Shifting Expectations: Metalwork and the Reception of African Arts at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Abstract

The European reception of gold and brass castings from West Africa was steeped in contradictions at the turn of the twentieth century: on the one hand, the works were admired for their technical mastery and the inherent value of their media; on the other, the narratives of imperial submission with which they were entangled left little room for sober appreciation.