Python Spirit on the Baga Coast

Frederick John Lamp is retired from Yale University as Curator of African Art at the Yale University Art Gallery and lecturer in the History of Art and in Theater Studies, 2004-2014. From 1981 to 2003, he was Head of the Department of the Art of Africa, the Americas, and Oceania at The Baltimore Museum of Art, and taught African art at The Johns Hopkins University, the Maryland Institute College of Art, and elsewhere. From 1973 to 1977, he was archivist of the Eliot Elisofon Archive and Head of Higher Education at the Museum of African Art, Washington, DC, and lecturer at Georgetown, George Washington, and Catholic Universities. He holds a Ph.D. in the History of Art from Yale University, 1982. He has conducted extensive field research over four decades in Sierra Leone and Guinea, with many fellowships from the Fulbright Scholar Award, the Smithsonian Institution, National Endowment for the Humanities, The National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, and others. His numerous publications include Ancestors in Search of Descendants: Stone Effigies of the Ancient Sapi (2018); Continuing Life Histories of African Art: The Collection of Charles B. Benenson at the Yale University Art Gallery (co-authored, 2012); See the Music, Hear the Dance: Rethinking Africa at The Baltimore Museum of Art, (ed., 2004); Art of the Baga: A Drama of Cultural Reinvention (1996); La Guinée et ses Heritages Culturels (1992); with invited contributions to many edited books; and articles in African Arts, Afrique: Archéologie & Arts, The Drama Review, The Dictionary of Art, International Encyclopedia of Dance, History in Africa, Mande Studies, and The Art Bulletin, among many others.