Arts Of Africa And Oceania

By focusing on the original scholarly contributions, rather than secondary description, this reader in tribal arts exposes the reader to the best original scholarship of 29 noted scholars in anthropology and art history. Each scholarly essay is well-illustrated, often with original field photographs as well as museum objects. For artists, art historians, sociologists, and all those interested in the arts of the fourth world.

Through works of art, photographs, and writings, this volume explores Picasso’s fascination with tribal art and the influences he repeatedly drew upon for his own oeuvre. “African art? I don’t know it.” With this provocative tone, Picasso tried to deny his relationship with art from outside of Europe. However, through hundreds of archival documents and photographs, this volume illustrates how tribal art from Africa, Oceania, the Americas, and Asia was a recurring source of inspiration for the artist. Side-by-side comparisons illustrate the links between Picasso’s oeuvre and diverse tribal arts. In both, we find the same themes—nudity, sexuality, impulses, death, and more—along with parallel artistic expressions of those themes—such as disfiguration or destruction of the body. The volume is completed with a chronology of the relevant works and photographs of the artist in his studio.