Royal Art of Benin

Royal Art of Benin

Author: Kate Ezra

Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 0870996339

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Tantalizing trivia. this Hitler, spoiling everything?"


Fragile Legacies

Fragile Legacies

Author: Amy J. Staples

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781907804991

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Fragile Legacies showcases the extraordinary photographs of Chief Solomon Osagie Alonge (1911-1994), one of Nigeria's premier photographers and the first official photographer to the royal court of the Benin kingdom. Alonge's photographs document a half-century of the Benin palace and the rituals, pageantry, and regalia of the obas (kings), and provide rare insight into the early histories and practices of studio photography in West Africa. His insider status provides an important perspective for examining the transformations of Benin City during the early to mid-twentieth century. --Front flap.


Loot

Loot

Author: Barnaby Phillips

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2021-04-01

Total Pages: 527

ISBN-13: 1786079364

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A Prospect Best Book of 2021 ‘A fascinating and timely book.’ William Boyd ‘Gripping…a must read.’ FT ‘Compelling…humane, reasonable, and ultimately optimistic.’ Evening Standard ‘[A] valuable guide to a complex narrative.’ The Times In 1897, Britain sent a punitive expedition to the Kingdom of Benin, in what is today Nigeria, in retaliation for the killing of seven British officials and traders. British soldiers and sailors captured Benin, exiled its king and annexed the territory. They also made off with some of Africa’s greatest works of art. The ‘Benin Bronzes’ are now amongst the most admired and valuable artworks in the world. But seeing them in the British Museum today is, in the words of one Benin City artist, like ‘visiting relatives behind bars’. In a time of huge controversy about the legacy of empire, racial justice and the future of museums, what does the future hold for the Bronzes?


The Brutish Museums

The Brutish Museums

Author: Dan Hicks

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781786806833

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Walk into any European museum today and you will see the curated spoils of Empire. They sit behind plate glass: dignified, tastefully lit. Accompanying pieces of card offer a name, date and place of origin. They do not mention that the objectsare all stolen. Few artefacts embody this history of rapacious and extractive colonialism better than the Benin Bronzes - a collection of thousands of brass plaques and carved ivory tusks depicting the history of the Royal Court of the Obas of BeninCity, Nigeria. Pillaged during a British naval attack in 1897, the loot was passed on to Queen Victoria, the British Museum and countless private collections. The story of the Benin Bronzes sits at the heart of a heated debate about cultural restitution, repatriation and the decolonisation of museums. In The Brutish Museums, Dan Hicks makes a powerful case for the urgent return of such objects, as part of a wider project of addressing the outstanding debt of colonialism.


The Benin Plaques

The Benin Plaques

Author: Kathryn Wysocki Gunsch

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-12-15

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 1351254596

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The 16th century bronze plaques from the kingdom of Benin are among the most recognized masterpieces of African art, and yet many details of their commission and installation in the palace in Benin City, Nigeria, are little understood. The Benin Plaques, A 16th Century Imperial Monument is a detailed analysis of a corpus of nearly 850 bronze plaques that were installed in the court of the Benin kingdom at the moment of its greatest political power and geographic reach. By examining European accounts, Benin oral histories, and the physical evidence of the extant plaques, Gunsch is the first to propose an installation pattern for the series.


Selected Works from the Collection of the National Museum of African Art

Selected Works from the Collection of the National Museum of African Art

Author: National Museum of African Art (U.S.)

Publisher: University of Washington Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13:

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The National Museum of African Art began as a private educational institution in 1964 and became part of the Smithsonian Institution in 1979. This volume includes highlights from the museum's holdings of traditional African art from throughout the continent, although the majority of works originated in sub-Saharan Africa. The 150 objects presented include sculpted masks and figures, regalia, items of personal adornment, textiles, furniture, and household objects. Each entry provides a discussion about the object's meaning and use and includes provenance and publication history. Fully illustrated in color, the handbook also includes maps, an extensive bibliography, and an introduction by Roy Sieber, America's foremost authority on traditional African art.


Guide to the Benin Collection at the Penn Museum

Guide to the Benin Collection at the Penn Museum

Author: Kathy Curnow

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Museum

Published: 2024-06-05

Total Pages: 149

ISBN-13: 1949057208

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This guide examines America's oldest collection of Benin art, and one of its least published. Ivory, brass, and wooden art from one of the greatest African precolonial states--the only sub-Saharan polity with 500 years of surviving art--are examined through contextual lenses that provide insight into the Ẹdo people's creativity and world view. The guide also considers the collection's specific history and growth, and current plans to repatriate the artworks back to Nigeria's Benin Kingdom. For readers unfamiliar with Benin and its art, this introduces the complexities of the palace, its successive monarchs and chiefs, and interprets metaphorical motifs such as mudfish, leopards, and elephants. Artworks refer to family and court rivalries, as well as the strict court hierarchies that dictated who could use which materials and wear particular regalia. Interactions with the Portuguese in the 15th and 16th centuries, their impact on trade and luxury goods, and their introduction of Catholicism paint a portrait of a society that absorbed only what they found useful and flourished in both war and peace. Original fieldwork illuminates Benin art and culture and previously published archival material provides insight regarding major collectors and individuals who shaped the field of African art history.


Iké Udé: Nollywood Portraits

Iké Udé: Nollywood Portraits

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9788857232294

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The cinema of Nigeria, often referred to as "Nollywood" is a term coined in the mid-1990s to describe Nigeria's vibrant, film industry consists of movies produced in the country but watched all over Africa and largely by Africans in the diaspora. The history and development of the Nigerian motion picture industry is sometimes generally classified in four main eras: the Colonial era, Golden Age, Video film era and the emerging New Nigerian cinema. The book presents a selection of photographic portraits by Iké Udé depicting some of the major Nigerian actors and actress, television presenters, directors and producers: from Genevieve Nnaji, Alexx Ekubo and Kunle Afolayan to Gideon Okeke, Chioma Ude and Osas Ighodaro. With his ongoing photographic self-portraits, Nigerian-born Iké Udé explores a world of dualities: photographer/performance artist, artist/spectator, African/postnationalist, mainstream/ marginal, individual/everyman and fashion/art. As a Nigerian born, New York based artist, conversant with the world of fashion and celebrity, Udé gives conceptual aspects of performance and representation a new vitality, melding his own theatrical selves and multiple personae with his art.


Ancient & Historic Metals

Ancient & Historic Metals

Author: David A. Scott

Publisher: Getty Publications

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 0892362316

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The sixteen essays in this volume reflect a wide range of research concerning methods for metals conservation, particularly in respect to ancient and historic objects. The variety of issues discussed includes considerations in the cleaning of ancient bronze vessels; the processes involved in bronze casting, finishing, patination, and corrosion; studies of manufacturing techniques of gold objects in ancient African and medieval European metalworking; techniques of mercury gilding in the 18th century; an investigation of patina in the classification of bronze surfaces from land and lake environments; an examination of bronze objects from the Benin Kingdom, Nigeria; the history of restoration of the Marcus Aurelius monument in Rome; the corrosion of iron in architecture; and applications of radiographic tomography to the study of metal objects.