129 PILAT WINNERS 2012 FIG. 8: Commemorative figure. Hemba, Niembo group, Mbulula region, DR Congo. 19th–20th century. Wood. H: 38.1 cm. Private collection. © present owner. Cameroon Grassfields, Tshokwe, Luluwa, Kuba, and Hemba traditions to contribute specific texts. Rather than take this approach, however, Thomas Campbell encouraged me to be the sole author for the volume. In doing so, colleagues who were specialists in these areas were generous about reviewing my work and providing me with invaluable critical input. I am especially indebted to Doran Ross, Christraud Geary, and Louis de Strycker for sharing their insights while this was a work in progress. The process of researching and writing each individual chapter afforded the manuscript a greater cohesiveness than it might have had otherwise. Once I provided my first draft to the Metropolitan’s editor-in-chief, Mark Polizzotti, he immediately stressed that he wanted the design of the publication to be that of a reference book that would long outlive the exhibition. This was complemented by the fact that the majority of the works were photographed by the Metropolitan’s Peter Zeray while I was present so that we could provide more expansive views of the works presented from a fresh perspective. T. A. M.: What importance did you give to the illustrations? The book allows us to appreciate all of the masterpieces that were on display, but there are also many contextual images. A. L.: In this project I wanted to get away from discussing particular artistic creations in highly generalized terms. My goal was to instill in viewers and readers an awareness of the one-toone relationships between influential men and women and great works of African art. One of the ways I underscored this idea was by drawing extensively on photographic portraits of relevant subjects. In the section devoted to works from the Cameroon Grassfields, for example, two successive generations of nineteenth-century leaders from Kom were represented through sculptural works borrowed from Berlin, Frankfurt, and Seattle. These were in turn related to a series of photographic portraits of their twentieth-century successors taken by Pierre Harter and Paul Gebauer. The use of photography was prominent in both the book and the exhibition’s installation in New York in order to emphasize the role played by particular leaders in shaping history. I wanted readers to consider them in relation to their defining achievements that ultimately inspired the physical monuments intimately linked to them, which are examined by the exhibition and book. These great masterpieces of African art were conceived to at once pay tribute to those influential men and women and to extend their presence in their communities beyond their lifetimes. The historical photographic portraits were essential to getting people to reflect on the humanity of the subjects who inspired the sculpture. Tracking down relevant photographic portraits for this project was a major aspect of the research that was undertaken by Assistant Curator Yaëlle Biro and graduate intern Grace Dingledine.
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