HOLY (Ladislav) African Sculpture: East and Southern Africa. - Lot 125

HOLY (Ladislav) African Sculpture: East and Southern Africa. Photographs by Dominique Darbois. Translated from Czech by Konstantin Jelinek. Paris, Éditions Cercle d'Art, 1967. Large square quarto (28 cm), light-colored publisher's cloth binding decorated on the front cover with a stylized map of Africa, 190 pp., numerous black-and-white and color photographic reproductions, both full-page and inset. Bibliography pp. 187–191. The institutional collation confirms 190 pages, 28 cm, and the 1967 Cercle d’Art edition. Original French edition of this important monograph devoted to a field that was then much less studied than the arts of West and Central Africa: the traditional sculptures of East and Southern Africa. The work was, in fact, presented at a specialized auction as a reference monograph on the subject. Ladislav Holý examines the various sculptural traditions, taking into account techniques, materials, ritual functions, and stylistic relationships among populations and regions. The book focuses in particular on works from Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe/Rhodesia, and neighboring regions, with detailed discussions of the Makonde, Bemba, Chewa, Tchewa, Lomwe, Nyassa, and others. The iconography is one of the volume’s major attractions. The photographs are by Dominique Darbois, whose work lends the sculptures a particularly powerful presence: masks, anthropomorphic figures, ritual statues, and carved objects are frequently reproduced individually against a neutral background, sometimes across a full or double page. The book’s documentary value remains significant for the African art market: certain works reproduced by Holý and Darbois are still cited today in specialized catalogs to establish their bibliography and publication history; a Makonde figure that has appeared on the market is thus referenced as reproduced in this volume, cat. no. 82. A good copy internally, clean and well-preserved. The publisher’s hardcover binding is present but lacks its original illustrated dust jacket; the light-colored cloth is quite soiled and stained, with scuffing and signs of wear, and minor damage to the head and foot and corners. The absence of the dust jacket is the main flaw here.

Schätzpreis:€30

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