Resonance and Inspiration: New Works by Magdalene Odundo

Magdalene Odundo 

Source: Victorian Fortune City

http://victorian.fortunecity.com/palette/722/page2.html




Magdelene Odundo

Magdalene Odundo was born in Nairobi, Kenya in 1950. As a child she lived in Kenya and India. From 1968 to 71 she attended the Nairobi Polytechnic in Kenya, while there she studied Graphic Art. In 1971 she left Kenya to attend Cambridge College of Art in Cambridge, England to continue her study in Graphic Design. Odundo grew restless with this medium and experimented with various mediums.

In 1973 she moved to Farnham, England to attend West Surrey College of Art and Design. At West Surrey she settled on ceramics as her medium. In that first year at West Surrey she had the opportunity to visit the Cornwall Workshop of renowned potter Bernard Leach. Leach was the father of the modern British studio ceramics movement in the 1920's. Marla Berns describes this movement, "as a tradition based on principles of simplicity and purity of form derived from Asian ceramic models."

Because Odundo grew up primarily in Nairobi she was not exposed to the traditional pottery of the rural areas of her country, it was not until she went to England that she became interested in this traditional African art forms.

In 1974 Odundo spent 3 months at the Abuja Pottery Training Centre in Abuja, Nigeria. She studied various techniques of pottery-making including hand-building from Gwari women potters like Ladi Kwali. Odundo went back to England to finish her classes at West Surrey, but returned to Africa in 1975 to do research for her thesis which was a comparative study of women's pottery techniques and of the ceremonial use of vessels. For this study she traveled to native Kenya to study her own people,the Abanyala, a subgroup of the Abaluyia living in Kenya and Uganda.

In 1976 she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree form West Surrey. After graduation she traveled to California and New Mexico where she learned about Pueblo pottery, specifically San Ildefonso blackware and Maria Martinez the most famous San Ildefonso potter.

Odundo spent three years teaching at the Commonwealth Institute in London and then entered the Royal College of Art in London, England to continue her study in ceramics. She graduated with a Masters degree in 1982. In the 1980's Odundo exhibited often in Britain in such solo shows at ICA Galleries in London in 1983, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London in '86 and in group exhibitions such as two shows with Craftsmen Potter's Association of London.

Odundo had her first solo exhibition in the United States in 1991 at the Anthony Ralph Gallery in New York. The show of 12 new vessels sold-out. Seven were purchased by museums with 2 going to the Smithsonian (Ceramics Monthly 30). The prices ranged from $5600 to $7200 at that show. Since that time she has exhibited in the U.S. in shows such as Africa Explores: 20th Century African Art, organized by the Museum of African Art in New York, Contained/Uncontained: 4 Clay Artists at the African American Museum in Dallas and the solo exhibition Ceramic Gestures: New Vessels by Magdalene Odundo organized by the University Art Museum, University of California at Santa Barbara. She also has had the opportunity to exhibit in solo and group shows in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, France, India, Malaysia, Canada and Kenya.

Almost everything I have read about Magdelene Odundo has championed her work, but 1989's comments by Paul Rice, in British Studio Ceramics in the 20th Century, do give a bit of a cynical viewpoint. 

He writes:


Magdelene Odundo has had no problem getting her work noticed. Long before Odundo graduated from RCA in 1982 she was being heralded by some as being the greatest potter to emerge since Elizabeth Fritsch. She has had the dubious distinction of being the most hyped ceramic artist in Britain. Prices for her work, which were very high when she was a student, have now reached a point where she is the most expensive potter of her generation in Britain. Naturally, this high-profile promotion in a craft world not used to such things has caused a great deal of discussion and not all of it favorable. If credit or blame is to be attached, then it probably more properly belongs to promoters than to Odundo. The controversy has tended to overshadow the fact that Odundo is an extremely fine potter. At her best, she has a tremendous command of form ... although Odundo has not yet lived up to her promotion, she certainly has the potential to do so. She has only been making pots (in very small quantities) for a comparatively short time. One hopes that her very early success will give her greater freedom to develop rather than putting her in a straight-jacket.

Odundo's vessels are coil-built, not thrown, on the wheel. They start with a blend of 75% red clay from Stoke-on-Trent England and 25% sandy yellow clay from southern England. The body of the piece starts with a cone of clay pulled upward while hollowing out the middle using a gourd or coconut shell scraper. The process is continued by adding coils of clay and scraping and smoothing the neck and head into shape. The leather hard vessels are burnished, slip is applied and burnished again to a luster. Burnishing is the act of rubbing the leather hard pot with items such as pebbles until the vessel is smooth and shiny. Adding slip--a thin mixture of clay and water--and burnishing again gives the pot a seamless, smooth high-gloss finish without using glaze.

    Book Description:

Resonance and Inspiration: New Works by Magdalene Odundo examines the beautifully restrained ceramic forms of one of the most highly regarded international ceramic artists. Odundo brings together the art of sculpture and the craft of pottery to create striking ceramic vessels, which have resonances that range from early Cycladic sculpture to traditional African pottery.
The catalogue was published in conjunction with an exhibition of the work of Odundo that was on display at the Harn Museum of Art September 5 to December 31, 2006.
The preface for Resonance and Inspiration: New Works by Magdalene Odundo was written by Harn Museum of Art Director Rebecca Nagy, with contributing articles by Susan Cooksey, Linda Arbuckle and Augustus Casely-Hayford.

About the Author

Susan Cooksey became the curator of African art in the Harn Museum in 2006 after serving two years as the associate curator. She has held various positions at the Harn Museum since 2001 and worked as a curatorial assistant for the University of Iowa Museum of Art from 1997-1998. Cooksey holds an M.F.A. from the University of South Florida, a masters degree in art history from the University of Florida and a doctorate in art history from the University of Iowa.

Product Details:

• Paperback
• Publisher: Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art (September 5, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976255227
• ISBN-13: 978-0976255222
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 9 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces

Magalene Odundo

Book Description

Magdalene Odundo brings together the art of sculpture and the craft of pottery to create striking ceramic vessels, whose resonances range from early Greek Cycladic sculpture to traditional African pottery. This book is the first full-length publication on the work of an artist who has achieved international recognition for her beautifully restrained ceramic forms. Born in Nairobi in 1950, Magdalene Odundo studied ceramics at the West Surrey College of Art and the Royal College of Art, travelling to Nigeria to research the mix of traditional and western cultural and technological concerns among potters there. She has since travelled widely in Europe, America and Africa, drawing on sources as varied as the pottery of New Mexico, the body art of Central Africa, and the forms of early Greek sculpture. Her work has a wide following and she is represented in major national collections worldwide. Magdalene Odundo provides a complete illustrated catalogue of the artist's work to date. Essays by Simon Olding and Emmanuel Cooper are accompanied by full-page colour reproductions of key works. The book will be widely welcomed by collectors, dealers, curators, art historians and all those with an interest in contemporary studio ceramics.

About the Author

Emmanuel Cooper is a potter and critic and Editor of Ceramic Review. Simon Olding is Director of the Crafts Study Centre, Farnham.

Product Details:

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd (28 Oct 2004)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 0853319057
• ISBN-13: 978-0853319054
• Product Dimensions: 29.4 x 24.4 x 1.8 cm
• 
  

Contemporary African Art

Book Description:

Contemporary African Art Since 1980 is the first major survey of the work of contemporary African artists from diverse situations, locations, and generations who work either in or outside of Africa, but whose practices engage and occupy the social and cultural complexities of the continent since the past 30 years. Its frame of analysis is absorbed with historical transitions: from the end of the postcolonial utopias of the sixties during the 1980s to the geopolitical, economic, technological, and cultural shifts incited by globalization. This book is both narrower in focus in the periods it reflects on, and specific in the ground it covers. It begins by addressing the tumultuous landscape of contemporary Africa, examining landmarks and narratives, exploring divergent systems of representation, and interrogating the ways artists have responded to change and have incorporated new aesthetic principles and artistic concepts, images and imaginaries to deal with such changes. Organized in chronological order, the book covers all major artistic mediums: painting, sculpture, photography, film, video, installation, drawing, collage. It also covers aesthetic forms and genres, from conceptual to formalist, abstract to figurative practices. Moving between discursive and theoretical registers, the principal questions the book analyzes are: what and when is contemporary African art? Who might be included in the framing of such a conceptual identity? It also addresses the question of globalization and contemporary African art.
The book thus provides an occasion to examine through close reading and visual analysis how artistic concerns produce major themes. It periodizes and cross references artistic sensibilities in order to elicit multiple conceptual relationships, as well as breaks with prevailing binaries of center and periphery, vernacular and academic, urban and non-urban forms, indigenous and diasporic models of identification. In order to theorize how these concerns have been formulated in artistic terms and their creative consequences Contemporary African Art Since 1980 examines a range of ideas, concepts and issues that have shaped the work and practice of African artists within an international and global framework. It traces the shifts from earlier modernist strategies of the sixties and seventies after the period of decolonization, and the rise of pan-African nationalism, to the postcolonial representations of critique and satire that evolved from the 1980s, to the postmodernist irony of the 1990s, and to the globalist strategies of the 21st century.
The main claim of this book is that contemporary African art can be best understood by examining the tension between the period of great political changes of the era of decolonization that enabled new and exciting imaginations of the future to be formulated, and the slow, skeptical, and social decline marked by the era of neo-liberalism and Structural Adjustment programs of the 1980s. These issues are addressed in chapters covering the themes of "Politics, Culture, Critique," "Memory and Archive," "Abstraction, Figuration and Subjectivity," and "The Body, Gender and Sexuality." In addition, the book employs sidebars to provide brief and incisive accounts of and commentaries on important contemporary political, economic and cultural events, and on exhibitions, biennales, workshops, artist groups and more. Rather than a comprehensive survey, this richly illustrated book presents examples of ambitious and important work by more than 160 African artists since the last 30 years. This list includes Georges Adeagbo Tayo Adenaike, Ghada Amer, El Anatsui, Kader Attia, Luis Basto, Candice Breitz, Moustapha Dime, Marlene Dumas, Victor Ekpuk, Samuel Fosso, Jak Katarikawe, William Kentridge, Rachid Koraichi, Mona Mazouk, Julie Mehretu, Nandipha Mntambo, Hassan Musa, Donald Odita, Iba Ndiaye, Richard Onyango, Ibrahim El Salahi, Issa Samb, Cheri Samba, Ousmane Sembene, Yinka Shonibare, Barthelemy Toguo, Obiora Udechukwu, and Sue Williamson.

About the Author

Okwui Enwezor, a leading curator and scholar of contemporary art, is the Dean of Academic Affairs at the San Francisco Art Institute, and founding publisher and editor of Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art.
Chika Okeke-Agulu is Assistant Professor of Art and Archeology and African American Studies at Princeton University, and editor of Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art.


Product Details:

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Damiani (25 Oct 2009)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 8862080921
• ISBN-13: 978-8862080927
• Product Dimensions: 30.9 x 24.5 x 2.6 cm

Reading the Contemporary: African Art from Theory to the Marketplace

Editorial Reviews

About the Author
Olu Oguibe has taught at the University of London and as the Stuart Golding Professor of African Art at the University of South Florida. He is the author of Uzo Egonu: An African Artist in the West and co-editor of Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art. Okwui Enwezor is Adjunct Curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Institute of Chicago. He is the Artistic Director of Documenta XI, Kassel, Germany, 2002, and was the Artistic Director of the 1997 Johannesburg Biennial. He is the publisher and founding editor of Nka.

Book Description
In the past decade contemporary African art has been featured in major exhibtions in museums, galleries, international biennials, and other forums. African cinema has established itself on the stage of world cinema, culminating in the Ouagadougou Film Festival. While African art and visual culture have become an integral part of the art history and cultural studies curricula in universities worldwide, critical readings and interpretations have remained difficult to obtain. This pioneering anthology collects twenty key essays in which major critical thinkers, scholars, and artists explore contemporary African visual culture, locating it within current cultural debates and within the context of the continent`s history. The sections of the book are Theory and Cultural Transaction, History, Location and Practice, and Negotiated Identities. Copublished with the Institute of International Visual Arts inIVA, London

Product Details:

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Institute of International Visual Arts (INIVA) (23 Sep 1999)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 1899846212
• ISBN-13: 978-1899846214
• Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 18.4 x 3.6 cm

New Traditions from Nigeria: Seven Artists of the Nsukka Group

Table of Contents

Foreword
By Isidore Okpewho

Acknowledgments
A Note on Orthography
Introduction
1. History
1. Pioneers and Predecessors, 1900-1970
2. Uche Okeke: I: The Early Years
3. Uche Okeke: II: Enugu Days, Uli and Spiritual Figures, Biafra
4. Uche Okeke: III: The Development of an Art Department and Retirement
5. Chike Aniakor: Uli Artist and Art Historian
2. New Artists Emerge
6. Nigerian Contemporary Art: 1970 to the Present
7. Obiora Udechukwu: I: Growth, Lyrical Symbolism, and War
8. Obiora Udechukwu: II: Maturity and Increasing Diversity
9. El Anatsui: Colorful Woods and Dark Lines
10. Tayo Adenaike: Watercolorist of Faces and Figures
11. Ada Udechukwu: Poetic and Personal Lines
12. Olu Oguibe: Angry Young Man, Artist, and Poet
Conclusion: Past, Present, and Future
Notes
Bibliography
Index


Product Details:

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Snoeck-Ducaji & Zoon (30 April 2003)
• Language French
• ISBN-10: 9053494588
• ISBN-13: 978-9053494585

Material Differences: Art and Identity in Africa

Book Description

In Africa, the materials that are used to make objects of daily and ritual life are profoundly significant. This publication reveals the traditions, rituals, and spiritual powers intrinsic to the materials used to create artworks.

Exhibition catalogue by Frank Herreman with contributions by Herman Burssens, Michelle Chadeisson, Herbert M. Cole, William J. Dewey, Perkins Foss, Paula Ben-Amos Girshick, Manuel A. Jordan, Constantine Petridis, Christopher D. Roy, Jerome Vogel. Published by the Museum for African Art, New York and Snoeck-Ducaju & Zoon, Gent, March, 2003.

Product Details:

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Snoeck-Ducaji & Zoon (30 April 2003)
• Language French
• ISBN-10: 9053494588
• ISBN-13: 978-9053494585

Gendered Visions: The Art of Contemporary Africana Women Artists

Synopsis
The essays provide readings of the artists` works in relation to their life stories, aesthetics, and socio-cultural background. They investigate intellectual projects and bring to the foreground the vocabularies created by these artists in their search for the most effective means of expressing their visions and ideological concerns.

Product Details:

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Africa Research & Publications; illustrated edition edition (19 Mar 1998)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 0865436207
• ISBN-13: 978-0865436206
• Product Dimensions: 27.9 x 21.7 x 0.9 cm

Contemporary Art of Africa

Synopsis


Written in an era of increased awareness of the power and importance of all non-Western forms of art, this book provides an introduction to African art. In contrast to the traditional primitive forms that are associated with Africa, it presents the brilliantly coloured and sometimes uncoventional work of 60 artists. The artistic landscape of Africa is extremely diversified. Using a range of forms and media - painting, drawing, sculpture and other objects - the artists demonstrate the vitality of age-old traditions, as well as making use of concepts imported from Europe and elsewhere: figuration, expressionism, abstraction and murals. This selection of African art is accompanied by biographies of each artist, with appendices and analyses of their work from 29 contributors - including curators, collectors, natives of the countries involved and artistic figures such as Louise Bourgeois and Ettore Sottsass. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. 

Product Details:

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (Dec 1996)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 0810940329
• ISBN-13: 978-0810940321
• Product Dimensions: 30.5 x 23.4 x 3 cm

Contemporary African Art World of Art

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal
YA-Three excellent series titles. Contemporary African Art emphasizes the changes in the art of this continent in the last half of the 20th century. Maya Art examines the reasons behind the artwork and ways the buildings were constructed, incorporating new archaeological findings. They include recent deciphers of Mayan writing that provide understanding to the ceramics, sculpture, architecture, murals, and books. Amazingly, op art and pop art have become almost traditional. With chapters on performance art Rauschenberg, video, digital, and virtual reality, New Media truly introduces the new wave. The paper in these compact books is of high quality, resulting in outstanding, almost platelike reproduction of the numerous color and black-and-white photos. The illustrations are fully captioned and they alone could justify purchase of these titles.
Claudia Moore, W. T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
While respect for modern African art has been slow to develop in the Western world, Kasfir`s book is solid evidence that attitudes are changing. Formerly, contemporary African art was seen as a deterioration and degradation of the traditional arts, which had only won grudging admiration in the West under the influence of the modernists. Over the last 15 years, a growing list of books re-evaluating modern African art have appeared, and Kasfir`s is among the best and most thorough. Focusing... read more


Book Description
The twentieth century has been a period of major disruption for traditional institutions in Africa. But even as old forms of art patronage were being suppressed, new avenues of artistic expression opened up. Postcolonial art in Africa has built seamlessly upon already existing structures in which precolonial and colonial genres of African art were made. It is in this sense, and in the habits and attitudes of artists towards making art, rather than in any adherence to a particular style, medium, technique, or thematic range, that the art is recognizably African. Sidney Littlefield Kasfir, Associate Professor of Art History at Emory University, has taught, curated, and carried out extensive field research in Nigeria, Uganda, and Kenya, and has made briefer research trips to nine other African countries. Her critical history examines the major themes and accomplishments in African art from the past fifty years, achieving an impressive balance between the critical reexamination of frequently discussed artists, groups, and workshops and the introduction of less publicized or more recent material.

Product Details:

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson (17 Jan 2000)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 0500203288
• ISBN-13: 978-0500203286
• Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 14.7 x 1.5 cm

Black Visual Culture

Reviews

Synopsis
Analyzing ways in which black people are represented in British visual culture, this is an introductory text on work by black visual artists from the 1970s onwards. Intended for both students and scholars, it synthesizes and assesses the debates, issues, literature and theory surrounding black visual culture, primarily of US and British origin. Illustrated case studies are presented of works by a range of artists, including Isaac Julien, Keith Piper, Rasheed Areen, Robert Mapplethorpe, Roshini Kempadoo and Anish Kapoor, setting them in the social, ideological, political and economic contexts of their production. Also discussed is the cultural criticism of writers such as Stuart Hall, Paul Gilroy, Kobena Mercer and Homi Bhaba.

Product Details:

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: I.B.Tauris; illustrated edition edition (29 Oct 1999)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 1860643825
• ISBN-13: 978-1860643828
• Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15 x 2.2 cm

Art and Artist of the Transvangarde

Published by the October Gallery.

This book containing authoritative essays by leading artists and art critics will be an important critical introduction to the notion of a developing transvangarde, or trans-cultural avant-garde.
Contributors include: John Russell Taylor, Robert Loder, John Allen, Petrine Archer-Straw, Andrew Dempsey, Georgina Beier, Sajid Rizvi, Simon Njami, Ulli Beier, Elisabeth Lalouschek, El Anatsui, Wijdan Ali, Eddie Chambers and Gerard Houghton amongst others.

The word ‘transvangarde’ is  a shorthand way of indicating artists who, coming from one particular culture ultimately belong to all, and are not to be bounded by culturally-specific labels such as ‘African sculptor’ or ‘American painter’ – they are trans-cultural artists, catalytic agents of the transvangarde. Thus, the transvangarde can perhaps best be described as an ongoing multi-cultural experiment in the visual arts that can only be understood in the context of a globally active – and consciously interactive - contemporary art scene without borders or boundaries.


Published by the Gallery:
October Gallery
24 Old Gloucester Street
Bloomsbury
LONDON WC1N 3AL
UNITED KINGDOM
Tel. + 44 (0)20 7242 7367
Fax: + 44 (0)20 7405 1851

Art after Appropriation: Essays on Art in the 1990s

Book Description
Beginning with the first comprehensive account of the discourse of appropriation that dominated the art world in the late 1970s and 1980s, Art After Appropriation suggests a matrix of inflections and refusals around the culture of taking or citation, each chapter loosely correlated with one year of the decade between 1989 and 1999. The opening chapters discuss, among other things, how the second world culture of the USSR gave rise to new visibility for photography at the Union`s dissolution in 1989, and explore how genres of ethnography, documentary and travel are crossed with fictive performance and social improvisation in the videos of Steve Fagin.

Review by Paul from New York

I can`t say I`ve been delighted about much art-writing the last 5 or 6 years. Welchman gets 5 stars for doing the foot-work while not misplacing his head. His book looks at an interesting mix of artists, takes some risks, and cobbles together an interesting theory... and, quite frankly, much of what he says is not only correct, but has really needed to be said for some time now. It seems that much writing about art has gotten so niche-oriented or arbitrary that Welchman`s approach is welcome. By rehashing the legacy of appropriation, something that we thought the art world had already figured out, Welchman springs through the unguarded front doors of mainstream discourse in an expansive manner.

Product Details:

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (20 Sep 2001)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 9057010437
• ISBN-13: 978-9057010439
• Product Dimensions: 24.6 x 17.5 x 1.5 cm

An Anthology of African Art: The Twentieth Century

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
Editors with the Paris-based publisher Revue Noire, Fall and Pivin have put together a volume that will inspire and inform experts and neophytes alike. Including 500 color and 51 black-and-white images, this book provides a depth and breadth no other volume can boast of on the subject of contemporary African art. Breathtakingly thorough and overwhelming in its comprehensiveness, this volume contains a representative selection that covers all genres and reaches into every region of sub-Saharan Africa. The undertaking is enhanced by the penetrating insights of several distinguished writers, whose masterly essays recall history, provide context, and interpret uniquely African phenomena while also revealing the universality of selected works, presenting them as expressions of a modernity that is concretely African but has roots in the interconnectedness of all humans. The brief descriptions and histories accompanying each work are invaluable guides. Recommended for public and academic libraries and indispensable for any African studies collection.
Edward K. Owusu-Ansah, CUNY Coll. of Staten Island Lib.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


About the Author
N`Gone Fall is the editor of Revue Noire.
Jean Loup Pivin is the cofounder and director of publications of Revue Noire.


Book Description
The term Modern African Art is not an abuse of language. The 20th century has seen, but not properly documented, the birth, development, and maturation of contemporary art in sub-Saharan Africa, an art which was not simply imported in the 1950s but which finds its sources both in colonial realities and in local cultures and civilizations. Anthology of African Art: The Twentieth Century does not propose to document any one African art, but rather to open up this vast but underexplored field to include a diverse theoretical, historical, geographical, and critical map of this dense and ancient region. Contributions by more than 30 international authors recount the birth of art schools in the 1930s, the development of urban design and public art, and the importance of socially-concerned art during the Independence movements. From Ethiopia, Nigeria, and the Belgian Congo to Ghana, Senegal, and Angola, through the works of hundreds of artists working in every conceivable medium and context, this anthology manages the continental and unique feat of providing a thorough, expansive, diversified, and fully illustrated history of African art in the 20th century. Since 1991, Paris-based Revue Noire Editions has dedicated itself to the multidisciplinary artistic production of the African continent and the African diaspora. Publishers of the critically-acclaimed An Anthology of African Photography, a comprehensive chronicle of African photography from the mid-1800s to the present, Revue Noire also produces a self-titled magazine devoted to contemporary African art and culture. With his proverbial cynicism, Henry Kissinger said some time ago that Africa was for the 21st century to solve. Well, now we`re there. --Josep Ramoneda, Director of the Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona
Edited by Jean Loup Pivin & N`Gone Fall. Essays by Francisco d`Almeida, Marie-Helene Boisdur de Toffol, Joelle Busca, Sabine Cornelis, Elsbeth Court, N`Gone Fall, Etienne Feau, Till Forster, Joseph Gazari Seini, Joanna Grabski, Sigrid Horsch-Albert, Bennetta Jules-Rosette, George Kyeyune, Alexandra Loumpet-Galitzine, Marylin Martin, Elikia M`Bokolo, Adriano Mixinge, Simon Njami, Sylvester Ogbechie, Richard Pankhurst, Blaise Patrix, Thierry Payet, John Picton, Jean Loup Pivin, Sunanda K. Sanyal, Konjit Seyoum, Ousmane Sow Huchard, Yvonne Vera, Jean-Luc Vellut, Sue Williamson and Gaving Younge.
9.25 x 12.5 in.
500 color, 51 b/w illustrations

Product Details:

• Hardcover: 408 pages
• Publisher: Distributed Art Publishers, U.S.; illustrated edition edition (Aug 2002)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 1891024388
• ISBN-13: 978-1891024382
• Product Dimensions: 32.2 x 24.1 x 3.8 cm
• 
  

African Art World of Art

Review

'The finest general introduction to African art... packed with valuable information... stimulating and challenging' - The Times Literary Supplement 'Excellent... a compact but generously illustrated survey which slices through stereotypes to reveal the diversity and particularity of the continent's painting, sculpture and architecture' - The Independent on Sunday 'An exemplary study' - The Journal of African and Asian Affairs

Product Description

The art of the Fang, the BaTeke, the BaKota and other African peoples is extremely vigorous and shows brilliant sense of form. The substantial aesthetic impact of their works upon the development of 20th-century Western art - on Picasso, Derain, Braque and Modigliani, among others - continues to this day. This survey reveals the astonishing variety and expressive power of a continent that contains more distinct peoples and cultures than any other. The revised edition of this classic study incorporates new research and modern place names, as well as extended and updated references.

About the Author

Frank Willett was Director, and is now an Honorary Senior Research Fellow, of the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery of the University of Glasgow.

Product Details:
Paperback: 304 pages

• Publisher: Thames & Hudson; 2 edition (7 Oct 2002)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 0500203644
• ISBN-13: 978-0500203644
• Product Dimensions: 21 x 12.7 x 1.9 cm

George Afedzi Hughes | Layers

Here is an Art Book by the artist, George Afedzi Hughes. Layers Volume 1 is a series of books that George has self published. His work is drawing international reputation and his books are a delight to read. Please click on the picture and go through to the Blurb.com site to see more details.

Cheri Samba: The Hybridity of Art

Product Details:

• Paperback: 102 pages
• Publisher: Galerie Amrad African Art Publications; First Edition edition (April 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1896371000
• ISBN-13: 978-1896371009
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces

African Printed Textile Designs

Synopsis:
This book describes the authentic designs printed, stamped or painted on textiles such as adire, korhogo and mud cloth.


Review:
African textiles are absolutely intriguing; this book wasn't. The book is small with a fair number of illustrations. The author seems quite knowledgeable but limited by the small format. A much thicker book would be needed to cover the subject at even a minimal level; the addition of a large number of color photos would be needed to due justice to the intricacies and variety of the textiles. That said, this is a very useful introduction to African printed textiles. If you do not have a deep or wide interest, then this book will likely suit your needs very well.
Review by J. Vasilius (Tucson, Arizona, USA)




Product Details:
Paperback: 48 pages

• Publisher: Stemmer House Pub; 1 edition (November 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0880451351
• ISBN-13: 978-0880451352
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.2 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces

The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design Without End

 

Product Description

This informative and beautiful volume sheds light on the enduring significance of textiles as a major form of aesthetic expression across Africa, relating long-standing cultural practices to recent creative developments. Some of the finest and oldest preserved examples of West African textile traditions are presented, and both their artistic and technical qualities are examined. Wrapped around the body, fashioned into garments, or displayed as hangings, these magnificent textiles include bold strip weavings and intricately patterned indigo resist-dyed cloths.
The influence of African textiles on contemporary artists is also explored, featuring artworks by eight individuals who work in media as far-ranging as sculpture, painting, photography, video, and installation art. A monumental metal tapestry by the Ghanaian El Anatsui that pays tribute to traditional kente prestige cloth while constituting an inventive new genre is discussed in detail.

About the Author

Alisa LaGamma is a Curator and Christine Giuntini a Conservator in the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

To paint a picture of a real and present Africa in Dakar as in Bamako, Accra, or Lagos is to capture their dynamic marketplaces ablaze with color. Across the continent, these living tableaus that are the epicenters of their communities are defined by a lyrical cacophony of designs and hues. The fabrics of such immense collages of humanity constitute scores of acts of aesthetic self-determination predicated on the rich variety of ways in which cloth has been elaborated.
--This text refers to the Digital edition.

• Product Details:
• Paperback: 72 pages
• Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art (December 18, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780300149623
• ISBN-13: 978-0300149623
• ASIN: 030014962X
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 8 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces

Wrapped in Pride

Synopsis:
Kente is not only the best known of all African textiles, it is also one of the most admired of all fabrics worldwide. Originating among the Asante peoples of Ghana and the Ewe peoples of Ghana and Togo, this brilliantly colored and intricately patterned strip-woven cloth was traditionally associated with royalty. Over time, however, it has come to be worn and used in many different contexts. In Wrapped in Pride, seven distinguished scholars present an exhaustive examination of the history of kente from its earliest use in Ghana to its modern impact in the African Diaspora. 


About the Author
Doran H. Ross is the former director of the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History.


Product Details:

• Paperback: 347 pages
• Publisher: UCLA (January 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0930741692
• ISBN-13: 978-0930741693
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 9.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds

The Fabric of Moroccan Life

Synopsis:
For centuries, the people of Morocco have been producing magnificent embroideries, pile rugs, and flatweaves. The Fabric of Moroccan Life showcases rare embroideries, hangings, and rugs that reflect the broad range of traditions and cultural influences active in Morocco during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The book explores the artistic importance of these superb weavings as well as their central role in Moroccan culture. Approximately 150 pieces - and numerous details - are illustrated in colour, and additional photographs including many that were taken in the 1930s show how they were once used in everyday life in Morocco. The book includes essays on Moroccan embroidery and its origins, traditional costumes of the cities and rural areas, the weavings of the Berbers and other ethnic groups, and the distinctive characteristics of items made by particular ethnic sub-groups. The contributing writers are eminent scholars and experts in a variety of fields, including Moroccan history and culture Moroccan rugs, textiles, and clothing and natural dyes. A wealth of information is included that has never before been available in one volume. 

From Library Journal

This volume, which catalogs fine examples of Moroccan embroidery, weaving, and dyeing, accompanies an exhibit that appeared at the Indianapolis Museum of Art through June 2002 and will travel to the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, from June to August 2003. Paydar, curator of textiles and costumes at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and collector and writer Grammet have pulled together varied essays accompanied by engaging color photographs of exhibit pieces. Regional styles, techniques, and influences are detailed, and a few maps assist with the geographic references. Watermarks of traditional Moroccan motifs enhance the book's ethnic feel. Sadly, this lovely book has some disappointing flaws. One cannot easily locate photos cited in the text, there are no page references and seemingly no organization, and the lack of an index severely limits the book's usefulness. While an appendix offers a technical analysis of each piece, no reference is given to locate that item in the book. Thus, despite its beauty and the lack of other recent books or exhibitions on the topic, this is not for public libraries and will be an additional purchase for academic or specialized collections.
Karen Ellis, Nicholson Memorial Lib. Syst., Garland, TX
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Niloo Imami Paydar is curator of textiles and costumes at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Ivo Grammet is coordinator of a new museum in Nador, northern Morocco. The contributors include GÈrard BoÎly, Gebhard Blazek, Katherine Dolk-Ellis, Narjys El Alaoui, Mustapha Hansali, Annette Korolnik-Andersch, Marcel Korolnik, Zineb Lehmam, Russell Pickering, Ahmed Skounti, Frieda Sorber, Wilfried Stanzer, and Marie-France Vivier.

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: University of Washington Press; illustrated edition edition (1 Aug 2002)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 0936260769
• ISBN-13: 978-0936260761
• Product Dimensions: 31.3 x 23.8 x 3.4 cm

The Art of African Textiles: Technology, Tradition and Lurex

Synopsis:
This is a comprehensive look at the textiles of contemporary Africa. It includes essays on the hand-woven textiles of West Africa, applique and embroidery, the impact of European trade and the use of textiles as an art form.` 

Product Description:
This is a comprehensive look at the textiles of contemporary Africa. It includes essays on the hand-woven textiles of West Africa, applique and embroidery, the impact of European trade and the use of textiles as an art form.'


Review:
The Art of African Textiles: Technology, Tradition and Lurex. John Picton, with Rayda Becker, Pauline Duponchel, Jackie Guille, Elizabeth Harney, David Heathcote, Julia Hilger, Atta Kwami, Pat Oyelola, and Simon Peers. London, 1995. Published to accompany an exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery. This work focuses on 20th century non-traditional African textiles, revealing the new materials, images, technologies and demands that have enriched the textiles in recent years. This is an extraordinary book. Presenting examples of developments in African textile art, and representing all regions and forms of design, this book is a survey of world textiles. 
Review by 2crazy4books2 

Product Detail:
Paperback: 144 pages

• Publisher: Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd; New edition edition (31 Oct 1999)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 0853317968
• ISBN-13: 978-0853317968
• Product Dimensions: 27 x 21.2 x 1.4 cm

North African Textiles by Chris Spring

Review:
This is a really sumptuous book - if you are as keen on embroidered, woven, appliqued, tie-dyed fabrics as I am, the illustrations are almost 3D - absolutely beautiful. There are new insights into the significance of these textiles which add to an understanding of the cultural tradition of North Africa as a whole. There is a separate chapter on Ethiopian textiles. This volume has a good index, glossary of terms and scholarly bibliography.
Review by a reader from Somerset, England

Product Detail:

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Moyer Bell Ltd ,U.S. (Dec 1997)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 1559211628
• ISBN-13: 978-1559211628
• Product Dimensions: 31.1 x 22.9 x 0.6 cm

Morocco Modern World Designs by Herbert Ypma

Synopsis:
A country of extremes, Morocco is at once ultra-modern yet deeply traditional. This is illustrated by the decorative arts in modern Morocco. Drawing inspiration from the fine artisan traditions of the past, the designers working in Morocco today have their own individual styles. This title combines a history of design and architecture in Morocco with an insight into the most contemporary trends.


Review:
The colours, shapes and textures of Morocco are sumptously displayed in this book. As an interior designer, I found the book both inspirational and stunningly useful. The close-up detailing of mouchearabieh screens plasterwork, tiling, weaving, zeligs, doorframes, furniture, flowers, etc show things that other books on Morocco just hint at - and force you to squint at! If you need to create a Moroccan interior FAST, and don`t have the time to go to Morocco, Ypma`s book is a lifesaver. You can even mix the paint colours using the pictures as reference. Cheers Herbert! The mint tea`s on me!
Review by Jody de Falbe from London


Product Details:
Paperback: 160 pages

• Publisher: Thames & Hudson (21 Oct 1996)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 0500070172
• ISBN-13: 978-0500070178
• Product Dimensions: 29.8 x 23.4 x 1.7 cm

African Textiles: Colour and Creativity Across a Continent

Synopsis
Encompassing the enormous range of traditional, hand-crafted textiles from every region of Africa, this illustrated volume explores the materials, dyes, decorations and techniques of the people who create them. Five sections cover the major geographical areas and examine the materials, dyes, decorations and techniques that characterize them. John Gillow has conducted first-hand research across the continent, recording everything from the simplest items designed for everyday use to sumptuous garments required for major life events, such as births and funerals, marriages and coming-of-age ceremonies.

  Product Description

This is an authoritative survey of textile arts—unique and collectible rugs, tapestries, garments, and more—from all parts of Africa. Five sections detail the textile history and traditions of west, north, east, central, and southern Africa, examining materials, dyes, decorations, patterns, and techniques.
572 color, 12 b&w illustrations

    About the Author

John Gillow researches and collects traditional textiles from India and Southeast Asia, and lectures and exhibits his collections in Europe. He lives in England.


Product Details:
Paperback: 240 pages

• Publisher: Thames & Hudson (August 4, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500288003
• ISBN-13: 978-0500288009
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 9.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.3 pounds

Review:

This book is a wonderful source of material for anyone doing historical research on African and subgroup textiles. It has sections from Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, Eastern African, etc. It goes in a good depth on the process and cultural influence of each textile and their signifigance. The illustrations are also an amazing quality with good size picture. As a Theatre Studies major, I had to research material for Nigerian costuming and this book was a nice resource to get a feel of the fabric in this region. Although this book doesn't go too much in depth about the attire Africans wore, it does go about telling what fabrics are used. This is definitely a must buy.

Review by Customer