Acknowledgements

Vogel, Susan Mullin

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Acknowledgements

Susan Mullin Vogel

Baule: African Art, Western Eyes

~A project of this scope and duration could have attained neither its breadth nor its longevity without the generous assistance of a staggering number of individual colleagues, friends, and institutions. I am deeply grateful to them all—including any I may have unwittingly omitted here.

Author

Susan Mullin Vogel

PublisherYale University Art Gallery

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22143

Acknowledgements

A project of this scope and duration could have attained neither its breadth nor its longevity without the generous assistance of a staggering number of individual colleagues, friends, and institutions. I am deeply grateful to them all—including any I may have unwittingly omitted here.

I wish to thank H.E. Henri Konan Bédié, President of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire for the cordial foreword he contributed to this book. Jean-Noël Loucou, at the time Professor of History at the Université d’Abidjan, participated in the original planning meeting and development of the project; we regret that the essay he planned to contribute to this book became impossible once he assumed the responsibilities of Chef de Cabinet of the President of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, though we are fortunate that he has continued to participate otherwise in the project. The Ministries of Culture, the Interior, Education, and Scientific Research of Ivory Coast, at different times, graciously accorded me permissions to do research, and provided me with valuable letters of introduction to Préfets and Sous-Préfets who kindly facilitated my work in the field. I was privileged to be a Chercheuse Associée of the Institut d’Histoire d’Art et d’Archaeologie Africain in Abidjan which provided me with a vehicle and other support for which I am very grateful.

While in Ivory Coast, I spent countless nights in chiefs’ and Sous-Préfets’ houses, in monasteries, the guest rooms of colleagues, and in the homes of Soule and Nguessan. I was the fortunate recipient of innumerable welcoming meals, warm baths and other gracious courtesies during my stays in Baule country without which I could not have done this research. I cannot thank Nguessan enough for his major contribution to this work—everything from important insights to companionship and hospitality. I am also very grateful for the warm welcome of his family in Kami, especially to Irène who was far more than a hostess, to Kangah, Kouakou and Kondekaa, with whom I lived. And to all the people of Kami and other villages, whose voices and faces appear in this book, I extend my heartfelt thanks.

I am grateful for numerous collegial conversations, with people who shared their own research and knowledge of the Baule area with me: Père Michel Carteron, Dian Kouadio Maurice, Pierre Etienne, Vincent Guerry, Kouamé Kouadio Bleh Félix, Kouamé Patrice, Yobwe Kouamé, Hans Himmelheber, Jean-Noël Loucou, Jean Polet, Philip Ravenhill, Gérard Santoni, Timothy Weiskel, Yao Koffi Celestin, Victor Diabaté, and above all, Judith Timyan and Mona Etienne, whose years of field work and unpublished manuscripts have been invaluable to me.

I owe an intellectual debt to friends who have shaped my thinking over the years in subtle ways: Herbert M. Cole, Bogumil Jewsiewicki, Frederick Lamp, Mary Nooter Roberts, Doran Ross, Robert Farris Thompson, Mamadou Traoré, and Eberhard Fischer.

For participating in two planning conferences held at the Museum for African Art in 1993 and 1994, and/or for reading and commenting on draft sections of the book, I am grateful to: Svetlana Alpers, Elizabeth Bigham, Jean Borgatti, Jean Paul Colleyn, Mona Etienne, Jack Goody, Lorenz Homburger, Ivan Karp, Jean-Noël Loucou, Chris Müller, Mary Nooter Roberts, Doran Ross, Enid Schildkrout, and Carol Thompson. In seeking planning funds, and in executing the planning phase I am grateful to Kathy McAuliffe, Patricia Blanchet, and the hard working staff of the Museum for African Art, especially Carol Braide and Tom Wilson.

I thank the following people for their help as I searched for Baule objects and photographs: Pierre Amrouche, André Blandin, Samir Borro, Loed Van Bussel, Catherine de Clippel, Charles Davis, Noble and Jean Endicott, Lance Entwistle, Johan Henau, Roberto di Giacomo, Hubert Goldet, Bernard de Grunne, Bobby Haas, Udo Horstmann, Daniel Hourde, Maria Kecskesi of the Museum für Völkerkunde, Munich, Jacques Kerchache, Edward Klejman, Alisa Lagamma and Julie Jones at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hélène and Philippe Leloup, Jean-Hubert Martin of the Musée des Arts Africains et Océaniens, Steven Morris, Ellen Napiura Taubman, Michael Oliver, Yaya Savané of the Musée Nationale de Côte d’Ivoire, Abidjan, Irwin and Cecilia Smiley, Serge Tornay and Manuel Valentin at the Musée de l’Homme, Paris, Guy Van Rijn, Lucien Van de Velde, Gustaaf Verswijver at the Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale, Tervuren, William U. Wright, Maureen Zarembar, and the American Embassies in Paris and Abidjan, and above all my indefatigable friend, Francine Ndiaye.

For planning and coordinating the travelling exhibition, I am most grateful to Grace Stanislaus and Frank Herreman of the Museum for African Art; and to James Wood, Teri Edelstein, and Kathleen Bickford at the Art Institute of Chicago, whose participation is greatly appreciated. At The Yale University Press, Judy Metro and John Ryden were always supportive. The film that complements the exhibition was made with the knowledgeable assistance of John Shilke and Dan Cody and of the Yale Audio-Visual Services, for which I am very grateful. I wish to thank Svetlana Alpers, Arthur Danto, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and Ivan Karp, who have agreed to speak at the symposium at Yale. The completion of this project would not have occurred without the help and professional competences of: Louisa Cunningham, Marie Weltzien, Patricia Barratt, Christina Ferando, Richard Moore, Carolyn Fitzgerald, John McDonald, Janet Dickson, Daphne Deeds, Nancy Valley, Maishe Dickman, Antoinette Brown, Clark Crolius, Kathleen Derringer, Howard el-Yasin, Moore Crossey, Stanley Wojewodski, Jr.—and most essentially Joanna Weber, Burrus Harlow, Susan Frankenbach, Mary Kordak, Bernice Parent, and Sarah Adams who worked closely with me and contributed essential parts to the whole project, and to Lee Stern who kindly proofread successive versions of the book.

This work is based partly on research carried out in Ivory Coast and Europe with the support of grants from the Ford Foundation; two generous travel grants from the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and a two month sabbatical from the Museum for African Art. Research travel in Europe and Ivory Coast and time away from the Yale Art Gallery to write this book were made possible by Yale University’s Provost, Alison F. Richard, and President, Richard C. Levin. I am deeply grateful to them all.

This exhibition and book have been made possible in part by support from: the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, both federal agencies; the Rockefeller Foundation; the Connecticut Commission on the Arts; the Mary and James Fosburgh ’33 and the Andrew W. Mellon Publication Fund; the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; the de Havenon family in memory of Gaston T. de Havenon; and Don H. Nelson.

Finally, for full involvement in the coming together of all the parts of the exhibition and book, I am most fortunate to have worked with people who became virtual partners in the undertaking: Jerry Thompson who took many of the studio photos and helped me edit my field photos; David Frankel who consulted and edited the text; and Robert Wierzel who designed the exhibition lighting, and especially Jerry Vogel gave me essential help and advice on all aspects of the project. Three people above all worked in perfect give and take giving form to my ideas and contributing substantially to the final results: Barbara Grzeslo and Bob Stern of the 2b Group designed and shaped the catalogue with a rare creative intelligence, while making the whole experience a pleasure for me. I can hardly overstate my admiration for their work and for the way they went about it. Chris Müller has invented a new installation approach for this show with his customary good humor and imagination. The successes of the outcome are as much theirs as they are mine.

SMV

A NOTE ON ORTHOGRAPHY:

Difficult and somewhat arbitrary choices always have to be made in writing about Francophone Africa—I have opted for spellings which the native English-speaker is most likely to find familiar. The Ivorian government proclaimed in 1986 that it preferred to be called Côte d’Ivoire in all languages, but I have followed the usual practice of Anglicizing country names. For personal names I have used the French spellings widely used in Ivory Coast (e.g. Kouame instead of Kwame); place names appear as on standard Ivorian and French maps. I have generally transcribed Baule words into the Latin alphabet from the Timyan et al., Dictionnaire Baoule-Français (manuscript, 1990) except in a few cases which I have noted. At the risk of inconsistency, for the word “Baule,” I have not followed the Dictionnaire (which gives Wawle as the preferred spelling with Bawle as a variant), nor have I used Baoulé, the spelling current in Ivory Coast. Rather I have preferred to keep the spelling most often found in English texts.

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