Baule: African Art, Western Eyes
Baule: African Art Western Eyesis a model of cultural sensitivity and respect. The author, Susan Mullin Vogel, a director at the Yale Art Gallery and a leader in the field of African art for decades, has lived among the Baule, and her deep knowledge, curiosity, and understanding is evident on every page. "There are four Baule words for looking and seeing in general," she writes, "and these are used in revealingly specific ways in reference to works of art. They clearly indicate the kind of looking that is appropriate to different kinds of artworks, and they differentiate among objects that anyone can look at, objects that must never deliberately be looked at, and all the degrees between." Baule art has had a worldwide following for more than a century, but its subtleties and meanings have remained elusive. This important book is filled with pictures of Baule masks, paintings, sculptures, and house decorations--both antique and contemporary. But Vogel also includes documentary photographs of village brides wearing gold jewelry, wood carvers old and young, masked dancers exhorting children to follow them to a ceremony, drummers and other musicians, costumed actors, young men and women with their "spirit" spouses (carved figurines intended to bring them a mate)--in other words, art in context. The book's design is both hip and exquisite; all the material--pictorial and narrative--breathes with contemporary life.--Peggy Moorman--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.