feature at these shrines. The analysis in this book raises fundamental questions about how the art of Benin, and non-Western art histories more generally, are understood. The book throws critical light on the taken-for-granted assumptions which underpin current interpretations and presents an original and revisionist account of Benin art history.

 African Civilizations

Graham Connah, Dou…The approach Connah takes with this text is that he is discussing Africa, excluding Egypt and the Maghreb which he considers not ever being a part of “black” Africa. It is here that he makes his first folly. Secondly he attempts to discuss tropical Africa primarily from archaeological evidence. This works well, since few historians focus on history in this way. The problem with this is that Africa’s story is a million times more complex and dynamic than archaeological evidence has provided. Not because of some elusive romantic idea of Africa but from the simple fact, which Connah admits, that archaelogical/anthropological research in Africa is next to nothing in comparison to other places. The majority of such studies focus on pre-modern man’s existence in Africa and not on modern man’s civilization in Africa. For this reason alone such an approach to African history, as good as its intentions and scholarly methods may sound can be revealing in some senses, but extremely limiting.
I do recommend this text, for the simple fact that there is a fair amount of knowledge an Africanist can learn from some of the archaeological work discussed but I warn you that this should not be considered a well-rounded text for studying Africa’s history. (By  The Djeli (Ile Ife, Nigeria))

 History of Africa, Revised 2nd Editi…

Kevin Shillington

Divine Inspiration

 The only institution that can authenticate Benin Bronzes is :