Presented by Debra Klein at the Annual Conference of the Visual Resources Association, April 3rd - April 6th, 2013, in Providence, Rhode Island. Session #09: Documenting the Art of Africa: Creating New Vocabularies ORGANIZER: Karen Kessel, Sonoma State University MODERATOR: Carole Pawloski, Eastern Michigan University PRESENTERS: Debra Klein, Bard College Jennifer Larson, Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas, Metropolitan Museum of Art Carole Pawloski, Eastern Michigan University Endorsed by the Education Committee Over 100 years ago, artists like Picasso and Gauguin found novel inspiration for their art in the creative works of art from exotic places like Africa and the South Pacific. Digital technology has created the ability to more widely share the resources that we manage yet our vocabulary in describing them is limited. Most Western cultures still view traditional arts of the African continent with a Western aesthetic. People are more interested in how the work is formally viewed than its original function or how and why it was created and how it is displayed. There is often much lacking with record descriptions, cataloging and display that would both enhance the work and give viewers a more accurate understanding of each object. More complete records would enhance the usefulness of object records for multiple disciplines. The influence of African art on the work of Western artists could be documented in the object records. This session will strive to provide these missing elements and further cultural understanding by presenting some of the concerns about the documentation of objects being addressed by current scholars in African art history and related fields. It will touch on the evolving standards and codification of traditional African art, the multiplicity of functionality within objects, and how to better convey meaning through the documentation and contextual display of objects. At the same time, we need to be aware that these cultures may express a need to limit the sharing of information about works that have special significance to their own cultural communities or ethnic groups. Thursday April 4, 2013 1:35pm - 2:55pm

1. Session 09:
Documenting the Art of
Africa: Creating New
Vocabularies
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Cataloging African Art
for Clarity and Context
Debbie Klein
Yoké Mask, Baga, Guinea
Photograph by Michael Huet
Huet, Michel. The dance, art, and ritual of Africa. Pantheon,
c1978., pl. 24

2. IRIS
https://sites.google.com/site/fmpirisdatabase/
VRACore
http://www.vraweb.org/projects/vracore4/
Cataloging Cultural Objects: A Guide to Describing
Cultural Works and Their Images
http://cco.vrafoundation.org/
Getty Vocabularies
http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/inde
x.html
Library of Congress Authorities
http://authorities.loc.gov/

3. • Creating new vocabularies
• Using narrow and broad terms
for subject and worktypes
• Cataloging ephemeral events
• Fragment vs. whole
Female and male Pórópya figures overlooking the log shelter, kpaala, in the central square at the funeral of an elder
Photograph by Anita Glaze, 1970
Lamp, Frederick John, ed. See the music, hear the dance : rethinking African art at the Baltimore Museum of Ar. Prestel, 2004, p. 30

4. Work Type: shirt, ceremonial costume, costume
Culture: Bamana, Mande, West African
Title: Hunters Shirt with basi, or secret things
Description: Hunters's shirts accumulate basi, or
secret things, including amulets, claws, horns, and
other found objects, to represent the knowledge
acquired by the hunter over the course of his
lifetime. Only the hunter knows the contents of the
packets, and no other person is ever allowed to
wear the shirt, so personal are its secrets. (Nooter,
p. 104)
Materials: cloth, leather, cowrie shells, found
objects, mirrors
Creation location: Mali
Subjects: Magic; Power; Folk Art; Ethnic costume;
Amulets; Cosentino, Henrietta, Numu Tunkara
wearing hunters shirt, 1976
Nooter, Mary. Secrecy: African Art that Conceals and Reveals. Museum for African Art, c1993, p. 104.

5. Work Type: documentary photograph, black-and-white
photograph, photograph
Culture: Mende, Mande
Date: 1976
Photographer: Henrietta Cosentino (American, 1941-)
Title: Numu Tunkara wearing hunters shirt
Description: The hunter's life is dedicated to acquiring
knowledge, kept as a closely guarded secret, which is
reflected in the depth of accumulation on his shirt. The
collection on a hunter's shirt include amulets, tusks, mud,
leather, and more, representing prayers, power, spells,
and knowledge of plants of animals. (McClusky, p. 74)
Citation: Pamela McClusky. Art from Africa: Long Steps
Never Broke a Back. Lund Humphries, c2002.
Subjects: Rites and ceremonies; Magic; Power; Amulets;
Talismans; Indigenous peoples
McClusky, Pamela. Art from Africa: Long Steps Never Broke a Back. Lund Humphries, c2002, p. 74

6. Work Type: face mask, mask (costume), costume
Culture: Kuba, Central African
Title: Female mask (Ngady Mwaash)
Description: This mask personifies the wife of the
ancestral king Woot who is represented by the mask
Mwaash Mbooy. These masks tell the origin story
during a Kuba Bushoong masquerade that honors
tradition and heritage during funeral ceremonies.
Source:
http://www.artsconnected.org/resource/40088/ngady
-mwaash-mask (accessed 3/18/13)
Discovery location: Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of
the Congo);
Repository: Baltimore Museum of Art (Baltimore,
Maryland, USA) ID: BMA 1954.145.77
Subjects: Geometric patterns; Ritual and ceremonies;
Spirits; Ancestor figures; Masquerades; Cosmology;
Funeral rites and ceremonies
Lamp, Frederick John, ed. See the music, hear the dance : rethinking African art at the Baltimore Museum of Ar. Munich: Prestel, 2004, p. 172

7. Sample entry for a subject term authority record showing cataloger’s notes:
Not in AAT, but a very useful term. dk
Ancestors are believed to affect the fertility and fortune of the living in several ancient and
modern cultures in Africa, South Pacific, and South America.
As ancestor figures these sculptures were passed down through the family. They were cared for by
family elders who kept the figures in shrines within their compounds and made frequent offerings
to them for the well-being of the family and its lineage. The figure's powers could be heightened
by being anointed with magical medicines and they were used in a number of ways: to protect the
sick from evil forces, villages from unwelcome intruders and to ascertain the guilt, or otherwise, of
a defendant.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/a-tabwa-ancestor-figure/
The peoples of the coasts and islands of Cenderawasih Bay in northwest New Guinea formerly
created korwar, figures that portrayed recently deceased ancestors. ...Korwar images served as
supernatural intermediaries, allowing the living to communicate with the dead, who remained
actively involved in family and community affairs. When a family member died, his or her relatives
summoned a carver, typically a religious specialist, who created a korwar and enticed the spirit of
the deceased to enter it.
Source: Ancestor Figure (Korwar) [Cenderawasih Bay, New Guinea, Papua (Irian Jaya) Province,
Indonesia] (2001.674) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

8. From the Getty Research Institute Art & Architecture Thesaurus® Online
http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/aat/index.html
Costume (Hierarchy Name)
costume (mode of fashion)
<costume by function>
masks (costume)
body masks
fiber masks
leaf masks
ceremonial masks
Bifwebe
face masks
kpeli-yehe
fiber masks
helmet masks
horizontal masks
horned masks
leaf masks
nimba
plank masks

9. NgadyMwaash performs at a funeral for an initiated man
Photograph by Patricia Darish and David Aaron Binkley, 1982
Lamp, Frederick John, ed. See the music, hear the dance : rethinking
African art at the Baltimore Museum of Ar. Munich: Prestel, 2004, p. 173

10. Egungun ensemble
Yoruba, West Africa
UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History Los
Angeles, California, USA
FMCH X96.3.7
Drewal, Henry John. Beads Body and Soul: Art
and Light in the Yoruba Universe, Los Angeles:
UCLA Fowler Museum, 1998, p. 270

11. McClusky, Pamela, Art from Africa: Long Steps Never Broke a Back. Seattle, Wash.: Lund Humphries, c2002, p. 22

12. Cataloging a complex, time-based event
Event?
Masquerade?
Photograph?
McClusky, Pamela, Art from Africa: Long Steps Never Broke a Back. Seattle, Wash.: Lund Humphries, c2002, p. 22

13. Work Type: documentary photograph,
photograph
Date: 1994
Photographer: Henning Christoph (American,
1944-)
Title: Yoruba Egungun mask dancing
Description: Egungun is a part of the Yoruba
pantheon of divinities. The Egungun represents
the "collective spirit" of the ancestors.
Citation: Pamela McClusky. Art from Africa:
Long Steps Never Broke a Back. Lund
Humphries, c2002.
Technique: color photography
Subjects: Costume (mode of fashion);
Religious; Ancestor worship; Culture/Ritual;
Events; Masquerades; Ancestor figures; Body
masks; Yoruba

14. “Theses objects [in the museum] are but fragments of a larger, integrated form of art as it
generally seen in Africa. …
When we see the same objects in their original contexts … we realize that a museum display is
quite antithetical to their original nature.”
- Frederick John Lamp
See the Music, Hear the Dance: Rethinking African Art at the Baltimore Museum of African Art
Lamp, Frederick John, ed. See the music, hear the dance : rethinking African art at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Munich: Prestel, 2004, p. 244-245.

15. Goli Glen pair accompanied by a tre played by KalouYao, 1971
Photograph by Susan Mullin Vogel
Vogel, Susan Mullin. Baule: African Art, Western Eyes. Yale UP, c1997, p. 181
Yoké Mask, Baga, Guinea
Photograph by Michael Huet
Huet, Michel. The dance, art, and ritual of Africa. Pantheon, c1978., pl. 24

16. Work Type: documentary photograph
Culture: Baule, Akan
Date: 1971
Creator: photographer: Susan Mullin Vogel
(American, 1942-)
Title(s): Goli Glen pair accompanied by a tre played
by Kalou Yao
Description: The tre, a side-blown horn, is Goli Glen's
special instrument. Goli is a dance of Wan origin that
involves use of four pairs of masks. Goli Glen (or
GoliGlin) is the senior male mask in the series, also
called simply "Glen" (or "Glin.") (Vogel, p. 180)
Creation location: Kami (Yamoussoukro, Cote d'Ivoire)
Citation: Vogel, Susan Mullin. Baule: African Art, Western Eyes. Yale UP, c1997.
Subjects: Goli dance; Horns (animal materials); Aerophones; Helmet masks; Masquerades;
Ceremonial objects; Crowds; Audiences; Rituals (events); Dancers; Body masks; Fiber masks

17. Bibliography
Drewal, Henry John. Beads Body and Soul: Art and Light in the Yoruba Universe, Los Angeles: UCLA
Fowler Museum, 1998.
Huet, Michel. The dance, art, and ritual of Africa, New York: Pantheon, c1978.
Michel Huet. The dances of Africa, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996.
Lamp, Frederick John, ed. See the music, hear the dance : rethinking African art at the Baltimore
Museum of Art, Munich: Prestel, 2004.
McClusky, Pamela, Art from Africa: Long Steps Never Broke a Back. Seattle, Wash.: Lund Humphries,
c2002
Nooter, Mary. Secrecy: African Art that Conceals and Reveals, New York: Museum for African Art,
c1993.
Visonà, Monica Blackmun. A History of Art in Africa, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001.

18. Additional Reading: Sources for Cataloging African and African Diaspora Art
Anderson, Martha.G and Christine Mullen Kreamer . Wild spirits, strong medicine : African art and the wilderness. New York, N.Y. : Center
for African Art, 1989.
Bacquart, Jean-Baptiste. The tribal arts of Africa. Thames and Hudson, 1998.
Tanya Barson& Peter Gorschlüter eds. Afro modern : journeys through the Black Atlantic. Tate Liverpool, 2010.
Bassani, Ezio. Africa and the Renaissance : art in ivory. New York City : Center for African Art, 1988.
Suzanne Preston Blier. The Royal Arts of Africa: The Majesty of Form. H.N. Abrams, c1998.
David H. Brown. Santería enthroned : art, ritual, and innovation in an Afro-Cuban religion. University of Chicago Press, c2003.
Cole, Herbert M.,The Arts of Ghana. UCLA, c1977.
Cole, Herbert. I Am Not Myself: The Art of the African Masquerade.
Cole, Herbert. Icons : ideals and power in the art of Africa. Washington, D.C. : Published for the National Museum of African Art by the
Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989.
Cosentino, Donald J. Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou (UCLA Fowler Museum). U of California P, 1995.
Coquet, Michele and Jane Marie Todd. African Royal Court Art. U of Chicago P, 1998.
Crowley, Daniel J. African Myth and Black Reality in BahianCarnaval. UCLA Fowler Museum, 1984.
Henry John Drewal. Dynasty and divinity : Ife art in ancient Nigeria. Museum for African Art, c2009.
Drewal, Henry John. MamiWata : arts for water spirits in Africa and its diasporas. Fowler Museum at UCLA, 2008.
Drewal, Henry John . Yoruba : nine centuries of African art and thought. New York : Center for African Art in Association with H.N. Abrams,
1989.
Elleh, Nnamdi. African Architecture: Evolution and Transformation. McGraw Hill, 1996.

19. Flores-Peña, Ysamur and Roberta J. Evanchuk. Santeria Garments and Altars: Speaking Without a Voice. UP of Mississippi, 1994.
Foss, Perkins, ed. . Where gods and mortals meet : continuity and renewal in Urhobo art. Museum/African Art, c2004.
Galembo, Phyllis. Divine Inspiration: From Benin to Bahia. U of New Mexico P, 1993.
Galembo, Phyllis. Maske. Chris Boot Ltd., 2010.
Galembo, Phyllis and GerdesFleurant. Vodou: Visions and Voices of Haiti. Ten Speed Press, 1998.
Garlake, Peter. Early Art and Architecture of Africa. Oxford UP, 2002.
Grunne, Bernard de. The birth of art in Africa : Nok statuary in Nigeria. A. Biro, c1998.
Hahner-Herzog, Iris. African masks from the Barbier-Mueller Collection, Geneva . Prestel, c1998.
[Claudia Herrera]. The African presence in México : from Yanga to the present. Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, c2006.
Historical Museum of South Florida. At the Crossroads: Afro-Cuban Orisha Arts in Miami. Historical Museum of S. Fla., 2001.
Huet, Michel. The dance, art, and ritual of Africa. Pantheon, c1978.
Jemkur, J. F. The Nok culture : art in Nigeria 2,500 years ago. Prestel, c2006.
LaGamma, Alisa,and John Pemberton. Art and Oracle: African Art and Rituals of Divination. HNA Books, 2000.
Alisa LaGamma, ed. Eternal ancestors : the art of the Central African reliquary. Yale University Press, c2007.
Frederick John Lamp, ed. See the music, hear the dance : rethinking African art at the Baltimore Museum of Ar. Prestel, 2004.
André Magnin, ed. Arts of Africa : Jean Pigozzi's contemporary collection. Skira, 2005.
Pamela McClusky. Art from Africa: Long Steps Never Broke a Back. Lund Humphries, c2002.
Morris, James. Butabu : adobe architecture of West Africa / James Morris ; text by Suzanne Preston Blier. Princeton Architectural Press, c. 2004.

20. Njami, Simon. Africa Remix: Contemporary Art of a Continent. Hayward Gallery, 2005.
Omari, Mikelle Smith. From the Inside to the Outside: The Art and Ritual of BahianCandomblé. UCLA Fowler Museum, 1984.
Perrois, Louis. Ancestral art of Gabon : from the collections of the Barbier-Mueller Museum. The Museum, 1985.
Phillips, Tom, ed. Africa : the art of a continent. Prestel, 1995.
Picton, John and John Mack. African Textiles: looms, weaving and design. British Museum Publications for the Trustees of the British Museum,
1979
Roberts, Allen F., Mary Nooter Roberts, Gassia Armenian, and OusmaneGueye. A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal. UCLA Fowler
Museum, 2003.
Schildkrout, Enid. African reflections : art from northeastern Zaire. U of Washington P, c1990.
Tamagni, Danielle. Gentlemen of Bacongo. London Trolley Ltd, 2009.
Thompson, Robert F. Face of the Gods: Art and Altars of Africa and the African Americas. Prestel, 1993.
Vogel, Susan, et al. Art/artifact : African art in anthropology collections. Center for African Art, 1988.
Vogel, Susan. Africa Explores: Twentieth Century African Art. Center for African Art, 1991.
Vogel, Susan Mullin. Baule: African Art, Western Eyes. Yale UP, c1997.
Wahlman, Maude. Signs and symbols : African images in African-American quilts. Studio Books, 1993.
Alvia J. Wardlaw, curator. Black art ancestral legacy : the African impulse in African-American art. Dallas Museum of Art , c1989.

21. LINKS
http://www.fowler.ucla.edu/collections/africa
http://www.caacart.com/artist_page.html
http://ezine.zam-magazine.nl/editorial
http://www.modernafricanart.com/
http://www.sil.si.edu/ondisplay/afa-vf/index.htm
http://www.artco-art.com/aktuell.php
http://www.vaudou-vodun.com/en/#/cartier/11/the-west-african-vodun/13/photos/page/10/
http://hartcottagequilts.com/africantextilesbib
http://smafathers.org/museum/about-us/
http://southernsudan.prm.ox.ac.uk/index.php
http://www.greatbuildings.com/places/africa_north.html
http://worldimages.sjsu.edu/?sid=75168&x=8244312
http://raai.library.yale.edu/site/index.php
http://www.liv.ac.uk/black-atlantic/
http://www.npr.org/programs/re/archivesdate/2004/feb/voodoo/

22. http://www.paleobree.com/page7.htm
http://www.nganga.org/
http://www.folkways.si.edu/video/africa.aspx
http://www.folklife.si.edu/resources/maroon/presentation.htm
Note: Explore the Smithsonian’s Folkways site for music, video, interviews, etc.
http://www.barbier-mueller.ch/collections.html?p=home&lang=fr
http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/afar.2008.41.1.13_2
http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/teachers/curriculum/
http://academic.csuohio.edu/curnowk/curnowk/html/aronson.html
http://www.ezakwantu.com/Gallery%20Trade%20Beads%20Slave%20Beads%20African%20Currency.htm
http://www.ondostate.gov.ng/culture_heritage.php
http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/YorubaT/yt1.html
http://www.jamaicamix.com/JamaicaCultureAndHeritage/JamaicanTraditionalDances.html
http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/MainFeaturesAfrica.htm