by Susan Mullin Vogel, Mario Carrieri, for the N. Y. Center for African Art (New York).
From Publishers Weekly
This collection, begun in the early 1960s by Italian businessman Carlo Monzino, was chosen with an eye toward esthetic merit, not for archeological or sociological reasons, and its taste shows. The works are reproduced according to tribe, and a detailed caption accompanies each photograph. Most astonishing is "The Black Venus," a reliquary "guardian figure . . . not expected to duplicate the appearance of actual people but rather to express symbolically a central idea about human beings"not unlike the notion behind most modern Western art. This book is superlative, with enlightening documentation and exceptional photography.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
A visually beautiful and sensitively written catalog of what is undoubtedly one of the world's finest collections of African art. In an introductory essay that provides a survey of the nature of African artistry and in the individual catalog entries, Vogel, executive director of the Center for African Art, provides a cultural background for the pieces and comments on the aesthetic qualities of each object. Yet it is the exquisitely photographed objects that make the catalog particularly valuable. Highly recommended for any library with an interest in Africa and/or art.
Eugene C. Burt, Cornish Inst. Lib., Seattle
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
