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Art from Africa : long steps never broke a back
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Art from Africa : long steps never broke a back

by Pamela McClusky, Robert Farris Thompson

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Accession 3437 ISBN 0853318488 Publisher Seattle Art Museum, Lund Humphries
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TAGS
Curated Derived
Art Biography Biology Culture Death and Burial Decorative Arts Family and Society Materials Religion Sculpture
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State
on_shelf
True
position_updated_at
2026-06-03 17:12
orientation
vertical
Details

Physical

binding_type
Hard Back
dimensions
none captured
spine_text
none captured

Metadata

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LOCATION HISTORY
G:S2:2 4 Current vertical
1 week, 1 day ago
Book Location
Updated 6 days, 21 hours ago
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Last synced 2026-05-21 06:16 (2 weeks, 6 days ago)

Identity

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Art from Africa : long steps never broke a back
vernon_id
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vernon_slug
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Drives Pulse state

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On Shelf
location_name
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location_reason
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isbn_issn→ isbn (when valid)
0853318488

Descriptive

production_date
2002
object_type
Exhibition catalogues/Catalogues/Document genres/Information forms/Visual and Verbal Communication, Books/Document genres/Information forms/Visual and Verbal Communication
object_status
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brief_description
This volume explores issues that remain unexposed in museum presentations of African art. It responds to questions posed by audiences who read the usual label but still want to know more. Why is the figure pounded with nails not called a fetish any more? Exactly how old is this and how do you know? When was this collected, by whom and from whom? What is happening in this part of Africa today? Who displayed this as art and why? Given that many museum catalogues reproduce terse label formats and leave these same questions unanswered, this book has been designed to look intensively at a small number of objects. Each author begins discussion with a personal suggestion of what motivates his or her inquiry and then leads the reader through new research, often using direct quotes from African primary sources and museum records that are usually not available to Western audiences. Objects covered include hunters' shirts from Mali, Liberia and Ghana; regalia from the Asante Kingdom; art from the Kom Kingdom, Cameroon; Minkisi and sacred medicines of the Kongo; Ivwri figures from Nigeria; masks from Liberia and the Ivory Coast; sacred coffins from Ghana; and ornaments for a Maasai bride. The illustrations are drawn from the major Katherine White collection of African art held at Seattle Art Museum.

Subjects & people

authors→ author (initial fill only)
Pamela McClusky, Robert Farris Thompson
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Topics and Themes