IN STEP WITH THE GROWING FASCINATION with traditional African art comes Jean-Baptiste Bacquart's The Tribal Arts Of Africa. A former head of the Tribal Art department at Sotheby's, London, and now a consultant, Bacquart provides not so much a reappraisal as a consise, re-packaging of objects originally made by Africans living south of the Sahara, for Africans, for hundreds of years.
The Tribal Arts of Africa masterfully presents dynamic color photos of all the major object types, including masks, statues and everday objects, but the book's convenient, referenced grouping of these objects alongside contextual explanations of the socio-political structures of each group is unique.
The works of the most important ethnic groups in 49 cultural areas are sophisticated modes of expression as well as valuable collectibles.
by Jean-Baptste Bacquart, Thames & Hudson, 1998, 240 pp., $50.00, ISBN 0-500-01870-7.
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