231 - SCHWEEGER-HEFEL (Annemarie). — SCULPTURE FROM AFRICA

SCHWEEGER-HEFEL (Annemarie). — SCULPTURE FROM AFRICA SCHWEEGER-HEFEL (Annemarie). Sculpture from Africa. Vienna, Museum für Völkerkunde, 1969. In-8 (approx. 23 × 15.5 cm), 159 pp., paperback, color-illustrated cover. An important catalog devoted to African sculpture, published by the Museum für Völkerkunde in Vienna and compiled by the Austrian ethnologist Annemarie Schweeger-Hefel, a specialist in particular in the peoples of Burkina Faso and the arts of West Africa. The museum’s institutional bibliography confirms the 1969 Viennese edition and its contents. The work serves both as a study of the formal, religious, and symbolic principles of African sculpture and as a catalog raisonné of the pieces held or exhibited by the museum. It focuses in particular on the Dogon, Bambara, Bobo, Kurumba, Baga, Guéré, and Bafo peoples, as well as populations from the Congo and the former Upper Volta, with detailed entries describing the function, materials, provenance, and stylistic characteristics of the objects. The illustrations include 61 photographic plates, in addition to several maps and figures; contemporary bibliographic references also note several color plates. Masks, ancestor figures, cult statuettes, and ritual objects are reproduced, often in full-page spreads. The photographs are primarily by Fritz Mandl and Edeltraud Mandl. An interesting reference catalog for the history of the formation of European collections of African art, as the entries provide inventory numbers and, for many pieces, the dates and circumstances of acquisition. Some of the works reproduced in this volume continue to be cited in specialized bibliographies and catalogs devoted to African art. Well-preserved copy. Slight rubbing and minor signs of wear on the cover; corners slightly rounded; interior in good condition.