BOOKS
154
Intimate Conversations
African Miniatures
By John and Nicole Dintenfass
Published in English and French by 5 Continents
Editions, 2017
25 x 30 cm, 336 pages, 220 color illustrations
ISBN: 978-8-874-39773-0/978-8-87-439746-4
Hardcover, 75 dollars/65 euros
John and Nicole Dintenfass have long collected African
art—with passion, diligence, depth, and rigor.
Here, they share part of their collection: wooden
miniatures, including statuettes, masks, and pulleys,
none more than eleven inches high. Chosen primarily
for aesthetic reasons, these works are shown in stunning
new photographs by Vincent Girier-Dufournier,
many pictured from multiple angles.
In the brief essays, the Dintenfasses discuss their
history as collectors, sharing the almost personal
relationship collectors develop with their most treasured
pieces. Through their collection, they have
found a connection both to African master carvers
and to the creators of modern Western art, who
were strongly infl uenced by African works. They also
delve into the psychology of collecting. An introduction
by Heinrich Schweizer discusses the particular
nature of miniatures.
Following these essays, the text is minimal and the
objects are allowed to speak for themselves. They are
arranged in a series of thematic sections, determined
by object type, use, or aesthetics, and the full-page
images provide a sense of monumentality that belies
the small scale of the artworks. This is a beautiful
volume that would benefi t any collector’s library.
Something Magical
The Kwagh-Hir of the Tiv
Edited by Jonathan Fogel and Ethan Rider
Published in English by BFP, 2018
10 x 12.5 inches, 320 pages, 353 color images
ISBN: 978-0-692-98547-2
Hardcover, available from www.bfppublishing.com,
175 dollars
This book stands as a reminder to afi cionados of the
enormous amount of research that remains to be done
in the area of African art. It also has the merit of widening
the very concept of what “African art” actually
is, since it is all too often mistakenly considered to be
limited to the material culture of pre-colonial autochthonous
peoples. This work examines the Kwagh-Hir
(pronounced “Kwa-He”) masquerades of the Tiv in
central Nigeria, and it honors a tradition that originated
in the turbulent times immediately following Nigerian
independence in 1960 and remains very much
alive in rural areas today.
The spiritual fi gures that make up the Kwagh-Hir
are embodied in the masquerade by often monstrouslooking
masks and marionettes that are associated
with particular songs, some of which appear in the
book and provide a deeper sense of meaning and signifi
cance. Iyorwuese Hagher, one of the book’s four
contributing authors, explains that each element of
the masquerade is also an animate symbol that represents
certain essential aspects of the Tiv’s relationship
with the world, and these are intended to elicit
reactions of familiarity from the audience. An essay by
Sidney Kasfi r provides historical context for the Tiv and
their art-making traditions.
The book features beautiful illustrations of a large corpus
of objects (largely face and body masks) from the collection
of Jerome Bunch, who acquired most of them in
the fi eld during the second half of the twentieth century.
Makishi
Mbunda & Old Mbunda: 1967–1970
By P.andré Vrydagh
Published in English by the author, 2017
21 x 29.7 cm, 120 pages, 84 illustrations
ISBN: 979-1-06-991032-4
Hardcover, available from the author
(andrevrydagh1@gmail.com), 35 euros
After forty years of being professionally active in the
private sector, P.andré Vrydagh is celebrating retirement
with a return to his fi rst love, anthropology. Here
this takes the form of a publication in English of the
fi eld notes he compiled in Zambia from 1967 through
1970. These formed the basis of the doctoral dissertation
he submitted in 1970 at the Université Libre de
Bruxelles, under the supervision of Luc de Heusch and
Marie-Louise Bastin. It was the fi rst comprehensive
study of the makishi of the Mbunda people.
Used primarily in the ceremonies associated with
the mukanda, Vrydagh presents the makishi as the
complex entity that they embodied in their original
contexts, where the term referred not only to masks
but also to costumes, dance, a music repertoire, etc.
His explanations are supported by both color and
black-and-white fi eld photographs that depict the
makishi and their interactions with the members of
the community.
This publication is interesting and informative, and
its tone is reminiscent of that of the major academic
studies of its time.
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