Includes bibliographical references and index.

Cover; WILEY BLACKWELL COMPANIONS TO ART HISTORY; Title page; Copyright page; Dedication; List of Figures; Notes on Contributors; Acknowledgments; Note; Part I: Introduction; 1 Writing African Modernism into Art History; Narrations of Modernism and Modernity; Centering Narratives on Africa's Art Worlds; Chapter Overview; Lacunae and Disjunctures; Notes; References; Part II: "Africa Has Always Been Modern"; 2 Local Transformations, Global Inspirations: The Visual Histories and Cultures of Mami Wata Arts in Africa; Sacred Waters: Ancient and Indigenous Arts for African Water Deities.

Afro-Mami Meets Euro-Mermaid: A Fifteenth-Century Sapi Synthesis The Mermaid: A Floating Signifier; The Double-Tailed Mermaid in the Art of Benin; Mami Wata and the Image of the Snake Charmer; The Snake Charmer as Mami Wata in Africa; Mami Wata and Hindu Gods and Goddesses; Communicating with Mami Wata: Writing, Reflecting, Calling; Troubled Waters: From Saint to Sinner; Notes; References; Part III: Art in Cosmopolitan Africa: The Nineteenth Century; 3 Loango Coast Ivories and the Legacies of Afro-Portuguese Arts; Hybrids at Hello; Contact and Catastrophe; Afro-Portuguese Ivories.

The Loango Ivories"Authenticity": Drawing the Line; Pointed Imagery; More Animal Tales; Double-Take; Notes; References; 4 Roots and Routes of African Photographic Practices: From Modern to Vernacular Photography in West and Central Africa (1850-1980); "COME ONE! COME ALL! and secure the shadow ere it fades"; Toward a History of Photography in West and Central Africa; Pioneer Photographers and Their Customers along the West and Central African Coasts; From Monrovia to Libreville: The Careers of Several African Pioneer Photographers.

The Democratization of Photography: The Case of Fumban, Cameroon notes; References; 5 At Home in the World: Portrait Photography and Swahili Mercantile Aesthetics; "Modernity" in African Art History; Challenging "Modernity" and "Place" on the Swahili Coast; Photography and the Colonial Moment; A Swahili Culture of Things; Portrait Photographs as Objects; Modernity on the Edge; Notes; References; 6 African Reimaginations: Presence, Absence, and New Way Architecture; The Scenario for a New History of the Modern; The Palace and the Mosque; Lacuna and History; Removals and Reinstallations.

Invisibility Difference Last Word: The Lines of a Future Argument; Notes; References; Part IV: Modernities and Cross-Cultural Encounters in Arts of the Early Twentieth Century; 7 "One of the Best Tools for Learning": Rethinking the Role of 'Abduh's Fatwa in Egyptian Art History; Introduction; Art, Islam, and the Imam; An Insightful Traveler's Observations; "And They Do Not Spare Any Effort in Preserving These Things"; Al-Suwar wa-l-Tamathil: A Fatwa without Fine Arts; Between the Educational and the Legal; The Fatwa's Five Parts; Conclusion; Notes; References.

Offering a wealth of perspectives on African modern and Modernist art from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, this new Companion features essays by African, European, and North American authors who assess the work of individual artists as well as exploring broader themes such as discoveries of new technologies and globalization. A pioneering continent-based assessment of modern art and modernity across AfricaIncludes original and previously unpublished fieldwork-based materialFeatures new and complex theoretical arguments about the nature of modernity.

Online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed December 12, 2013).