Surveys & Overviews
African Art by Location: Mugar Library N7380 .W55 2002.This classic study reveals the variety and expressive power of the art of a continent that contains more distinct peoples and cultures than any other.
Africa: the Art of a Continent by Location: Mugar Library N7380.5 .A37 2004.This magnificent celebration of the world's oldest and most diverse artistic traditions is considered the definitive book on African art. Ranging from the oldest known human artifact, circa 1.6 million BC, to pieces made within living memory, the objects collected in this extraordinary volume reflect a continent of enormous cultural and historical scope.
Art of Africa by Location: Mugar Library Reserve Room NB1098 .K4713 1993Mainly sculptural works from south of the Sahara.
Arts of Africa: 7000 years of African art by Location: Mugar Library N7380.5 .A78 2005.Highlights the beauty and force of these works from regions now comprising Nigeria, Benin, the Congo, Gabon, Guinea, the Ivory Coast, Mali, and Sudan. The book also examines the influence of African art on 20th-century Western masters such as Picasso, Modigliani, and Brancusi.
Modern & Contemporary African Art
An Anthology of African Art: the 20th century by Location: Mugar Library Folio N7391.65 A5713 2002.From Ethiopia, Nigeria, and the Belgian Congo to Ghana, Senegal, and Angola, through the works of hundreds of artists working in every conceivable medium and context, this anthology manages the continental and unique feat of providing a thorough, expansive, diversified, and fully illustrated history of African art in the 20th century.
A Companion to Modern African Art by Location: Online.Publication Date: 2013.Offering a wealth of perspectives on African modern and Modernist art from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, this new Companion presents essays that assess the work of individual artists as well as exploring broader themes such as discoveries of new technologies and globalization.
Contemporary Art of Africa by Location: Mugar Library Folio N7391.65 .C66 1996.The book moves from those artists most closely aligned with ancestral, tribal forms to those for whom the ties to tradition have been loosened considerably.
Contemporary African Art Since 1980 by Location: Mugar Library Folio N7391.65 .E59 2009.The first major survey of the work of contemporary African artists from diverse situations, locations, and generations who work either in or outside of Africa, but whose practices engage and occupy the social and cultural complexities of the continent since the past 30 years.
Textiles & Dress
African Material Culture, by Mary Jo Arnoldi (editor)
Location: Mugar Library GN645 .A364 1996.
Opens perspectives for understanding African societies and cultures through the contextualized study of objects. This work treats everything from the production of material objects to the meaning of sticks, masquerades, household tools, clothing, and the television set in the contemporary repertoire of African material culture.
African Textiles: Color & Creativity across a Continent by Location: Mugar Library Folio NK8987 .G55 2009.Includes West, North, East, Central, and Southern Africa, outlining the range of weaving techniques, and the different types of looms, materials, and dyes that create these sumptuous works. Provides the cultural context of African textiles, assessing the various influences of religion, culture, trade, tradition, fashion, and the changing role of women that inform their creation.
Fashioning Africa: power and the politics of dress by Location: Mugar Library GT1580 .F37 2004 and online.What clothing means in 20th-century Africa and the diaspora. From clothing as an expression of freedom in early colonial Zanzibar to Somali women's headcovering in inner-city Minneapolis, these essays explore the power of dress in African and pan-African settings.
Archaeology
African Archaeology by Location: Mugar Library GN861 .P47 2005.Illustrated account of African archaeology from prehistory and the origins of humanity to the age of European colonisation. The work spans the entire continent from the Mediterranean to the Cape of Good Hope and demonstrates the relevance of archaeological research to the understanding of Africa today.
African Archaeology by Location: Mugar Library DT13 .A354 2005.Challenges misconceptions & claims about Africa's past and teaches students how to evaluate these claims. Includes a thoughtful introduction that explores the contexts that have shaped archaeological knowledge of Africa's past.
Librarian
Rachel Dwyer
she/ her
Contact:
African Studies Library
6th floor,
Mugar Memorial Library
Mon-Fri 9am - 5 pm
rdwyer@bu.edu
6th floor,
Mugar Memorial Library
Mon-Fri 9am - 5 pm
rdwyer@bu.edu
617-353-3726
Subjects: African Studies