Session 09:Documenting the Art of Africa: Creating New Vocabularies

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Cataloging African Art for Clarity and Context

Debbie Klein

Yoké Mask, Baga, GuineaPhotograph by Michael HuetHuet, Michel. The dance, art, and ritual of Africa. Pantheon, c1978., pl. 24

Image Removed Due To Copyright Concerns

IRIS https://sites.google.com/site/fmpirisdatabase/

VRACorehttp://www.vraweb.org/projects/vracore4/

Cataloging Cultural Objects: A Guide to Describing Cultural Works and Their Imageshttp://cco.vrafoundation.org/

Getty Vocabularies http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/index.html

Library of Congress Authoritieshttp://authorities.loc.gov/

• Creating new vocabularies

• Using narrow and broad terms for subject and worktypes

• Cataloging ephemeral events

• Fragment vs. whole

Female and male Pórópya figures overlooking the log shelter, kpaala, in the central square at the funeral of an elderPhotograph by Anita Glaze, 1970Lamp, Frederick John, ed. See the music, hear the dance : rethinking African art at the Baltimore Museum of Ar. Prestel, 2004, p. 30

Image Removed Due To Copyright Concerns

Work Type: shirt, ceremonial costume, costume

Culture: Bamana, Mande, West African

Title: Hunters Shirt with basi, or secret things

Description: Hunters's shirts accumulate basi, or secret things, including amulets, claws, horns, and other found objects, to represent the knowledge acquired by the hunter over the course of his lifetime. Only the hunter knows the contents of the packets, and no other person is ever allowed to wear the shirt, so personal are its secrets. (Nooter, p. 104)

Materials: cloth, leather, cowrie shells, found objects, mirrors

Creation location: Mali

Subjects: Magic; Power; Folk Art; Ethnic costume; Amulets; Cosentino, Henrietta, Numu Tunkara wearing hunters shirt, 1976

Nooter, Mary. Secrecy: African Art that Conceals and Reveals. Museum for African Art, c1993, p. 104.

Image Removed Due To Copyright Concerns

Work Type: documentary photograph, black-and-white photograph, photograph

Culture: Mende, Mande

Date: 1976

Photographer: Henrietta Cosentino (American, 1941-)

Title: Numu Tunkara wearing hunters shirt

Description: The hunter's life is dedicated to acquiring knowledge, kept as a closely guarded secret, which is reflected in the depth of accumulation on his shirt. The collection on a hunter's shirt include amulets, tusks, mud, leather, and more, representing prayers, power, spells, and knowledge of plants of animals. (McClusky, p. 74)

Citation: Pamela McClusky. Art from Africa: Long Steps Never Broke a Back. Lund Humphries, c2002.

Subjects: Rites and ceremonies; Magic; Power; Amulets; Talismans; Indigenous peoples

McClusky, Pamela. Art from Africa: Long Steps Never Broke a Back. Lund Humphries, c2002, p. 74

Image Removed Due To Copyright Concerns

Work Type: face mask, mask (costume), costume

Culture: Kuba, Central African

Title: Female mask (Ngady Mwaash)

Description: This mask personifies the wife of the ancestral king Woot who is represented by the mask Mwaash Mbooy. These masks tell the origin story during a Kuba Bushoong masquerade that honors tradition and heritage during funeral ceremonies. Source: http://www.artsconnected.org/resource/40088/ngady-mwaash-mask (accessed 3/18/13)

Discovery location: Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo);

Repository: Baltimore Museum of Art (Baltimore, Maryland, USA) ID: BMA 1954.145.77

Subjects: Geometric patterns; Ritual and ceremonies; Spirits; Ancestor figures; Masquerades; Cosmology; Funeral rites and ceremonies

Lamp, Frederick John, ed. See the music, hear the dance : rethinking African art at the Baltimore Museum of Ar. Munich: Prestel, 2004, p. 172

Image Removed Due To Copyright Concerns

Sample entry for a subject term authority record showing cataloger’s notes:

Not in AAT, but a very useful term. dk

Ancestors are believed to affect the fertility and fortune of the living in several ancient and modern cultures in Africa, South Pacific, and South America.

As ancestor figures these sculptures were passed down through the family. They were cared for by family elders who kept the figures in shrines within their compounds and made frequent offerings to them for the well-being of the family and its lineage. The figure's powers could be heightened by being anointed with magical medicines and they were used in a number of ways: to protect the sick from evil forces, villages from unwelcome intruders and to ascertain the guilt, or otherwise, of a defendant.http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/a-tabwa-ancestor-figure/

The peoples of the coasts and islands of Cenderawasih Bay in northwest New Guinea formerly created korwar, figures that portrayed recently deceased ancestors. ...Korwar images served as supernatural intermediaries, allowing the living to communicate with the dead, who remained actively involved in family and community affairs. When a family member died, his or her relatives summoned a carver, typically a religious specialist, who created a korwar and enticed the spirit of the deceased to enter it.Source: Ancestor Figure (Korwar) [Cenderawasih Bay, New Guinea, Papua (Irian Jaya) Province, Indonesia] (2001.674) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

From the Getty Research Institute Art & Architecture Thesaurus® Onlinehttp://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/aat/index.html

Costume (Hierarchy Name)costume (mode of fashion)

<costume by function>masks (costume)

body masksfiber masks leaf masks

ceremonial masks Bifwebe

face masks kpeli-yehe

fiber masks helmet maskshorizontal masks horned masks leaf masksnimbaplank masks

Ngady Mwaash performs at a funeral for an initiated manPhotograph by Patricia Darish and David Aaron Binkley, 1982

Lamp, Frederick John, ed. See the music, hear the dance : rethinking African art at the Baltimore Museum of Ar. Munich: Prestel, 2004, p. 173

Image Removed Due To Copyright Concerns

Egungun ensembleYoruba, West AfricaUCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History Los Angeles, California, USAFMCH X96.3.7Drewal, Henry John. Beads Body and Soul: Art and Light in the Yoruba Universe, Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum, 1998, p. 270

Image Removed Due To Copyright Concerns

McClusky, Pamela, Art from Africa: Long Steps Never Broke a Back. Seattle, Wash.: Lund Humphries, c2002, p. 22

Image Removed Due To Copyright Concerns

Cataloging a complex, time-based event

Event?

Masquerade?

Photograph?

McClusky, Pamela, Art from Africa: Long Steps Never Broke a Back. Seattle, Wash.: Lund Humphries, c2002, p. 22

Image Removed Due To Copyright Concerns

Work Type: documentary photograph, photograph

Date: 1994

Photographer: Henning Christoph (American, 1944-)

Title: Yoruba Egungun mask dancing

Description: Egungun is a part of the Yoruba pantheon of divinities. The Egungun represents the "collective spirit" of the ancestors.

Citation: Pamela McClusky. Art from Africa: Long Steps Never Broke a Back. Lund Humphries, c2002.

Technique: color photography

Subjects: Costume (mode of fashion); Religious; Ancestor worship; Culture/Ritual; Events; Masquerades; Ancestor figures; Body masks; Yoruba

Image Removed Due To Copyright Concerns

“Theses objects [in the museum] are but fragments of a larger, integrated form of art as it generally seen in Africa. …

When we see the same objects in their original contexts … we realize that a museum display is quite antithetical to their original nature.”

- Frederick John LampSee the Music, Hear the Dance: Rethinking African Art at the Baltimore Museum of African Art

Lamp, Frederick John, ed. See the music, hear the dance : rethinking African art at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Munich: Prestel, 2004, p. 244-245.

Image Removed Due To Copyright Concerns

Goli Glen pair accompanied by a tre played by Kalou Yao, 1971Photograph by Susan Mullin VogelVogel, Susan Mullin. Baule: African Art, Western Eyes. Yale UP, c1997, p. 181

Yoké Mask, Baga, GuineaPhotograph by Michael HuetHuet, Michel. The dance, art, and ritual of Africa. Pantheon, c1978., pl. 24

Work Type: documentary photograph

Culture: Baule, Akan

Date: 1971

Creator: photographer: Susan Mullin Vogel (American, 1942-)

Title(s): Goli Glen pair accompanied by a tre played by Kalou Yao

Description: The tre, a side-blown horn, is Goli Glen's special instrument. Goli is a dance of Wan origin that involves use of four pairs of masks. Goli Glen (or Goli Glin) is the senior male mask in the series, also called simply "Glen" (or "Glin.") (Vogel, p. 180)

Creation location: Kami (Yamoussoukro, Cote d'Ivoire)

Citation: Vogel, Susan Mullin. Baule: African Art, Western Eyes. Yale UP, c1997.

Subjects: Goli dance; Horns (animal materials); Aerophones; Helmet masks; Masquerades; Ceremonial objects; Crowds; Audiences; Rituals (events); Dancers; Body masks; Fiber masks

Bibliography

Drewal, Henry John. Beads Body and Soul: Art and Light in the Yoruba Universe, Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum, 1998.

Huet, Michel. The dance, art, and ritual of Africa, New York: Pantheon, c1978.

Michel Huet. The dances of Africa, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996.

Lamp, Frederick John, ed. See the music, hear the dance : rethinking African art at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Munich: Prestel, 2004.

McClusky, Pamela, Art from Africa: Long Steps Never Broke a Back. Seattle, Wash.: Lund Humphries, c2002

Nooter, Mary. Secrecy: African Art that Conceals and Reveals, New York: Museum for African Art, c1993.

Visonà, Monica Blackmun. A History of Art in Africa, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001.

Additional Reading: Sources for Cataloging African and African Diaspora Art Anderson, Martha.G and Christine Mullen Kreamer . Wild spirits, strong medicine : African art and the wilderness. New York, N.Y. : Center for African Art, 1989. Bacquart, Jean-Baptiste. The tribal arts of Africa. Thames and Hudson, 1998. Tanya Barson & Peter Gorschlüter eds. Afro modern : journeys through the Black Atlantic. Tate Liverpool, 2010. Bassani, Ezio. Africa and the Renaissance : art in ivory. New York City : Center for African Art, 1988. Suzanne Preston Blier. The Royal Arts of Africa: The Majesty of Form. H.N. Abrams, c1998. David H. Brown. Santería enthroned : art, ritual, and innovation in an Afro-Cuban religion. University of Chicago Press, c2003.

Cole, Herbert M.,The Arts of Ghana. UCLA, c1977. Cole, Herbert. I Am Not Myself: The Art of the African Masquerade. Cole, Herbert. Icons : ideals and power in the art of Africa. Washington, D.C. : Published for the National Museum of African Art by the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989.

Cosentino, Donald J. Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou (UCLA Fowler Museum). U of California P, 1995. Coquet, Michele and Jane Marie Todd. African Royal Court Art. U of Chicago P, 1998. Crowley, Daniel J. African Myth and Black Reality in Bahian Carnaval. UCLA Fowler Museum, 1984. Henry John Drewal. Dynasty and divinity : Ife art in ancient Nigeria. Museum for African Art, c2009.

Drewal, Henry John. Mami Wata : arts for water spirits in Africa and its diasporas. Fowler Museum at UCLA, 2008. Drewal, Henry John . Yoruba : nine centuries of African art and thought. New York : Center for African Art in Association with H.N. Abrams, 1989.

Elleh, Nnamdi. African Architecture: Evolution and Transformation. McGraw Hill, 1996.

Flores-Peña, Ysamur and Roberta J. Evanchuk. Santeria Garments and Altars: Speaking Without a Voice. UP of Mississippi, 1994. Foss, Perkins, ed. . Where gods and mortals meet : continuity and renewal in Urhobo art. Museum/African Art, c2004. Galembo, Phyllis. Divine Inspiration: From Benin to Bahia. U of New Mexico P, 1993. Galembo, Phyllis. Maske. Chris Boot Ltd., 2010. Galembo, Phyllis and Gerdes Fleurant. Vodou: Visions and Voices of Haiti. Ten Speed Press, 1998. Garlake, Peter. Early Art and Architecture of Africa. Oxford UP, 2002.

Grunne, Bernard de. The birth of art in Africa : Nok statuary in Nigeria. A. Biro, c1998. Hahner-Herzog, Iris. African masks from the Barbier-Mueller Collection, Geneva . Prestel, c1998. [Claudia Herrera]. The African presence in México : from Yanga to the present. Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, c2006.

Historical Museum of South Florida. At the Crossroads: Afro-Cuban Orisha Arts in Miami. Historical Museum of S. Fla., 2001. Huet, Michel. The dance, art, and ritual of Africa. Pantheon, c1978. Jemkur, J. F. The Nok culture : art in Nigeria 2,500 years ago. Prestel, c2006. LaGamma, Alisa,and John Pemberton. Art and Oracle: African Art and Rituals of Divination. HNA Books, 2000. Alisa LaGamma, ed. Eternal ancestors : the art of the Central African reliquary. Yale University Press, c2007. Frederick John Lamp, ed. See the music, hear the dance : rethinking African art at the Baltimore Museum of Ar. Prestel, 2004. André Magnin, ed. Arts of Africa : Jean Pigozzi's contemporary collection. Skira, 2005.

Pamela McClusky. Art from Africa: Long Steps Never Broke a Back. Lund Humphries, c2002. Morris, James. Butabu : adobe architecture of West Africa / James Morris ; text by Suzanne Preston Blier. Princeton Architectural Press, c. 2004.

Njami, Simon. Africa Remix: Contemporary Art of a Continent. Hayward Gallery, 2005. Omari, Mikelle Smith. From the Inside to the Outside: The Art and Ritual of Bahian Candomblé. UCLA Fowler Museum, 1984. Perrois, Louis. Ancestral art of Gabon : from the collections of the Barbier-Mueller Museum. The Museum, 1985.

Phillips, Tom, ed. Africa : the art of a continent. Prestel, 1995. Picton, John and John Mack. African Textiles: looms, weaving and design. British Museum Publications for the Trustees of the British Museum, 1979

Roberts, Allen F., Mary Nooter Roberts, Gassia Armenian, and Ousmane Gueye. A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal. UCLA Fowler Museum, 2003. Schildkrout, Enid. African reflections : art from northeastern Zaire. U of Washington P, c1990. Tamagni, Danielle. Gentlemen of Bacongo. London Trolley Ltd, 2009. Thompson, Robert F. Face of the Gods: Art and Altars of Africa and the African Americas. Prestel, 1993. Vogel, Susan, et al. Art/artifact : African art in anthropology collections. Center for African Art, 1988. Vogel, Susan. Africa Explores: Twentieth Century African Art. Center for African Art, 1991. Vogel, Susan Mullin. Baule: African Art, Western Eyes. Yale UP, c1997.

Wahlman, Maude. Signs and symbols : African images in African-American quilts. Studio Books, 1993. Alvia J. Wardlaw, curator. Black art ancestral legacy : the African impulse in African-American art. Dallas Museum of Art , c1989.

LINKS

http://www.fowler.ucla.edu/collections/africa http://www.caacart.com/artist_page.html http://ezine.zam-magazine.nl/editorial http://www.modernafricanart.com/ http://www.sil.si.edu/ondisplay/afa-vf/index.htm http://www.artco-art.com/aktuell.php http://www.vaudou-vodun.com/en/#/cartier/11/the-west-african-vodun/13/photos/page/10/ http://hartcottagequilts.com/africantextilesbib http://smafathers.org/museum/about-us/ http://southernsudan.prm.ox.ac.uk/index.php http://www.greatbuildings.com/places/africa_north.html http://worldimages.sjsu.edu/?sid=75168&x=8244312 http://raai.library.yale.edu/site/index.php http://www.liv.ac.uk/black-atlantic/ http://www.npr.org/programs/re/archivesdate/2004/feb/voodoo/

http://www.paleobree.com/page7.htm http://www.nganga.org/

http://www.folkways.si.edu/video/africa.aspx

http://www.folklife.si.edu/resources/maroon/presentation.htm

Note: Explore the Smithsonian’s Folkways site for music, video, interviews, etc. http://www.barbier-mueller.ch/collections.html?p=home&lang=fr http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/afar.2008.41.1.13_2 http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/teachers/curriculum/ http://academic.csuohio.edu/curnowk/curnowk/html/aronson.html http://www.ezakwantu.com/Gallery%20Trade%20Beads%20Slave%20Beads%20African%20Currency.htm http://www.ondostate.gov.ng/culture_heritage.php http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/YorubaT/yt1.html http://www.jamaicamix.com/JamaicaCultureAndHeritage/JamaicanTraditionalDances.html http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/MainFeaturesAfrica.htm