L'Art Negre

Bale: Les Editions Holbein, SA, 1953. Hardcover. Clean and tight; light age toning to page margins. Covers soiled at edges. Inscribed by "Bob" to American artist Will Barnet and his wife, Elena.. Straw textured cloth/boards. Dark brown lettering on spine. No dj. 176 pp. with 16 color plates out of 131 total illustrations. Includes bw map. Text in French, translated from the original German by Maurice Muller-Strauss. The art of the central-latitude countries of the African continent. Includes (as named at the time of publication) Angola, Cameroun, Belgian Congo, Lower Congo, Ivory Coast, Gold Coast, Dahomey, Gabon, French Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Rhodesia, Sierra Leone, French Sudan, Togo, and Tanganyika. Map at back shows/lists these countries/territories, regional rivers, and local tribes. Included are chapters (all illustrated) on geogrphy, history, civilization, religion, society, artists in society, function of art, materials and techniques, tribal art, religious art, statues of the Cult of the Ancestors, spirits/magic/fetishes, reliefs, masks, the use of art, ornamentation, and style/expression. Well-illustrated throughout with examples of representative art.