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[African Art] Art magazines and catalogs on African sculpture, spirituality, and cultural identity, 1976-1985. Archive of six vintage art magazines and exhibition catalogs documenting the presentation and interpretation of African art during a critical transitional period in Western museums, commercial galleries, and academic institutions. Produced between 1976 and 1985, these publications represent a cross-section of scholarly, curatorial, and market perspectives on African visual culture. Anchored by contributions from leading figures such as Leon Siroto, Esther A. Dagan, and Douglas Newton. Institutions represented include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, UCLA's African Studies Center, Pace Primitive and Ancient Art, and the Centre Saidye Bronfman in Montreal. Collectively, the magazines and catalogs trace a shift from colonial ethnographic display toward more nuanced and respectful engagements with African objects as equally aesthetically pleasing, spiritually enriching, and multifunctional. [1] African Spirit Images and Identities. New York: Pace Primitive and Ancient Art, 1976. Essay by Leon Siroto. Exhibition catalog for a show held April 24-May 29, 1976 at a premier New York gallery. Siroto explores how African spirit images, particularly masks and fetishes, construct communal identity. Includes full-page photographs in both black and white and colour. [2] The Art of Africa, the Pacific Islands, and the Americas. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fall of 1981. Text by Douglas Newton. Photographs by Lee Boltin. Exhibition catalog produced for the opening of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing at the Met. In a Director's Note, Philippe de Montebello heralds the wing as fulfilling the museum's goal of presenting "objects illustrative of all the history of art." Newton's accompanying essay, "A New Perspective," argues for the aesthetic and spiritual significance of ritual art, especially sculptures, reliquaries, and masks from West and Central Africa. Features full-color reproductions of Benin bronzes, Yoruba carvings, and Dogon figures. [3] African Arts, Vol. XV, No. 4, August 1982. Los Angeles: African Studies Center, UCLA. Contents include "African Museums at Harvard," "Masquerade Performances in Nigeria," and "Mystical Protection Among the Moba of Togo." [4] African Arts, Vol. XVI, No. 1, November 1982. Los Angeles: African Studies Center, UCLA. Contents include "Leadership and the Mask in Tiv Culture" and "Akan Linguistic Staffs," emphasizing the political and ceremonial roles of visual art in West Africa. Representative of the journal's interdisciplinary approach, combining art history, anthropology, and folklore. [5] African Arts, Vol. XVI, No. 2, February 1983. Los Angeles: African Studies Center, UCLA. Contents include "Yoruba Aesthetics," "Royal Iconography of the Edo," and "The Shrine in Luba-Land," focusing on the embodiment of gender, status, and spiritual presence in sculpture. [6] Man at Rest / L'Homme au Repos. Montréal: Centre Saidye Bronfman / La Galerie Amrad Art Africain, 1985. Guest curator Esther A. Dagan. Bilingual exhibition catalog, with text in French and English. Focuses on the symbolic and ceremonial meaning of African seating such as stools, thrones, and benches across diverse cultures. All items are bound in pictorial wrappers, most measuring 8.5" x 11". Overall very good condition, with some minor shelf wear and light toning to edges. Bindings are tight and interior pages clean. A cohesive and institutionally significant archive that reflects the dynamic recontextualization of African art in North American academic, museum, and gallery spaces in the 1970s-1980s.
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