The Tribal Arts of Africa

Bacquart, Jean-Baptiste, The Tribal Arts of Africa; Thames and Hudson Inc., 1998.

This book displays and defines the marvelous achievements of thousands of years of African creative endeavor. All the objects included here were made by Africans for their own use, hand-crafted from the beginning of the first millennium to the early twentieth century.

Jean-Baptiste Bacquart has divided sub-Saharan Africa into 49 cultural areas. Each section studies the most important tribe in the region, surveying its social and political structures as well as its artistic production; in most instances this includes masks, statues and everyday objects such as textiles, furniture and jewelry. Where relevant, a short description of artistically related tribes is also provided. Each section is supported by color photographs of all the major object groups and documentary black-and-white illustrations, and ends with its own bibliography.

This is the only publication in any language to present the entire panoply of these wonderful works in an accessible form, and is an invaluable reference guide of immense use and interest to professional collectors and laymen alike.

240 pages, 865 photographs (color and black-and-white).