Sandro Bocola Book order (chronological)

The seat is an object of great cultural and artistic importance in Africa. This beautifully illustrated volume offers a fascinating look at the dazzling variety of chairs, stools, backrests, and thrones that have been used throughout in sub-Saharan Africa for centuries. Made from wood, stone, iron, and fibers; elaborately carved, beaded or bejeweled, as well as rough-hewn, basic and crude, these artifacts tell us as much about the social customs of the civilizations that created them as they do about their people's incredible artistry. In gorgeous, full-color plates as well as numerous black and white photographs, nearly two hundred examples of African seats are portrayed in geographical context. Essays by leading ethnologists and specialists in the field of African art offer revealing insights into the symbolic importance of the seat. Whether for cooking, weaving, giving birth, reclining or ruling; whether offered in friendship or war; whether worn smooth by constant use or preserved by non-use, each of these seats possesses an unmistakable beauty and exceptional sculptural power.

Visual art - Modernism in pictures This groundbreaking visual guide to the evolution of Modernist art is an indispensable reference for any art lover or student. From its Impressionistic beginnings in the late 19th century to the pluralistic art scene of the present, the development of Modernism is presented as a coherent, unified, and meaningful process. Description and analysis have been eliminated in favor of a colorful, well-organized, and highly visual presentation, which shows the simultaneous, chronological evolutions of four categories of Modernist realistic, structural, romantic, and symbolist. From Manet to Pop Art, from Cézanne to Minimal Art, from Van Gogh to Abstract Expressionism, from Ensor to Surrealism and Arte Povera - a wide range of modern art movements and artists are represented and compared, allowing the reader to locate artwork psychologically, stylistically, and historically. A beautiful and original work, a new way to study art.

El autor comprende la evolución artística de la modernidad como un proceso continuo. Evita considerar el arte moderno como un fenómeno aislado; remitiéndolo en cada momento a sus condiciones socio-históricas y psicológicas. Dedica varios capítulos a la evolución política, científica y cultural de los siglos XIX y XX, mientras discute la estructura y el dinamismo psíquicos en los que se fundamenta el proceso creativo, exponiendo de forma clara y convincente los procesos. Resumen del índice: Prólogo a la edición española.- Introducción.- Tesis 1: los dos principios de la creación artística.- Tesis 2: el desarrollo cíclico de la evolución artística.- Tesis 3: las cuatro actitudes artísticas fundamentales.- El fin de la Edad Moderna.- La realidad de la pintura y el comienzo de la modernidad.- La realidad invisible y la estética de lo universal.- El nuevo paradigma: concepción del mundo y del hombre en la modernidad.- Crisis y renovación.- El levantamiento político contra la modernidad.- Triunfo y culminación.- La pérdida de la realidad: el fin de la modernidad.- Bibliografía.

An in-depth portrayal of the artistic development of modern art from its impressionistic beginnings in the 18th century to the pluralistic art scene of the present, showing this movement as a completed development in art history.

African seats have exceptional sculptural power; and they range from items incorporating carved figures to extraordinarily abstract forms of a minimalism astonishing even by Western standards. No other non-European culture can lay claim to such a variety of seats. Alongside a multitude of stools and backrests for everyday use and unique to a particular group, one finds ritual seats decorated with symbolic representations, ceremonial stools and the partly European-inspired chairs of the heads of families, tribal princes and kings. Drawing on over 170 examples, this book offers a survey of the seats of sub-Saharan Africa, an integral part of a traditional culture that is already disappearing. The various essays by noted ethnologists address the cultural histories and aesthetics of African seats and other objects, as well as their regional characteristics. In addition, there is a wealth of photographic evidence documenting the use of seats and their original contexts, both past and present.