Research Catalog

Title

Invention and tradition : the art of Southeastern Nigeria / Herbert M. Cole ; Dierk Dierking, editor.

Author

Cole, Herbert M.

Publication

Munich ; London : Prestel Verlag, c2012.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Dierking, Dierk.

Description

239 p. : ill. (chiefly col.), maps; 31 cm.

Summary

"The people of Southeastern Nigeria--the popilous Igbo and a dozen nearby but smaller groups--are famous for their artistic creativity. This illuminating book focuses on the area's sculptural arts--mostly figures and mask--examining the mostly unpublished works through the dual lenses of invention and tradition, and with many early and recent contextual photographs. More than 150 examples, dating from the past two centuries, reveal both surprising similarities and differences in artwork by Igbo, Isoko, Urhobo, Ijo, Ogoni, Ibibio, Oron, Eket, Ejagham/Efut, Bokyi, Tiv, Idoma, and Igala peoples. Qualities such as the nature of realism, idealism, and abstraction, the nuances of surface and detail, and the inventiveness of facial and other features, as well as complex uses and meanings, are all addressed in this exciting fresh overview that adds considerably to our understanding of African Art"--Front book-jacket flap.

Subject

• Sculpture > Nigeria
• Masks > Nigeria
• Art, Nigerian

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 234-236).

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction -- I. The aesthetics of form -- Form and style conventions in figural carving -- Formal variety in masks -- Shared masking themes -- Beauty and the beast -- Three-part horizontal composite masks -- Head-on-neck headdress -- Janus imagery -- Formal qualities in masks -- Inventive features: eyes, mouths, noses and ears -- Resonance: meaning, uses, purposes, functions and contexts -- Invented spirits and invented forms -- Invented deities: figures -- Invented spirits: masks -- Carvers/artists -- The shrine contexts of figural sculpture -- Mask contexts and meanings -- Conclusion: revisiting invention -- Maps -- Peoples, cultures, and styles of Southeastern Nigeria -- Igbo -- The lower Niger bronze industry -- Isoko -- Urhobo -- Ijo -- Ogoni -- Ibibio/Oron/Eket -- Ejagham/Efut -- Mbembe -- Bokyi -- Tiv -- Idoma-Akweya -- Igala -- Plates -- The two case studies on masks and masking -- Okoroshi: invented Igbo spirits descended from the clouds -- The nexus of tradition and invention in Igbo maiden masks - a speculative case study.

ISBN

• 3791346008
• 9783791346007

LCCN

^^2012495462

OCLC

756180888

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library