African Cosmos: Stellar Arts

A groundbreaking scholarly publication, African Cosmos: Stellar Arts brings together exceptional works of art, dating from ancient times to the present, and essays by leading scholars and contemporary artists to consider African cultural astronomy: creativity and artistic practice in Africa as it is linked to celestial bodies and atmospheric phenomena. African concepts of the universe are intensely personal, placing human beings in relation to the earth and sky, and with the sun, moon, and stars. At the core of creation myths and the foundation of moral values, celestial bodies are often accorded sacred capacities and are part of the "cosmological map" that allows humans to chart their course through life.

African Cosmos: Stellar Arts is written by Christine Mueller Kreamer, who is deputy director and chief curator at the National Museum of African Art. A graduate of Indiana University, with a PhD in African Art History and minors in anthropology and African studies, Kreamer is an expert on both traditional and contemporary African art.  368 pages, 220 illlustrations.

Museum Provenance

Published in conjunction with the exhibition African Cosmos: Stellar Arts, organized by the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art on view from June 19 – December 9, 2012. Following its Washington, D.C. showing, the exhibition opens at the Newark (N.J.) Museum, February 27 – August 11, 2013.

Every Smithsonian purchase will arrive with a museum provenance card explaining how it is adapted from or inspired by an object or objects in our collection.