Baule: African Art, Western Eyes [Hardcover]

Susan Mullin Vogel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 20, 1997

The sculptures of the Baule people of the Ivory Coast have long been recognized in Europe and the United States as one of Africa's most significant art traditions. The work of many modern artists - Amedeo Modigliani in particular - refelects the direct influence of Baule invention and forms. This text explores for the texture and details of Baule life and art. Illustrations include field photographs showing artworks in the intimacy of daily lives and public performances, and museum photograophs of Baule sculptures. Susan Vogel focuses on the creation and uses of Baule works of art apart from their definition as "art" in western eyes. She establishes a means for understanding Baule expressive culture from the perspective of the Baule individuals. In a discussion of Baule experiences of art objects, she finds different kinds of looking and sleeping - art that is watched (mask dances and entertainment performances), that is seen without looking (works of art too sacred or awesome to be scrutinized), that is glimpsed (sculptures made for personal shrines and kept in private rooms), and that is visible to all (elaborately decorated objects that fulfill the desire for beauty and for open display of talents).

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Baule: African Art Western Eyes is a model of cultural sensitivity and respect. The author, Susan Mullin Vogel, a director at the Yale Art Gallery and a leader in the field of African art for decades, has lived among the Baule, and her deep knowledge, curiosity, and understanding is evident on every page. "There are four Baule words for looking and seeing in general," she writes, "and these are used in revealingly specific ways in reference to works of art. They clearly indicate the kind of looking that is appropriate to different kinds of artworks, and they differentiate among objects that anyone can look at, objects that must never deliberately be looked at, and all the degrees between." Baule art has had a worldwide following for more than a century, but its subtleties and meanings have remained elusive. This important book is filled with pictures of Baule masks, paintings, sculptures, and house decorations--both antique and contemporary. But Vogel also includes documentary photographs of village brides wearing gold jewelry, wood carvers old and young, masked dancers exhorting children to follow them to a ceremony, drummers and other musicians, costumed actors, young men and women with their "spirit" spouses (carved figurines intended to bring them a mate)--in other words, art in context. The book's design is both hip and exquisite; all the material--pictorial and narrative--breathes with contemporary life. --Peggy Moorman

From Library Journal

The Baule are a major culture group in central Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) whose art has interested Westerners since the beginning of this century. Vogel, a leading authority on African art, has spent several decades researching Baule art and aesthetics, as well as studying the nature of Western appreciation of that art. In this book, designed to accompany an exhibition of the same name, Vogel has done a masterly job of revealing the meaning, relevance, and power of the full range of sacred, personal, performance, and utilitarian art objects among the Baule. Of course, masks and figure sculptures justifiably receive the greatest emphasis. The text, while scholarly, is refreshingly free of academic jargon and the use of footnotes, presumably to appeal to a wider audience. Accompanying the text are excellent, mostly color, photographs of objects in both Baule and museum settings. Highly recommended for academic and public libraries with an interest in art and/or African studies.?Eugene C. Burt, Art Inst. of Seattle Lib.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (October 20, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300073178
• ISBN-13: 978-0300073171
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 9.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,200,357 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #8 in Books > History > Africa > Côte d'Ivoire

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It is a primer for how art works in ethnographic societies., January 22, 1999

By 

[e-mail] or Anne Gregory (Sacramento , California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baule: African Art, Western Eyes (Hardcover)

My brief review of Susan Vogel's African Art Western Eyes will be as if I were writing a letter to Susan Vogel herself. Dear Susan Vogel, I could not fly East to see the exhibit of Baule art from the Ivory Coast, but the accompanying book is almost as vivid as attending the exhibit. Even though African Art Western Eyes is about the Baule, it could be a primer for how art is used, how it works in ethnographic societies world wide. The main thing that impressed me was your compassion, your natural humanity at work in your investigation of Baule art. There are none of the "politically correct" words I often read in books about ethnographic art, but instead a more humble, more respectful, more willingness to discover attitude that allows the reader to experience his or her humanity in the process. Thank you