Drewal, Henry John, John Pemberton, III, Rowland Abiodun and Center for African Art (New York N.Y.) (1989). Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought. New York, The Center for African Art in Association with H.N. Abrams
Hardcover. Brand New in mint condition. Perfect dusk jacket.
This is the most definitive study of Yoruba art and culture. Published as a catalog of a seminal exhibition that toured the United States in 1989-90. It includes incredible full-color and B&W images and a full scholarly discussion of the art, culture, religion, and history of the Yoruba people - one of the most famous and prolific art producing groups in Africa. This book is a must-have for any student of African art, culture, and heritage.
The Yoruba people of Nigeria and Benin, over
15 million strong, are heirs to one of the oldest and greatest artistic
traditions in West Africa. This text offers a look at Yoruba
civilization. Over 200 photographs illustrate rarely seen objects from
museums and private collections.
[From the book's flaps]
The Yoruba people of Nigeria and The Peoples Republic of Benin in West Africa number more than fifteen million and have a long and distinguished history. Based on evidence from archaeological excavations their urbanization dates from 900 A.D. They are heirs to one of the oldest and richest artistic traditions in Africa, a tradition that remains vital and influential today.
With over 90 magnificent full-color illustrations and more than 100 black and white reproductions, Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought focuses on the prolific artistic expressions of the Yoruba and the historical and cultural issues that have shaped its civilization from the twelfth to the twentieth century.
The opening chapters explore the religious and philosophical foundations that provided the early impetus for Yoruba art. In subsequent chapters social and historical developments are juxtaposed and discussed with the works of art illustrated in the catalogue. The rise of the ancient kingdoms of Ife, Esie, Owo, Ijebu and Oyo are described and accompanied with illustrations of exquisitely refined and highly naturalistic terracotta heads, elaborate beaded crowns and other symbols of kingship. Other magnificent works in ivory, bronze, stone and wood produced for royal courts by Yoruba artists are also shown.
Additional chapters examine both past and present roles played by various social groups and different segments of Yoruba society. Women, elders, priests, members of various guilds and individual artists are shown as influential forces in maintaining the vitality and continuity of Yoruba art through the centuries.
Themes of constancy, change and innovation are discussed in the concluding chapters. The survival of traditional art within the context of modern Yoruba society is given added emphasis by the inclusion of contemporary field photographs taken by the authors which show objects in use today. They provide evidence for the ceremonial and social context for many of the art objects shown in color and black and white plates.
The more than one hundred objects illustrated in this catalogue have been selected from major private collections in the United States and Europe. The catalogue also includes rare and important treasures from the National Museums in Lagos and Ile-Ife, Nigeria, as well as little known masterpieces from the Obafemi Awolowo University Museum in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Some of the works from these museums are being shown for the first time outside of Nigeria.
The publication combines major scholarly contributions from three leading experts on Yoruba art and culture with examples of the finest Yoruba works known. It coincides with an unprecedented exhibition of the same title, which will travel in the United States from September 1989 through June
1991.
Authors
Henry John Drewal is Professor of Art History at Cleveland State University. Among his other publications on the subject of Yoruba art, he is co-author of Gelede: Art and Female Power Among The Yoruba with Magaret Thompson Drewal.
John Pemberton III is the Crosby Professor of Religion at Amherst College and the co-author of Yoruba Sculpture of West Africa with William Fagg. Both Mr. Drewal and Mr. Pemberton completed extensive field work among the Yoruba for a decade prior to 1981. Following that they were jointly awarded two research travel grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities which enabled them to study Yoruba art and religion together in Nigeria in 1982 and 1985-6. The results of their re search are incorporated in this volume.
Rowland Abiodun is Chairman of the Department of Fine Arts and Professor of Fine Arts at Obafemi Awo-lowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He has written extensively on Yoruba culture and is currently visiting Professor of Art and Black Studies at Amherst College.
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