Books | Media

Titles preceded by an asterisk (*) may be purchased through The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Shop.

Titles preceded by a plus sign (+) are available for reference in the Elizabeth Stone Robson Teacher Resource Center.

Books for Adults

The Art of West African Kingdoms. National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1987.

+Arts of Africa. Teacher Manual. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1998.

Appiah, K. Anthony, “Why Africa? Why Art?” Africa: The Art of a Continent. Tom Phillips, ed. Royal Academy of Arts, 1995.

Ben-Amos, Paula Girshick. The Art of Benin. British Museum, 1995.

+Berzock, Kathleen Bickford. “African Art at The Art Institute of Chicago.” African Arts, Winter 1999, 18–35.

——. The Miracles of Mary: A Seventeenth-Century Ethiopian Manuscript. The Art Institute of Chicago, 2002.

Blackmun, B. “Icons and Emblems in Ivory: An Altar Tusk from the Palace of Old Benin,” Museum Studies 23, 2, pp. 148–163. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1997.

*Blier, Suzanne Preston. Royal Arts of Africa. Laurence King Publishing, 1998.

Boone, Sylvia. Radiance from the Waters: Ideals of Feminine Beauty in Mende Art. Yale University Press, c. 1986.

Chanda, Jacqueline. “Alternative Concepts and Terminologies for Teaching African Art,” Art Education, January 1992.

Dewey, William. Sleeping Beauties: The Jerome L. Joss Collection of African Headrests at UCLA. University of California, Los Angeles, Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1993.

Drewel, Henry John. Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought. New York: Center for African Art in Association with Abrams, c. 1989.

Ezra, Kate. Royal Art of Benin: The Perls Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art, c. 1992.

Glaye, Anita. “Call and Response: A Senufo Female Caryatid Drum,” Museum Studies, 19, 2. The Art Institute of Chicago.

+Kuba Mukenga, art poster packet. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1995.

*LaGamma, Alisa. Genesis: Ideas of Origin in African Sculpture. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2002.

McIntosh, Roderick and Susan Keech. “Jenné-Jeno: An Ancient African City,” Archaeology, 1980, 8–14.

Petridis, C. “Of Mothers and Sorcerers: A Luluwa Maternity Figure.” Museum Studies 23, 2, pp. 182–195. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1997.

Phillips, Ruth. Representing Woman: Sande Masquerades of the Mende of Sierra Leone. University of California, Los Angeles Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1995.

Phillips, Tom, ed. Africa: The Art of a Continent. Royal Academy of the Arts, 1995.

Ross, Doran, ed. Elephant: The Animal and Its Ivory in African Culture. Fowler Museum of Cultural History, c. 1992.

–––––––––. Wrapped in Pride: Ghanaian Kente and African American Identity. University of California, Los Angeles, Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1998.

The Royal Art of Benin: A Resource for Educators. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994.

*The Tervuren Museum. Masterpieces from Central Africa. Royal Museum for Central Africa, 1996.

Visona, Monica, Robin Poyner, Herbert M. Cole, and Michael D. Harris. A History of Art in Africa. Abrams, 2001.

Walker, Roslyn Adele. Olówè of Isè: A Yoruba Sculptor to Kings. National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1998.

Walters Art Museum. Ethiopian Art. Walters Art Museum, 2001.

Books for Children

African Civilizations series. New York: Franklin Watt.

Appiah, Peggy. Tales of an Ashanti Father. Boston: Beacon Press,
1967.

Can You Spot the Leopard? African Masks from the series Adventures in Art. New York: Prestel-Verlag, 1997.

Celebrating the Peoples and Civilizations of Africa series. New York: PowerKids Press.

Glubok, Shirley. The Art of Africa. Harper and Row, 1965.

Heritage Library of African Peoples series. Rosen Publishing Group.

Jenke, Veronika, and Kate Archie. Animals in Benin: A Guide for Children and Their Adult Friends. National Museum of African Art.

Murray, Jocelyn. Africa: Cultural Atlas for Young People. New York: Facts on File, 1990.

Musgrove, Margaret W. Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1976.

Souhami, Jessica. The Leopard’s Drum: An Asante Tale from West Africa. Little, Brown, and Company, 1995.

Media

Film, Video, and CD-ROMs

Art and Life in Africa. CD-ROM Teacher’s guide. University of Iowa, 1999.

Africa: Kings and Cities from the series, Africa, No. 4. Video. 87 min. Distributed by Home Vision, 1984.

*African Art: An African Perspective. Video, 47 min. Distributed by Home Vision, 1990.

Arts of Africa. Video. 55 min., The Art Institute of Chicago, 1990.
Distributed by The Elizabeth Stone Robson Teacher Resource Center.
http://www.artic.edu/aic/students/tre/index.html

Nigerian Art: Kindred Spirits from the series Smithsonian World. Video. 60 min. PBS Video.

The Parchment Makers: An Ancient Art in Present-Day Ethiopia. Video. 19 min. Sola Scriptura, 2000.

Web sites

http://artnetweb.com/guggenheim/africa/africamap.html
The Guggenheim Museum’s map of Africa contains geographic descriptions and examples
of works of art from many different areas.


http://www.nmafa.si.edu/pubaccess/index.htm
Tour the collection of African art at the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of African Art.

http://www.mnh.si.edu/africanvoices/
The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s Web site, African Voices, explores the history and diversity of Africa.