Research Catalog

African seats

Title
African seats / edited by von Sandro Bocola ; with essays by Ezio Bassani[and others] ; photographs by Heini Schneebeli.
Publication
Munich ; New York : Prestel, [1995], ©1995.

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextUse in library N7397 Su14 Af835Off-site

Details

Additional Authors
  • Bocola, Sandro, 1931-
  • Bassani, Ezio.
  • Vitra Design Museum.
Description
200 pages : illustrations (some color); 30 cm
Summary
  • African seats have exceptional sculptural power; and they range from items incorporating carved figures to extraordinarily abstract forms of a minimalism astonishing even by Western standards. No other non-European culture can lay claim to such a variety of seats.
  • Alongside a multitude of stools and backrests for everyday use and unique to a particular group, one finds ritual seats decorated with symbolic representations, ceremonial stools and the partly European-inspired chairs of the heads of families, tribal princes and kings.
  • Drawing on over 170 examples, this book offers a survey of the seats of sub-Saharan Africa, an integral part of a traditional culture that is already disappearing. The various essays by noted ethnologists address the cultural histories and aesthetics of African seats and other objects, as well as their regional characteristics. In addition, there is a wealth of photographic evidence documenting the use of seats and their original contexts, both past and present.
Uniform Title
Afrikanische Sitze. English.
Subject
  • Art, African > Africa, Sub-Saharan > Exhibitions
  • Chairs > Africa, Sub-Saharan > Exhibitions
  • Stools > Africa, Sub-Saharan > Exhibitions
Note
  • Catalog of an exhibition held at the Vitra Design Museum and 5 other museums in Europe, between June 1994 and May 1996.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (p. 196-199).
Contents
Introduction / Sandro Bocola -- Through Western Eyes / Sandro Bocola -- Concerning African Objects / Lorenz Homberger and Piet Meyer -- African Furniture between Tradition and Colonization / Roy Sieber -- Early Evidence of African Seats / Ezio Bassani -- The Small Grandfather Chairs of the Gere / Hans Himmelheber -- Asante Stools -- Maps of Africa -- Plates with introductory texts / Lorenz Homberger. Sudanese Savannah and Coast of Guinea. Cameroon. Central Africa. East and Southern Africa -- Catalogue / Andrea Knecht Oti-Amoako.
ISBN
3791314262
OCLC
  • 35252681
  • ocm35252681
  • SCSB-14348576
Owning Institutions
Columbia University Libraries