Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculptures (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Description

Over the centuries, artists across sub-Saharan Africa have memorialized eminent figures in their societies using an astonishingly diverse repertoire of naturalistic and abstract sculptural idioms. Adopting complex aesthetic fromulations, they idealized their subjects but also added specific details--such as emblems of rank, scarification patterns, and elaborate coiffures--in order to evoke the individuals represented. Imbued with the essence of their formidable subjects, these works played an essential role in reifying ties with important ancestors at critical moments of transition. Often their transfer from one generation to the next was a prerequisite for conferring legitimacy upon the leaders who followed. The arrival of Europeans as traders, then as colonizers, led to the dislocation of many of these sculptures from their original sites, as well as from the contexts in which they were conceived; thus, today, they are seen primarily as timeless representations of generic archetypes. "Heroic Africans "reexamines the sculptures in terms of the individuals who inspired them and the cultural values that informed them, providing insight into the hidden meaning and inspiration behind these great artistic achievements. Author Alisa LaGamma considers the landmark sculptural traditions of the kingdoms of Ife and Benin, both in Nigeria; Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire's Akan chiefdoms; the Bangwa and Kom chiefdoms of the Cameroon Grassfields; the Chokwe cheifdoms of Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (D.R.C.); and the D.R.C's Luluwa, Kuba, and Hemba chiefdoms. More than 140 masterpieces created between the 12th and the early 20th century--complemented by maps, drawings, and excavation and ceremonial photographs--reveal the religious and aesthetic conventions that defined distinct regional genres. Cover Contents Introduction: Enshrining greatness Sculpture and the imitation of nature Sculptural paradigms for heroic subjects Modes of representation in African art: The kingdom of Benin Idia of the ivory pendant masks Heroic ancestors in Benin and beyond 1. Visual poems in praise of an ever-present past: Ife terracottas 2. Pageantry and ritual: The Akan 3. Dancing figures and effigy thrones: Grassfield chiefdoms Bangwa Kom 4. The golden age of Shyáám and beyond: The Kuba Variations on a theme: The lives of kings The Ndop tradition beyond Nsheng 5. Of hunter princes and cherished maidens: The Chokwe and Luluwa Translating Lunda myth into Chokwe sculpture A parallel vision: the Luluwa Familiar faces as ideals of womanhood: Pwo masks 6. Sublime chiefs and the persistence of memory: The Hemba Appendix Notes Works in the exhibition Selected bibliography Index Photograph credits