Abstract
| african arts SPRING 2007 It has been nearly two decades since African Arts published the special issue on African ceramic arts edited by Marla Berns (1989, vol. 22, no. 2). Since then, there has been noteworthy collaborative research on ceramics in particular regions, a number of important localized studies by individual scholars, and several widely distributed catalogues published in conjunction with major exhibitions surveying African ceramic arts. In parts of Africa where ceramic vessels are pervasive some are clearly the focus of artistic elaboration, whether they serve as objects of both utility and beauty in domestic settings or carry symbolic import central to social identity, economic and political status, ritual practice, and belief. Their study reveals the skill and invention of their makers, who are, more often than not, women.1 And yet, ceramics continue to be underrepresented in Africanist art historical literature in proportion to their importance as a form of expressive culture, and signifi cant gaps remain in our awareness and understanding of historic and contemporary ceramic traditions across Africa. This issue brings together the research of a number of scholars whose work exemplifi es some of what has been accomplished in the last two decades.2 The articles foreground important themes in the study of African ceramic arts, most especially documentation and historical reconstruction, iconographic analysis, the elucidation of ritual and social signifi cance, and the celebration of individual artistry. In this introduction we offer some refl ections on our experiences researching and writing about African ceramic arts and we signal some of the limitations of the fi eld’s current state of knowledge in an effort to spark interest in future research. Ceramic Arts in Africa
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