ANNE DE VANDIÈRE ANNE DE VANDIÈRE TRIBU/S DU MONDE 166 LES LUMBU UN ART SACRÉ DU MONDE un art sacré bungeelë yi bayisi Grand-Dufay Gabon et de la République du partie du groupe eshira ; influencés par les Yombé, ils partagent avec eux des monstres sacrés : Bunzi, son Mbumba, le python arc-en-ciel. Souvent leurs masques blancs, ils ont aussi connus, notamment des statues, des Au début du XXe siècle, un petit séduit les artistes occidentaux ; elles grandes collections telles que celles de Barnes, Charles Ratton, Josef Mueller, récemment, celle d’Hubert Goldet… témoigne de la vitalité de l’art lumbu coiffure tressée en kodia et au visage longilignes aux bras collés le long épaules rondes tenant des calebasses miniaturisés mais bien proportionnés. le reliquaire d’ancêtres caractérisé et son triangle rouge sur le front, réceptacle rond parfois recouvert d’un à la position kongo et les amulettes, style «classique» et raffiné. étudie ici l’histoire du peuple lumbu permanences et les ruptures, sans d’utilisation rituelle des objets sacrés lors de masques, ou du rite du bouiti pour Sont également analysés les objets de kongo : en bois ou en ivoire, ils sont comme le buste-sur-tabouret, la canne encore la simple cuiller rehaussée L’animal mythique, le chimpanzé aux verre, et mami-wata, un génie des bungeelë y i b ayisi Charlotte Grand-Dufay bungeelë yi bayisi sur notre planète. Elles se retrouvent toutes leurs ancêtres. La relation exemplaire. La transmission montre la fragilité et la des millénaires, ont fait ne prennent dans la danger qui les guette, vivent dans les seules intuitive et ancestrale force délicatesse les images et les Patrick Razon, Florent ISBN : 978-2-36956-042-5 Prix : 79 € TTC www.editionsintervalles.com BOOKS Les Lumbu, un art sacré bungeelë yi bayisi By Charlotte Grand-Dufay Published in French by Editions Gourcuff Gradenigo, 2016 272 pages, 24 x 30 cm, 260 color illustrations ISBN: 978-2-35340-239-7 Hardcover, 69 euros We have been waiting impatiently for this book ever since its imminent publication was alluded to in our Lumbu statuary article in the autumn issue of 2015. Released last June, the art of the Lumbu fi nally now has a monograph devoted to it that is commensurate with the richness of its material culture. Charlotte Grand-Dufay, an art historian specializing in the arts and cultures of Gabon, did years of research to bring this book to fruition. One of the work’s principal merits is that it clearly emphasizes and identifi es the individuality of this southwestern Gabonese and Congolese people (who are part of the larger Eshira group) and of their art, while still acknowledging their close associations with their Punu, Vili, and Yombe neighbors, among others, with whom they share origin myths. The fi rst chapter is on the history of the Lumbu. This is followed by descriptions and analyses of the main types of Lumbu artworks—masks, statues, reliquary fi gures, amulets, and sacred objects—as well as a discussion of the contexts in which these were used. The quality of the artworks illustrated in the book, some hitherto unpublished and others iconic, deserves special mention. Tribe/s of the World By Anne de Vandière, with contributions by Érik Orsenna, Priscilla Telmon, Florent Maubert, Jean- Patrick Razon, and Serge Bahuchet Published in French and English by Éditions Intervalles, 2016 584 pages, 15 x 20 cm, 330 black-and-white photographs, Bible paper, Japanese folding, double pages, title hot stamped on cover ISBN: 978-2-36956-042-5 and 978-2-36956-043-2 (deluxe) Regular edition, 79 euros; deluxe edition (limited edition of 300), 140 euros This beautiful book of photographs is readily distinguishable from the many publications of its kind that examine the reality faced by many of the world’s tribes whose cultural specifi city is threatened by globalization. It does not portray a rigid or idealized image of the fragile present encountered by the travelerphotographer— in this case Anne de Vandière—but instead approaches its sensitive subject by offering views of life as it unfolds. De Vandière trained her lens on the gestures, particularly those of the hands, of individuals belonging to forty-six different tribes in twenty different countries, within the framework of a project developed in collaboration with the Tribus du Monde (Tribes of the World) association. From the hands of a young Ethiopian Karo man mixing kaolin with water to make body paint to the open palm of an Aboriginal medicine woman offering up a remedy, the cultural specifi city of her subjects is revealed in all its power and beauty. This visual poem of 330 black-and-white photographs will be the subject of an exhibition at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris, which will be on view from October 12, 2016–January 17, 2017. African Art in African American Collections Edited by Leonard Kahan and Donna Page Published in English by Donalen Publishers, 2015 8.5” x 11”, 146 pages, 130 illustrations in color ISBN: 978-0-692-22600-1 Softcover, $45 Published to accompany a planned eponymous exhibition held last spring at the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago, this book’s title riffs on Warren Robbins’ two-volume survey, African Art in American Collections. Let’s be clear, this is not a particularly beautiful book, but it is a very interesting one. The production values are low and the selection of objects that are illustrated often belies the reality of some of the extremely fi ne collections they represent. Nonetheless, this book is a fascinating look at a much discussed but little acknowledged demographic of the African art collecting community, that being African American collectors. The thirty-two essays by collectors share no particular perspective but offer deeply personal (and in one case poetic) views on the experience of discovering and subsequently collecting African art. Kahan and Page’s introduction and Calvin B. Holder’s historical essay both cite several shared themes—pride in ancestry, a search for positive black role models, the Civil Rights movement, etc.—and these do appear in many cases, but each story as related by the individual collectors is as unique as it is interesting. In the end, this book is less about black collectors of African art and more about the process of collecting itself, something to which every collector can easily relate.
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