In this book, Suzanne Preston Blier examines the intersection of art, risk, and creativity in early African arts from the Yoruba center of Ife and the striking ways that ancient Ife artworks inform society, politics, history, and religion. Yoruba art offers a unique lens into one of Africa's most important and least understood early civilizations, one whose historic arts have long been of interest to local residents and Westerners alike because of their tour-de-force visual power and technical complexity. Among the complementary subjects explored are questions of art making, art viewing, and aesthetics in the famed ancient Nigerian city-state, as well as the attendant risks and danger assumed by artists, patrons, and viewers alike in certain forms of subject matter and modes of portrayal, including unique genres of body marking, portraiture, animal symbolism, and regalia. This volume celebrates art, history, and the shared passion and skill with which the remarkable artists of early Ife sought to define their past for generations of viewers.
Author(s): Suzanne Preston Blier
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2015
Language: English
Pages: 574
Cover
Half title
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction: Risk, Art, and History
Part I: Art, Risk, and Identity
1 Making Art: Artists, Subjects, Materials, and Patrons
2 Experiencing Art at Ife: Sight, Site, and Viewership
3 If Looks Could Kill: Aesthetics and Political Expression
4 Embedding Identity: Marking the Ife Body
Part II: Politics, Representation, and Regalia
5 A Gallery of Portrait Heads: Political Art in Early Ife
6 Animal Avatars: Art, Identity, and the Natural World
7 Crowning Glory: The Art and Politics of Royal Headgear
8 Battling with Symbols: Staffs of Office, Menhirs, and Thrones
Conclusions
Glossary
Interviews and Correspondence
Notes
Bibliography
Index
