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Hundreds of never-before reproduced objects from private collections and museums make this extraordinary survey of sub-Saharan African art revelatory for serious students and casual browsers alike. In his jargon-laden, academic essay, French philosopher Stephan discusses Western misreadings of African art as well as portraiture and representation of space in African sculpture. Kerchache, a French art collector, in a more helpful essay, restores these masks, ancestor figures, ceremonial objects, fetishes, statuettes and forged-iron sculptures to their sociocultural milieu. Fortunately, vivid, engrossing profiles of more than 100 ethnic groups provide a firm context, helping the reader to distinguish naturalist figurines of the Bamana people of West Africa from eerily powerful Fang reliquaries of Cameroon and Gabon. Nearly 250 of the 1069 plates are in color. (Apr.) Copyright 1993 Cahners Business Information.