Human Bodies in the Spirit World: African Sculpture from the Weber Collection

The human form is one of the most widespread classical subjects in African art, and its representation conveys reams of hidden and explicit meanings about religious belief and practice, social identity, and aesthetics. African sculptors in numerous artistic traditions have developed and refined principles of abstraction to an unparalleled degree. In many societies, the body itself becomes an artistic work through dress, coiffure, ornaments, and tattooing and scarification.