Pende: Visions of Africa - Softcover

Strother, Z. S.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 8874393849 ISBN 13: 9788874393848

Publisher: 5 Continents Editions Srl, 2007

Synopsis

Although many societies in the Congo were once renowned for vibrant masquerades and architectural sculpture, these phenomena have only been studied as living traditions among a handful of peoples, most notably the Pende. Building on the extended fieldwork of numerous researchers since the 1950s, this text offers a unique window into the dynamic performance contexts of both masquerade and architecture in Central Africa. As much as possible, it privileges Pende voices as it seeks to understand the interrelationship between ritual practice and aesthetic form. Attentive to history, the text also records how these artistic practices have responded (sometimes unpredictably) to both colonial and post-colonial pressures. Lavish illustrations feature both iconic and hitherto unpublished masterworks, which have been selected to evoke the full range of Pende expression. Visions of Africa is a series devoted to the arts of Africa grouped according to the different populations. Each volume follows two main g

About this title

About the Author:

Z. S. Strother is Riggio Professor of African art at Columbia University in the City of New York. She was trained in art history at Yale University, where she received her Ph.D in 1992. Since then, she has published extensively on African visual culture, including Inventing Masks: Agency and History in the Art of the Central Pende (University of Chicago Press, 1998), which received the the Arnold Rubin Outstanding Publication Award for Original scholarship published between 1998-2000. This research is based on 32 months of fieldwork among the Eastern and Central Pende, 1987-89. Her current research focuses on untangling the history of iconoclasm in Africa.

About this edition

• Publisher: 5 Continents Editions Srl
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 8874393849
• ISBN 13: 9788874393848
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128