Both of these volumes present scholarly essays that explore various frontiers of art in Africa, with special emphasis on contemporary works. In African Art and Agency in the Workshop, Sidney Littlefield Kasfir and Till Förster have brought together fourteen essays, divided into four sections: part 1, “Production, Education and Learning”; part 2, “Audience and Encounters”; part 3, “Patronage and Domination”; and part 4, “Comparative Aspects.” Some of these essays had their origins in a double panel on workshops held as a part of the Triennial Symposium in African Art in 2007. Several of the panelists were either graduate students or former students of the editors.

Half of the essays focus on southern Africa, three on Cameroon, two on Nigeria, one on Kenya, and one on a broader sweep of workshops in sub-Saharan Africa. While Côte d’Ivoire is covered by Förster in an essay also dedicated to Cameroon, major geographic areas such as Congo and the rest of West Africa are not included. Thus, overall, this volume is heavily tilted toward a consideration of workshop issues in southern Africa. The editors have compensated for this to some extent with a twenty-three-page introduction that not only touches upon such universal concepts as the workshop as an economic institution and a social space of learning and intersection, but that also provides a broader geographic sweep through consideration of the work of other scholars. In the introduction they also discuss the different types of art workshops in Africa and draw parallels to historical counterparts in Europe.

Taken as a whole, the case studies provide a wide window into the very diverse structural and functional characteristics of workshops. They also clearly describe how African workshops have served both contemporary political and cultural needs and have responded to patronage, whether it be traditional or stimulated by tourism. Equally important, some of the case studies demonstrate that diversity of forms can thrive within workshop organizations propelled by individual creativity and a desire to self-differentiate.

African Art, Interviews, Narratives in one sense complements African Art and Agency in the Workshop because its eleven essays give voice to artists and art movements as documented by the almost three pages listing interlocutors “who joined us in interviews and conversations” (179). This volume begins with an introduction by the editors, followed by eleven essays written by an interdisciplinary group comprising artists, curators, art historians, anthropologists, and historians. In these essays, one hears the narratives and learns the perspectives of a diverse group of people that greatly illuminate both meaning and intent.

The initial essay, “Talking to People About Art” by Patrick McNaughton, lays the groundwork for what follows in this volume. As he cogently notes, talking to people about art is “fraught with difficulty,” whether it be visual, musical, or performative. Yet, as he points out, “The deep essence of art is imagination and interaction, and that is why we have to talk to people about it” (23). The essays that follow demonstrate the cogency of McNaughton’s observations and how narratives about art may change over time, differ based on perspective, and can be altered by narrators, depending on circumstances and time, place, and person. This is well illustrated by the contribution of Mary Jo Arnoldi, who has studied Malian youth association masquerades among the Bamana, Bozo, Marka, and Somono peoples of the Segou region in central Mali over a three-decade period. In her essay, “Who Owns the Past?: Constructing Art History of a Malian Masquerade,” she explains not only that a given masquerade may have a different name depending on ethnic group, but also that the histories of masquerades can vary depending on who recounts them. As she discovered, these histories differ when communicated by men, women, or the blacksmiths who sculpt wooden masks and rod puppets.

Credit for invention of forms can sometimes be contested among smiths, as she discovered in 1987 when Moussa Fane challenged the claim of his older and then deceased brother, Siriman Fane, as being the inventor of a spectacular sculpted figure, Yayoroba, a beautiful woman. When this reviewer worked with Siriman Fane in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the village of Koke, it was universally accepted throughout the region that he had invented the Yayoroba figure. Then, seven years following his death, his younger brother contested this claim and also informed Arnoldi that other younger smiths working at Siriman’s forge had carved many pieces “credited to Siriman’s hand.” This latter claim is not surprising because master carvers such as Siriman have apprentices working with them. One of them was his nephew, Bafing Kané, who also carved Yayoroba and other sculptures. As Arnoldi states, it would have been socially impossible for Moussa to challenge Siriman’s claim during the latter’s lifetime. This anecdote illustrates that the content of narratives meticulously gathered in the field may shift depending on a variety of circumstances.

The essays in both of the volumes under review here break new and exciting ground on the frontiers of current scholarly research on the arts of Africa. They will be of great interest to a broad audience of scholars and those interested in the arts of Africa.