Artists of Liberia and the Ivory Coast

In 1960 Eberhard Fischer, then a nineteen-year-old student at Tübingen University, traveled with his stepfather, the eminent anthropologist Hans Himmelheber, to Liberia. There they spent two months in the northeastern part of the country in the Dan towns of Nyor Diaple and Nuopie. These towns were then situated in a back-of-beyond area of Liberia, inaccessible except by footpaths. Himmelheber had previously studied the southwestern Dan in these locations. However, on this trip, which was financially supported by the German Research Council, his plan was to expand on his previously published studies of Dan religious and magical practices.

In a fascinating and well-written epilogue to Dan Artists—The Sculptors Tame, Si, Tompieme and Sõn: Their Personalities and Work, Fischer vividly describes their preparations for this trip, and how, prior to it, he shifted his own focus of study from Gothic language to anthropology. In the summer of 1960, before the trip, Himmelheber had invited Fischer to attend an International Anthropological Congress in Paris. There Fischer met leading ethnologists of the time, including Margaret Mead. He also met Charles Ratton, who by then was an internationally known art expert, dealer, and collector. Trained at the Ecole du Louvre, Ratton became a leading figure in what was then identified as the field of “primitive art.” Yet Ratton, who was originally trained in the arts of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, pioneered a shifting away from this perception of the arts of Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. The scope of his career was broad and included friendships with the Surrealist artists André Breton and Paul Eluard, photographic collaborations with Man Ray, and efforts with Jean Dubuffet to define Outsider Art. He also financially supported Himmelheber and his work in Africa for many years.

Fischer’s role on this trip was that of photographer and filmmaker. Specifically, Himmelheber wanted him to produce a saleable film of mask carvers and mask performances that could help recover some of the travel and other costs. Over a two-month period Fischer photographed, filmed, and documented four Dan carvers as well as dances with masks that they had produced. He later published his findings and photographs in an extensive article in Baessler-Archiv, N.F. (1963), published by the Berlin Ethnographic Museum.

In his epilogue to Dan Artists, Fischer explains that his 1963 German-language article is cited in bibliographies and referred to in studies focused on African artists. However, he concludes, correctly, that its publication in a limited-circulation German-language research journal restricted access to it by subsequent generations of readers. Dan Artists, therefore, is a republication of Fischer’s original 1960 field research and photographs, amplified by material obtained during a few subsequent field trips. It is a beautifully produced book.

Although the essence of this volume consists of field studies conducted more than half a century ago, its value has only increased over time. For change at all levels of life has profoundly affected even once very isolated corners of the world. Thus, what Fischer documented in text, film, and photographs so many years ago represents an important historical landmark now presented in a form that is easily accessible. Some may incorrectly assess this effort as a form of salvage ethnography in which what was observed and documented in the past is presented in a timeless ethnographic present. Such a conclusion would be wrong, especially as the author clearly sets the content of his book in the distant past, and comments on the inexorable changes that have taken place...