Art from Africa : Long Steps Never Broke a Back

This volume explores issues that remain unexposed in museum presentations of African art.

It responds to questions posed by audiences who read the usual label but still want to know more.

Why is the figure pounded with nails not called a fetish any more?

Exactly how old is this and how do you know? When was this collected, by whom and from whom? What is happening in this part of Africa today? Who displayed this as art and why? Given that many museum catalogues reproduce terse label formats and leave these same questions unanswered, this book has been designed to look intensively at a small number of objects.

Each author begins discussion with a personal suggestion of what motivates his or her inquiry and then leads the reader through new research, often using direct quotes from African primary sources and museum records that are usually not available to Western audiences.

Objects covered include hunters' shirts from Mali, Liberia and Ghana; regalia from the Asante Kingdom; art from the Kom Kingdom, Cameroon; Minkisi and sacred medicines of the Kongo; Ivwri figures from Nigeria; masks from Liberia and the Ivory Coast; sacred coffins from Ghana; and ornaments for a Maasai bride. The illustrations are drawn from the major Katherine White collection of African art held at Seattle Art Museum.