African Art Reframed

Reflections and Dialogues on Museum Culture

Bennetta Jules-Rosette author JR Osborn author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:University of Illinois Press

Published:22nd Jun '20

Should be back in stock very soon

This hardback is available in another edition too:

African Art Reframed cover

Once seen as a collection of artifacts and ritual objects, African art now commands respect from museums and collectors. Bennetta Jules-Rosette and J.R. Osborn explore the reframing of African art through case studies of museums and galleries in the United States, Europe, and Africa.

The authors take a three-pronged approach. Part One ranges from curiosity cabinets to virtual websites to offer a history of ethnographic and art museums and look at their organization and methods of reaching out to the public. In the second part, the authors examine museums as ecosystems and communities within communities, and they use semiotic methods to analyze images, signs, and symbols drawn from the experiences of curators and artists. The third part introduces innovative strategies for displaying, disseminating, and reclaiming African art. The authors also propose how to reinterpret the art inside and outside the museum and show ways of remixing the results.

Drawing on extensive conversations with curators, collectors, and artists, African Art Reframed is an essential guide to building new exchanges and connections in the dynamic worlds of African and global art.

"At just under 400 pages, this splendid and impressively researched book has eight chapters that divide thematically into three parts. . . . The main themes centre around artworks, artists, museum exhibits and others, while interviews with artists and curators close each chapter." --Theory, Culture, and Society
"The authors' enthusiasm for their analytical approach is admirable . . . very timely and insightful work." --Ethnic and Racial Studies
​"Jules-Rosette and Osborne succeed in their intention to illustrate a historical reconstituting of public perception of the African object--from ethnographic curiosity, to influence on other artistic movements, to embrace of the gamut of creative expression." --Choice
"African Art Reframed is a qualitative study of the circulation and exhibition of African art in ethnographic and art museums and galleries in Europe, Africa, and the United States. Drawing on years of ethnographic observations, interviews with museum professionals and artists, and extensive archival and visual materials such as museum catalogs, Jules-Rosette and Osborn examine how African art is created, framed, and reframed in museums across three continents." --Symbolic Interaction
​”An important intervention featuring new approaches to 'unmixing' in the exhibitionary complex of African and African American Art. It features interviews with French and US-based curators and museum directors engaged in emerging contexts and legacies of ethnographic display.”—Peter J. Bloom, author of French Colonial Documentary: Mythologies of Humanitarianism
"African Art Reframed is a masterwork that interweaves theoretical innovations and critical analyses of the power dynamics in museum displays of African art." --Journal of African American History
”This book is nothing less than a major breakthrough in museum studies. It is the first to systematically connect museum display practice to the recalibration of 'ethnic identity' that happens after colonialism. Its focus is on the global display of art and crafts from Africa and the African diaspora. But it is essential reading for anyone who wonders about what we want to hear from our forebears as we compel them to speak from behind glass, standing on plinths, and hanging on walls.”—Dean MacCannell, author of The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class

ISBN: 9780252043277

Dimensions: 235mm x 156mm x 36mm

Weight: 966g

408 pages