BOOKS
156
Wild Beads of Africa
Old Powderglass Beads from the Collection of
Billy Steinberg
Edited by Billy Steinberg with text by Jamey D. Allen
Published in English by the author, 2017
9.75 x 11 inches, 216 pages, 180 color illustrations
ISBN: 978-0-692-90710-8
Hardcover, 65 dollars
This gorgeous, heavily illustrated volume is the fi rst
book dedicated to the rare nineteenth-century powderglass
beads often referred to as Bodom or akoso.
Made in Ghana and used by the Asante and Krobo
peoples, these beads are worn both as magical talismans
and as visible symbols of wealth and prestige. In
his introductory essay, noted bead authority Jamey D.
Allen offers new insights into the art and technology of
powderglass beadmaking, and his extensive glossary
of related bead history, manufacture, and classifi cation
provides valuable detail. Stunning new photography
by Fredrik Nilsen showcases one of the world’s premier
bead collections, assembled by renowned songwriter
Billy Steinberg. A short foreword is provided by John
and Ruth Picard, themselves authors of many volumes
on African beads.
The beads are presented as full-page plates, with
descriptive text as an appendix. The matte paper on
which the book is printed is an unusual but effective
choice, as it is in keeping with the surface of the beads
and allows their bright but dusty tones to be accurately
portrayed. For anyone interested in African beads,
this publication is a must.
Lobi Maternities
By Petra and Stephan Herkenhoff
Published as an English/French/German trilingual
edition by Osnabrück, 2017
21.8 x 30.8 cm, 265 pages, 298 black-and-white
illustrations
ISBN: 978-3-00-056992-0
Hardcover, limited edition of 300 copies, available
from www.art-of-the-lobi.com/shop, 59 euros
According to the authors, the idea for this book was
born of their observation that Lobi maternities were
inadequately represented in museums showing non-
European art. This publication seeks to address that
defi ciency and features about a hundred works from
private collections that illustrate and reveal the diversity
of styles and iconography displayed by these totemic
representations. The mother and child iconography,
often seen among so many African cultural groups, is
treated by Lobi sculptors as a kind of inseparable duality.
The child’s attachment to its mother is in the material
itself, since they are sculpted from a single piece
of wood, rendering them united and indivisible. The
authors present this corpus of works using rich blackand
white photographs. These highlight the quality
of the relief carving and the expressive sensitivity of
these renderings of mothers with their children. It also
echoes the quality of the fi eld photographs of the Lobi
people that are presented in the fi rst section of the
book.
This is the fourth volume on the Lobi produced by
these authors, who have spent years studying and
presenting the artworks of this particular culture.
Carving Life
Walrus Ivory Carvings from the Bering Sea
By Eleanor M. Imperato
Published in English by QCC Art Gallery Press &
Kilima House Publishers, New York, 2017
22 x 27 cm, 298 pages, illustrated in color
ISBN: 978-1-93-665837-4
Softcover, 45 dollars
In Carving Life, Eleanor M. Imperato presents her personal
journey into the world of the Alaska Inuit and,
specifi cally, carvers of walrus ivory in Gambell on St.
Lawrence Island, Shishmaref on Sarichef Island in the
Chukchi Sea, and in the King Island community of
Nome, Alaska. In her narrative, Imperato explains what
she learned from her encounters: the meaning of living
a subsistence lifestyle, the challenges of procuring ivory,
the process of carving, and the reasons for doing so.
With her words, she brings into sharp relief the lives,
aspirations, and talents of some of the carvers she came
to know, and with her photographs, she illuminates the
land they call home. She provides stories of modern
people who carve walrus ivory for local and distant audiences.
The author also discusses in her text, as does
Dr. Anne Millbrooke in her introduction, past and current
outside infl uences that have and are altering a traditional
way of life. The text is richly illustrated, as is the
catalog section, which includes Alaska Inuit carvings in
walrus ivory as well as bone and caribou antler. By way
of comparison, the author includes many ivory, bone,
and soapstone sculptures that represent the Inuit of
Greenland and Canada. The bibliography is extensive.
The book was published to accompany an exhibit by
the same name at the QCC Art Gallery, City University
of New York, which was held from October 18, 2017,
until January 17, 2018.
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