Art and Risk in Ancient Yoruba
Ife History, Power, and Identity, c. 1300

This book examines the intersection of art, risk and creativity in early African arts from the Yoruba center of Ife.

Suzanne Preston Blier (Author)

9781108431040, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 November 2017

598 pages, 159 b/w illus. 52 colour illus. 5 maps
25.5 x 18 x 3.5 cm, 1.16 kg

'… a text that will quickly become the foundational work on Ife art and a model for art history as a multidisciplinary enterprise.' Eric Gable, African Studies Review

In this book, Suzanne Preston Blier examines the intersection of art, risk and creativity in early African arts from the Yoruba center of Ife and the striking ways that ancient Ife artworks inform society, politics, history and religion. Yoruba art offers a unique lens into one of Africa's most important and least understood early civilizations, one whose historic arts have long been of interest to local residents and Westerners alike because of their tour-de-force visual power and technical complexity. Among the complementary subjects explored are questions of art making, art viewing and aesthetics in the famed ancient Nigerian city-state, as well as the attendant risks and danger assumed by artists, patrons and viewers alike in certain forms of subject matter and modes of portrayal, including unique genres of body marking, portraiture, animal symbolism and regalia. This volume celebrates art, history and the shared passion and skill with which the remarkable artists of early Ife sought to define their past for generations of viewers.

Introduction: art, risk, and creativity
Part I. Art, Risk, and Identity: 1. Art making: artists, subjects, technologies, and media
2. Experiencing art: sight, site, and perspectives of viewing
3. If looks could kill: aesthetics and political expression
4. Embedding identity: marking the Ife body
Part II. Politics, Representation, and Regalia: 5. A gallery of portrait heads: political art
6. Animal avatars: art, identity, and the natural world
7. Crowning glory: the art and politics of headgear
8. Battling with symbols: scepters, staffs, and seats
Conclusions.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Archaeology by period / region [HDD], Social & cultural history [HBTB], African history [HBJH], History of art: pre-history [ACC], Art of indigenous peoples [ACBK]