Having spent a good many years as a researcher of African art, I understand that education is of critical importance. This Encyclopedia is designed to bring benefits of knowledge to students, artists, collectors and for all lovers of African traditional art and culture. Avner Shakarov introduces African art in the context of the peoples who created it. Students and artists will find this Encyclopedia: Art of Africa as a fresh handbook, thought-provoking and a good deal more scholarly than most other writings on African art. African art has taken its place among the great art traditions of the world. It was collected as souvenirs and curios by European travelers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Later, a great deal was written about its influence on Picasso, Matisse, Braque, and other western artists. This book is well researched and studied in the rich heritage of black Africa through its most distinctive form, sculpture, and covers the entire continent. The book contains 95 images of African art, 30 tribal and village photos, 16 drawings and 5 maps to help locate geographically the peoples who created the works of art.