Art Of Africa

African Art: Aesthetics And Meaning
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/clemons/RMC/exhib/93.ray.aa/African.html
Electronic catalog, including descriptions, of an exhibit at the University of Virginia.

African Art
http://www.lonker.net/art_african_1.htm
Concise web site with links. A quick, general introduction.

African Art History Links
http://www.ohiou.edu/~afrart/resources.html
The links given here are sites selected by the department of African Art History at Ohio University as helpful research points. The list is non-comprehensive, although it is extensive.

African Masks: University of Florida
http://gallery.sjsu.edu/masks/Links/AfricaMasks.html
Well-researched links to mask sites and to general African art and culture sites.

African Sculpture
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/Sculpture/menu_Sculpt.html
An selective exhibition of 25 images culled from the over eleven thousand objects in the sub-Saharan African collections of The University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. You will find examples of material culture and ethnography- weapons, tools, textiles, utensils, implements, and undecorated items of daily use that has well as numerous art objects made for ceremonial, magical, and decorative purposes. Click African Sculpture: Criteria and Methods of Selection for textual information about the collection.

African Studies Quarterly
http://www.africa.ufl.edu/asq/
Articles on African culture and art are sometimes included in this publication.

Akan Cultural Symbols Project: Ghana
http://www.marshall.edu/akanart/akanartintro.html
Illustrated discussion of The Akan of Ghana and La Cote d'Ivoire use of pictographs and ideograms.

Art and Life in Africa Online
http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/toc/index.html
Art and Life in Africa Online has been adapted from similar material developed for the Art and Life in Africa CD-ROM being produced at The University of Iowa. This site contains information about African Art and Culture, albeit in an abbreviated form. There is a search engine and new articles are added regularly.

G.I. Jones Photographic Archive of Southeast Nigerian Art and Culture
http://mccoy.lib.siu.edu/jmccall/jones/
An online archive of over 300 photographs. The photos were taken in the 1930s by the late Dr. G.I. Jones of University of Cambridge. Most of the images capture Igbo masquerades in performance. This is an archive of digitized photographs depicting the arts and cultures of southeastern Nigeria. The collection of photographs of Southeastern Nigerian art includes examples from Ibibio, Igbo, Ijo and Ogoni speaking peoples. The photographs are unique for the creative brilliance of the art represented, the quality of the photography itself, and the cultural and historical significance of photographic records from this time period in Nigeria.

Magical Faces of Africa
http://www.culturekiosque.com/art/exhibiti/index_me.htm
Online exhibit from the Musée Dapper in Paris. These images are taken from the permanent exhibition, which occupies three floors of the museum. "The mask was traditionally used in Africa in the majority of ceremonies: fertility or initiation rites, religious or funeral celebrations, but also theatrical or comic performances often linked to the deepest ethnic myths. The mask confers on the person wearing it - for the duration of the ceremony - the essence and the powers of the spirits or ancestors it symbolizes."

National Museum of African Art: The SMITHSONIAN
http://www.nmafa.si.edu/
A very complete site with information, photographs and links. "As a leading center for the visual arts of Africa, the National Museum of African Art fosters and sustains--through exhibitions, collections, research, and public programs--an interest in and an understanding of the diverse cultures in Africa as these are embodied in aesthetic achievements in the visual arts."

Sokari Douglas Camp
http://www.sokari.co.uk/
This site features the work of the Nigerian born sculptor Sokari Douglas Camp and a considerable body of her new work

The Sukuma Museum Tanzania Africa
http://www.photo.net/sukuma/
More a site for cultural information, including an essay by Mark H.C. Bessire, this site includes photographs and other documentary records of Tanzanian society.

Tamarin Virtual Gallery
http://www.tamarin.com/indexE.html
While this is a commercial site, featuring the art on contemporary artists, tribal art objects are also illustrated and described here in detail.

Yoruba and Akan Art
http://www.fa.indiana.edu/~conner/africart/home.html
This is an experimental on-line catalog of an exhibit first presented at the Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences in Peoria, Illinois in 1994. This is an excellent site for information on the Yoruba, Akan and Asante people's art and culture.

Art of the Far East

Antique Chinese Porcelain Collector's Page
http://www.gotheborg.com/
While this is a commercial site, it is quite impressive. The history of porcelain and the techniques for making antique porcelain are described in detail, as is the history of the Swedish East India Company. There is a glossary of Chinese pottery and porcelain and a search engine. There is also a directory of Chinese and Japanese pottery marks.

Asian Art History
http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHLinks3.html
Perhaps the best and most easily navigated site online, links are organized by country.

Asia Society
http://www.asiasociety.org/
Asia Society's arts and culture page can be found at http://www.asiasociety.org/arts/index.html. Click here to view the collection. The Asia Society is America's leading institution dedicated to fostering under-standing of Asia

Asian Historical Architecture
http://www.orientalarchitecture.com/
A well organized site, this photographic survey of Asia's architectural heritage features over 6100 photos of 433 sites in sixteen countries, with extensive background information and 'virtual tours'.

Chinese and Japanese Art History: WWW Virtual Library
http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/fineart/html/chinese/links.html
Very extensive listing of hundreds of links in this subject area, organized by period and location for the WWW Virtual Library by New York University.

Huntington Archive of Asian Art
http://kaladarshan.arts.ohio-state.edu/
Beautiful site with links to online exhibitions. The John C. and Susan L. Huntington Photographic Archive of Buddhist and Related Art contains nearly 300,000 original color slides and black and white and color photographs of art and architecture throughout Asia. Countries covered in the collection include India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, China, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, and Myanmar, Burma. The Huntingtons are both Professors of Art.

Japanese Art and Western Influence
http://www.euronet.nl/users/artnv/Japart.index.html
While there are many studies that have been done on Japanese influence on Western art, the reverse is discussed here. Objects of Japanese Art and Craft that were made with influence of Western culture are described and discussed.

Metropolitan Museum of Art: Asian Wing
http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/department.asp?dep=6
Includes text about and images from the Museum's vast collection. See the introduction to Asian Art for a general overview. The collection of Asian art at the Metropolitan Museum is the largest and most comprehensive in the West.

Origins of Angkor Archeological Project
http://www.otago.ac.nz/Anthropology/Angkor/
The Origins of Angkor Archaeological Project is a multi-disciplinary research project being undertaken by the University of Otago Department of Anthropology and the Fine Arts Department of Thailand. The aim of the project is to assess the seminal aspects of the social, cultural and technological development in the Mun River valley of Northeast Thailand. Included here is a virtual excavation, and artifact slide show.

Islamic Art

Art of the Middle Ages: Islamic
http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHmedieval.html#Islamic
Very well researched links to valuable sites, maintained by Professor Witcombe at Sweet Briar College.

Flowers Underfoot: Indian Carpets of the Mughal Era
http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/Flowers/HTM/cata_fs.htm
Photographs and description of seven Mughal carpets from the Metropolitan Museum.

Islamic Arts and Architectural Page
http://islamicart.com/
Navigating this site is a little tricky, but the information provided is interesting. Architecture links lead to articles on not only engineering but metal work. The calligraphy link leads to information on the history of Islamic calligraphy, the instruments used and the units of proportion employed. There are links to Islamic coins as well as to Oriental carpets and their creation, including weaving and dyeing, as well as the classification of rugs.

Islamic Patterns
http://www.askasia.org/frclasrm/lessplan/l000030.htm
Informative essay written by Jane Norman, consultant, education department, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Metropolitan Museum of Art: Islam
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/orna/hd_orna.htm
Overview, links to the collection and additional information from on of the world's greatest museums.

Oriental Carpets
http://mathforum.org/geometry/rugs/
Interesting online version of an exhibition organized by the Textile Museum and the Math Forum in 1997. You'll find discussions on symmetry and patterns and carpet making as well as links to educational sites.

Persian Art Through the Ages
http://www.artarena.force9.co.uk/hpart.html
An excellent source, organized by period from Neolithic to Hellenistic to Islamic (samanids, seljuks,etc.), to the Mongol through the Qajar periods.