Description

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This comprehensive study of how African and Oceanic arts were brought to Europe and the United States in the late twentieth century uses the esteemed Genevieve McMillan Collection as a prism to investigate collecting strategies as they intersect with the political conditions of colonialism and independence, and the developing study of African and Oceanic arts. The objects within include sculpture, textiles and musical instruments--some of which were collected in the field, others of which passed through hubs of the international art trade like Paris and Brussels, and still others of which arrived with African "runners," who helped locate objects for sale. As the market expanded, an increasing number of object types joined the canon of what constituted art, and artists in Africa and the Pacific began producing replicas and new types--opening a whole new debate about the objects' authenticity. This valuable tome explores this debate and the social, political and commercial forces underlying it.