Post #504779 by bigbrotiki on Sat, Jan 16, 2010 9:46 AM

How could we forget!-- the classic Trader Vic's COFFEE DIABLO mug...

...which I was reminded of when finding this portrait of African American artist James Lesesne Wells from around 1930:

(one of his prints):

....which I found in the book mentioned by Vern in this thread:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=35146&forum=1&5

The cup he is holding was on exhibit, too:

While not an exact replica, the Trader Vic mug certainly must have been inspired by it, or a cup like it:

A prime example of African to Polynesian pop cross-over!

And now that we are back to African art, I want to mention one of my favorite tribal art styles, which I was turned onto by my friend, Tiki artist Moritz R.:

The carvers of the MAKONDE create the wildest surrealist / modernist art pieces of any African culture group...

...for some reason German collectors are really into that stuff, maybe because it is so Hyronimus Bosch-like. Here is one guy's collection, amazing works:

http://www.tanzanian-art.de/Makonde/Collection_Thomas/index.html

...and another:

http://www.tanzanian-art.de/Makonde/Collection_Sebastian_Hansen/index.html

Wacky, mind-blowing stuff!

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2010-01-16 09:50 ]