Important reference work. The first full appraisal of African art published in the United States, African Sculpture Speaks describes and illustrates the sculpted works of more than 150 West African tribes.. Historian and collector Ladislas Segy approaches African art from several different but interrelated perspectives, considering sculptures first as products of a distinct African culture, then as high-quality works of art. Seeking to bring the African carver's work within the scope of the Western observer, Segy stresses the need for appraising African art within its own context, suspending established procedures for art appreciation and viewing the object as it actually is, not as we think it is or should be. Bringing to bear the disciplines of aesthetics, anthropology, psychology, and phenomenology, Segy shows how the deep-seated magico-religious beliefs of the tribal carver creates such a powerful emotional tension in the work that the viewer can recapture that emotion and identify it as part of his own experience.