Heroic Africans : Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculptures

Over the centuries, artists across sub-Saharan Africa have memorialized eminent figures in their societies using an astonishingly diverse repertoire of naturalistic and abstract sculptural idioms. The arrival of Europeans as traders, then as colonizers, led to the isolation of many of these sculptures from their original sites, as well as from the contexts in which they were conceived; thus, today, they are seen primarily as timeless representations of generic archetypes. This extensively illustrated publication reexamines major landmarks of African art in terms of the individuals who inspired them and the cultural values that informed them, providing insight into the hidden meaning and inspiration behind these great artistic achievements. Heroic Africansconsiders the landmark sculptural traditions of the Kingdom of Benin and the Ife civilization in Nigeria; the Akan peoples of Ghana; the Bangwa, Kom, and related chiefdoms of the Cameroon Grassfields; the Chokwe of Angola and Zambia; and the Luluwa, Hemba, and Kuba of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Some 116 masterpieces created between the 12th and the early 20th centurycomplemented by maps, drawings, and excavation and documentary photographsreveal the religious and aesthetic conventions that defined distinct regional genres.

Alisa LaGamma is Curator in the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.