African Textiles Today /anglais - Hardcover

SPRING CHRISTOPHER

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0714115592 ISBN 13: 9780714115597

Publisher: BRITISH MUSEUM, 2012

Synopsis

'African Textiles Today' shows how ideas, techniques, materials and markets have adapted and flourished, and how the dynamic traditions in African textiles have provided inspiration for the continents foremost contemporary artists and photographers.

About this title

About the Author

CHRIS SPRING is curator of the African collection at the British Museum. He is the author of numerous books on African art and culture, including African Arms and Armour, North African Textiles, and African Art in Detail.

Review

CHOICE

In this exciting work, Spring (British Museum), an active artist and curator of the British Museum’s African galleries, draws from that institution’s collections to present African textile expression “as a cyclical phenomenon in which past, present, and future are inextricably intertwined.”  Across the continent’s many cultures, the author traces themes of communication, systems of belief, trade, and cultural exchange, national identity, power and status, empowerment, and the historical groundings of contemporary art through the “dynamic and fluid medium” of cloth.  The result is a model of simultaneously syncretic and expansive scholarship: fresh, stimulating, solidly documented, and gorgeously illustrated.  An important intellectual complement to such traditionally organized surveys as John Gillow’s excellent African Textiles (2003), the present work also provides conceptual support for more specialized monographs that focus on specific African textile forms in a global context (e.g., Doran Ross’s Wrapped in Pride:  Ghanaian Kente and African American Identity, 1998).  Written with clarity, passion, and deep subject knowledge, this feat of engaged curation dispels any dusty misconceptions about the nature of museum work today.  Summing Up: Highly recommended.  Especially for African studies or museum studies programs; lower-division undergraduates and above, and general readers. –K.S. Edwards, Clemson University

LIBRARY JOURNAL

It is impossible to overstate the importance of textiles in African art, both traditionally and in the present day. Spring (African art, British Museum; African Art in Detail) has provided an excellent overview of the meanings and uses of textiles from all regions of the continent. Accompanied by color photographs of materials from the British Museum's collection, the text explains the various roles textiles play in African cultures. Chapters include "Textiles and Trade," "Textiles and Communication," and "African Textiles as Historical Documents." Spring's efforts to show how traditional cloths have inspired and been incorporated into contemporary African art demonstrate the vitality of these textile arts. VERDICT Anyone interested in textiles, clothing, and how an art form can be expressive for people at all levels of society will find this volume a valuable resource.—Eugene C. Burt, Seattle

Edition details

• Publisher: BRITISH MUSEUM
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0714115592
• ISBN 13: 9780714115597
• Binding: Hardcover