-
L'Art africain contemporainA partir de : 32,57 €
From the Niger-Benue confluence in the center of Nigeria, moving eastward to the border with Cameroon, the Benue River Valley stretches over 650 miles. Central Nigeria Unmasked,the most in-depth study to date, illuminates the remarkable creativity and artistic legacy of the many peoples occupying this vast region, the source of some of the most abstract, dramatic, and inventive sculpture in sub-Saharan Africa.
During the nineteenth century, a series of dramatic and disruptive events—including a Fulani-led jihad; Chamba slave raiding; and increasing European exploration and missionary efforts—contributed to widespread dispersals and relocations of many Benue peoples. Whole villages, for example, were forced to flee from north of the river to establish new communities to the south. The essays in Central Nigeria Unmasked highlight the ways that artworks bear witness to these dynamic histories of exchange and interaction among local groups.
Thirty years in the making, this volume owes much to the pioneering work of the late art historian Arnold Rubin (1937–1988). Rubin carried out fieldwork throughout the Benue Valley as a doctoral student from 1964 to 1966 and again in the 1980s, focusing particularly on the people known as the Jukun, whose history has usually been seen to hold a key to that of the region as a whole. His perceptive writing and photographs inform much of the book.
Inaugurée par le Fowler Museum de Los Angeles, l’exposition « Central Nigeria Unmasked: Arts of the Benue River Valley » nous fait remonter le cours de la rivière Bénoué et découvrir ainsi, dans leur contexte géographique, plus de 150 objets, sculptures et masques, en bois, métal et céramique, de plus de 25 groupes ethniques. Cet important catalogue, qui propose une étude approfondie de la signification des objets, est un livre de référence sur les arts du Nigeria.
- Sidney Littlefield Kasfir, professeur d’Histoire de l’Art à l’Université Emory, Atlanta, commissaire adjoint.
- Richard Fardon, chef du Département d’Anthropologie et de Sociologie, SOAS, Londres, commissaire adjoint.