Baule sculpture, renowned for its refinement, diversity of forms, and the labor it represents, includes not only face masks and human figures but also a great variety of works in ivory, bronze, and gold, and a range of styles that includes animal helmet masks, monkey figures, stools, drums, heddle pulleys, pottery, and jewelry. Paradoxically, only limited numbers of people are entitled to look at Baule artworks, seen only rarely and fleetingly in Baule villages. Thus, a core concern is the paradox of creating elaborate and beautiful artworks made to be seen by only a select few.

The book examines the dual elusiveness and beauty of Baule art, and considers the ways that limiting access to works of art led artists to advertize their skills by elaborately decorating private utilitarian objects. It also examines different modes of looking at art, such as the kinds of visual encounters that occur when Western eyes look at African art, and the possibilities inherent in a personal relationship with a work of art. Where most traditional African art is and was commissioned by groups and institutions, Baule sculpture responds to personal needs and experiences and, taken as a whole, articulates relationships between men and women, the village and the wilderness, and between the visible and spiritual worlds.

Exhibition catalogue by Susan Mullin Vogel with field photographs by the author. Foreword by H.E. Henri Konan Bédié, President of the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire.

Organized by the Museum for African Art in cooperation with The Yale University Art Gallery and published by The Yale University Press, 1997. 312 pp.

Cloth ISBN: 0-300-07317-8. Paper ISBN: 0-89467-078-6. LCCN: 97-16856.

Softcover: $45.00