John Picton
Biographic Data
| ID | 84036 |
|---|---|
| NAME | John Picton |
| GIVEN NAMES | John |
| FAMILY NAME | Picton |
| SIGNATURE | PICTON J |
| AFFILIATIONS | SOAS University of London |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2573-5244 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 48 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 75 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 48 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1881 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Professor Michael Rowlands
It is with considerable sadness that I write this brief obituary of my close and long-term friend and colleague Professor Michael Rowlands (November 2, 1944-July 19, 2025) whose paper coauthored with Walter van Beek was published in a recent issue of African Arts: “The Art of Singing at Night: The Dogon Baja Ni performance,” (2025). Although this may well have been Mike's first and only appearance in these pages, and his name may well be unfamili…
Zedra Fiduciary Services (UK) Ltd v Attorney General
Historically, the cy‐près doctrine required that, upon the substantive alteration of a charitable trust, the new purposes should be ‘as near as possible’ to the old. This is no longer the case. Subject to section 67(3) of the Charities Act 2011, the redrafting court or Charity Commission must have regard to factors other than proximity of purpose. Zedra Fiduciary Services (UK) Ltd v Attorney General is the first high‐level authority to consider t…
Atta Kwami
Atta Kwami was a man of great kindness, courtesy, and clear-headedness, qualities manifested in his art, as in his person; and my epigraph sort-of encapsulates his significant place in thinking through an art history for Africa. Thus it is, in sorrow, that we commemorate his passing through this world, and through our lives: in sorrow at his departure—but also in joy as we remember his legacy. For Atta was a painter and printmaker who brought his…
The Charities Act 2022 and its Dissuasive Effects on Donors
The Charities Act 2022 is the product of a report, Technical Issues in Charity Law , by the Law Commission. It is argued that certain headline reforms in the legislation should not be understood as merely technical. In order to give that claim an objective meaning, a frame for analysis is adopted – it is seen that the reform package has a dissuasive effect on donors. That means, all other things being equal, that donors are steered to reduce the …
Textiles in the History of the History of African Art
In the history of the history of art in Africa, it seems to me that an interest in textiles was the first major disruption of the stranglehold of sculpture in our understanding of African visual culture and aesthetic values.1 In some localities, indeed, textiles provided the more potent and popular visualization of an indigenous aesthetic: Asante and Ewe are obvious examples; but this could also be argued for Yoruba and Kuba—two obvious cases of …
Lehtimäki v Cooper
Lehtimäki v Cooper is a significant Supreme Court decision which establishes that the members of charitable companies are in a fiduciary relationship with respect to the purposes of their organisation. Its core principles have the potential to impact on a very large number of people in the voluntary sector. This note critically assesses the nature and scope of the new fiduciary relationship. In the light of the fact that the majority of new chari…
The Benin Plaques
Amongst the antiquities of West Africa, the rectangular cast brass plaques from Benin City are something of an oddity in the application of sculptural technical means to an essentially two-dimensional form. Indeed, because of this, William Fagg, the great British pioneer of African art studies, found that he could use the plaques as the “sheet anchor” (Fagg 1963: 33) of his chronology, enabling him to define an earlier pre-plaque period and a lat…
Art and Risk in Ancient Yoruba
So many of our questions about a history of Yoruba art, society, and culture revolve around the mythic status of Ife1 as the source, the cradle (Akinjogbin 1992), the very genesis (Fabunmi 1985) of Yoruba, with the mythic descent of the gods from the sky at the beginning of time. This is a popular view. On the other hand, there is the more mundane recognition that “Yoruba” is a modern ethnicity emerging, more or less, in the period 1850–1950 (Pee…
The Resonance of Osun across a Millennium of Lower Niger History
The arts of Nigeria are among the most studied of all African arts and yet there are still exceptional works about which we know very little. In this paper we offer an investigation of copper alloy works from the Lower Niger that demonstrate the extraordinary creativity and aesthetic power to which Fagg refers. These bell heads and their fantastic imagery have encouraged us to take a multidisciplinary approach, a synthesis that allows us to draw …
Fetishising Modernity
Treasures of heaven relics and their consequences, an africanist's view
To See or Not To See! That is the Question
Cloth and the Corpse in Ebira
Ebira-speaking people inhabit a region to the south-west of the confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers in Nigeria. The social environment is dominated by Islam, with a Christian minority. Nevertheless, in the late 1960s, when I began the research drawn upon in this article, much of the pre-Islamic/pre-Christian ritual tradition remained intact; and all three religions presuppose a continuity of human existence beyond death. Yet the question of …
Frank Willett
June 01 2007 Frank Willett: 1925–2006 John Picton John Picton John Picton is an emeritus professor of art and archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and a consulting editor of African Arts. [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information John Picton John Picton is an emeritus professor of art and archaeology at the School of Orient…
Keeping the Faith
Nationalism and the Rhetoric of Modernism in Nigeria
Bogolan
(2005). Bogolan: Shaping Culture through Cloth in Contemporary Mali, Victoria L Rovine/ Objects as Envoys: Cloth, Imagery and Diplomacy in Madagascar, Christine Mullen Kreamer and Sarah Fee (eds) TEXTILE: Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 202-205
Africa
Yinka Shonibare
El Anatsui
The Benin Centenary Special Issues
Edo Art, Dynastic Myth, and Intellectual Aporia
Depuis 1897, la ville de Benin (Nigeria) ou Edo a joue le role, pour le regard occidental, d'un lieu representatif de la richesse culturelle africaine. L'art Edo fait un lien entre l'heritage du passe et la nouveaute du present, et a fait l'objet de nombreux travaux exogenes ou de traites indigenes a partir des sources orales ou des observations in situ. L'A. de cet article montre que le savoir sur le passe Edo a ete influence par la construction…
Spring Fever
Africa95 and the Royal Academy
L ast autumn's season of events known as africa95 was unprecedented in the cultural life of Great Britain, in drawing attention to the contemporary visual and performance arts of Africa, and it had its origins in the need to contextualize the exhibition proposed by the Royal Academy of Arts. More specifically, it came about because the Academy was willing to show twentieth-century material only if it was representative of traditions inherited fro…
Display and Modesty
The Art of African Textiles
This is a comprehensive look at the textiles of contemporary Africa. It includes essays on the hand-woven textiles of West Africa, applique and embroidery, the impact of European trade and the use of textiles as an art form
Medieval Copper Alloy Production and West African Bronze Analyses ‐ Part Ii
The first part of this work (Craddock 1985) critically examined the uses to which analyses of West African metalwork have been put and suggested other possible significance against the background of increased knowledge of the smelting technology and alloys used in Europe and the Middle East during the last 1500 years. The second part is devoted to the composition and metalworking techniques of some of the bronzes and brasses from Nigeria and the …
Nationalism and the Rhetoric of Modernism in Nigeria
Yinka Shonibare
On Artifact and Identity at the Niger-Benue Confluence
On the Identification of Individual Carvers
It has been stressed frequently enough by William Fagg (e.g. I956; I963: I I9-22) that African sculpture, particularly that of the Yoruba, can be studied in terms of individual artists whose identity can be discovered by patient enquiry in the field. Probably the most useful account of individual Yoruba carvers yet published is 'Three generations of Yoruba carvers' by Father Kevin Carroll (I96I). Two of his carvers are still alive and working and…
West African Masks and Cultural Systems
The Resonance of Osun across a Millennium of Lower Niger History
The arts of Nigeria are among the most studied of all African arts and yet there are still exceptional works about which we know very little. In this paper we offer an investigation of copper alloy works from the Lower Niger that demonstrate the extraordinary creativity and aesthetic power to which Fagg refers. These bell heads and their fantastic imagery have encouraged us to take a multidisciplinary approach, a synthesis that allows us to draw …
Edo Art, Dynastic Myth, and Intellectual Aporia
Depuis 1897, la ville de Benin (Nigeria) ou Edo a joue le role, pour le regard occidental, d'un lieu representatif de la richesse culturelle africaine. L'art Edo fait un lien entre l'heritage du passe et la nouveaute du present, et a fait l'objet de nombreux travaux exogenes ou de traites indigenes a partir des sources orales ou des observations in situ. L'A. de cet article montre que le savoir sur le passe Edo a ete influence par la construction…
Sculptors of Opin
Apres une presentation de l'organisation politique et sociale (groupes d'âge) du groupe de villages d'Opin (Nigeria), l'A. tente de reconstituer une histoire de l'art et la genealogie des sculpteurs d'Ikerin (Yusuf, Adagba, Alaari), d'Isare (Baba Oloja, Ifasan, Ajari, Imale, Owolabi) et d'Osi (Areogun, Osamuko, Ajijola, Bamgbose)
Desperately Seeking Africa, New York, 1991
Journal Article Desperately Seeking Africa, New York, 1991 Get access Africa Explores: 20th-Century African Art , Susan Vogel , assisted by Ima Ebong ; with contributions by Walter E. A. Van Beek , Donald John Cosentino , Ima Ebong , Bogumil Jewsiewicki , Thomas McEvilley , V. Y. Mudimbe , The Center for African Art , New York , and Prestel , Munich , 1991 . ISBN 3-7913-1143-3 [cloth], 0-945802-09-9 [paper], 296 pp, 400 illustrations, 228 in colo…
Textiles in the History of the History of African Art
In the history of the history of art in Africa, it seems to me that an interest in textiles was the first major disruption of the stranglehold of sculpture in our understanding of African visual culture and aesthetic values.1 In some localities, indeed, textiles provided the more potent and popular visualization of an indigenous aesthetic: Asante and Ewe are obvious examples; but this could also be argued for Yoruba and Kuba—two obvious cases of …
Ekpeye Masks and Masking
Masks and the Igbirra
Cloth and the Corpse in Ebira
Ebira-speaking people inhabit a region to the south-west of the confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers in Nigeria. The social environment is dominated by Islam, with a Christian minority. Nevertheless, in the late 1960s, when I began the research drawn upon in this article, much of the pre-Islamic/pre-Christian ritual tradition remained intact; and all three religions presuppose a continuity of human existence beyond death. Yet the question of …
Sir Hans Sloane and Ethnography
The Ethnology of wiltshire as illustrated in the place-names
On the Identification of Individual Carvers
It has been stressed frequently enough by William Fagg (e.g. I956; I963: I I9-22) that African sculpture, particularly that of the Yoruba, can be studied in terms of individual artists whose identity can be discovered by patient enquiry in the field. Probably the most useful account of individual Yoruba carvers yet published is 'Three generations of Yoruba carvers' by Father Kevin Carroll (I96I). Two of his carvers are still alive and working and…
Sir Hans Sloane and Ethnography
Masks and the Igbirra
African Textiles, Looms, Weaving and Design
African Textiles
African Art and the Collectable Artifact
Collecting African Art by Werner Gillon , London: Studio Vista in association with Christie's, 1979, 193 pp., 216 ills, 35 colour pls, £25 The Art of Benin by Paula Ben‐Amos , London: Thames & Hudson, 1980, 96 pp., 53 ills, 48 colour pls, £4.95 The Visual Arts. Plastic and Graphic edited by Justine Cordwell , The Hague: Mouton, 1979, xii and 818 pp., 328 ills, £42.45 The Fabrics of Culture edited by Justine M. Cordwell and Ronald A. Schwarz , The…
Medieval Copper Alloy Production and West African Bronze Analyses ‐ Part Ii
The first part of this work (Craddock 1985) critically examined the uses to which analyses of West African metalwork have been put and suggested other possible significance against the background of increased knowledge of the smelting technology and alloys used in Europe and the Middle East during the last 1500 years. The second part is devoted to the composition and metalworking techniques of some of the bronzes and brasses from Nigeria and the …
Some Ebira reflexions on the energies of women
Ekpeye Masks and Masking
Disappearing World
On placing Masquerades in Ebira
(1989). On placing Masquerades in Ebira. African Languages and Cultures: Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 73-92
West African Masks and Cultural Systems
Radiance from the Waters
Journal Article Radiance from the Waters: Ideals of Feminine beauty in Mende art Get access Sylvia Ardyn Boone, Radiance from the Waters: Ideals of Feminine beauty in Mende art. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1986. xxii+281 pp. 92 black and white plates and line drawings. £30 hardback. ISBN 0 300 03576 4. JOHN PICTON JOHN PICTON School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Search for other works by this author on: Ox…
What's in a mask
Art from South Africa
On Artifact and Identity at the Niger-Benue Confluence
Desperately Seeking Africa, New York, 1991
Journal Article Desperately Seeking Africa, New York, 1991 Get access Africa Explores: 20th-Century African Art , Susan Vogel , assisted by Ima Ebong ; with contributions by Walter E. A. Van Beek , Donald John Cosentino , Ima Ebong , Bogumil Jewsiewicki , Thomas McEvilley , V. Y. Mudimbe , The Center for African Art , New York , and Prestel , Munich , 1991 . ISBN 3-7913-1143-3 [cloth], 0-945802-09-9 [paper], 296 pp, 400 illustrations, 228 in colo…
Yoruba
In vogue, or the flavour of the month
Sculptors of Opin
Apres une presentation de l'organisation politique et sociale (groupes d'âge) du groupe de villages d'Opin (Nigeria), l'A. tente de reconstituer une histoire de l'art et la genealogie des sculpteurs d'Ikerin (Yusuf, Adagba, Alaari), d'Isare (Baba Oloja, Ifasan, Ajari, Imale, Owolabi) et d'Osi (Areogun, Osamuko, Ajijola, Bamgbose)
"Commentary on "Objects and Acts
Africa95 and the Royal Academy
L ast autumn's season of events known as africa95 was unprecedented in the cultural life of Great Britain, in drawing attention to the contemporary visual and performance arts of Africa, and it had its origins in the need to contextualize the exhibition proposed by the Royal Academy of Arts. More specifically, it came about because the Academy was willing to show twentieth-century material only if it was representative of traditions inherited fro…
Display and Modesty
The Art of African Textiles
This is a comprehensive look at the textiles of contemporary Africa. It includes essays on the hand-woven textiles of West Africa, applique and embroidery, the impact of European trade and the use of textiles as an art form
Art (34 works) · History (20 works) · African history and culture studies (19 works) · Art history (11 works) · Philosophy (10 works) · Visual arts (10 works) · Aesthetics (9 works) · Archaeology (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Political science (8 works)