African Origines

Explore ancestral origins of African art at the Met

by RENEE MINUS WHITE Fashion & Beauty Editor

Originally posted 10/18/2007 at amsterdam news

From the heart of Africa’s equatorial rainforest, the Metropolitan Museum presents a special exhibition of acclaimed sculpture on view now through March 2, 2008.

This exhibition explores the significance of the works presented in their countries of origin, and how their reception in the West led them to enter the mainstream of universal art. Organized thematically, “ External Ancestors: The Art of Central African Reliquary” explains cultural and spiritual inspirations that led to their creation in equatorial Africa.

Drawn from the most important collections of African art in Europe and the United States, the more than 130 works featured in the exhibition relate to 12 distinct traditions in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

They were created to celebrate the lives of an extended family’s most notable ancestor.In the collection, there are many works that were sources of inspiration for early 20th century Western avant-garde artists who collected them and kept them in their studios.

Pablo Picasso, André Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck and Henri Matisse were among the many artists who not only collected African sculpture, but also studied this art in the newly formed ethnographic museums of the day.According to Alisa LaGamma, curator in the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas at the Metropolitan and organizer of this exhibition, “‘External Ancestors’ seeks to reveal the mystery behind the original spiritual and social imperatives that led to their creation by examining the history of the reception of these African artifacts in the West. I believe that an awareness of what inspired them allows us to appreciate Africa’s heritage in a meaningful context.”

The exhibition opens with a series of comparisons between celebrated sculptures, such as 19th century Fang reliquaries that were created in Gabon with works from the Metropolitan’s superb medieval and Asian art collections. Among the highlights of the exhibition are the wood heads, half-figures, and full figures carved by Fang masters.

Also featured are two-dimensional wood figurative elements are sheathed in precious metals that were created by Kora and Mahongwe peoples in Gabon and the Republic of the Congo.Among the seminal examples on view is a Sculptural Element from a Reliquary Ensemble (from the Musée du Quai Branly) created by a Kota artist. Made of wood, brass and copper, this historically important piece was collected over the course of an exploratory journey to the region by the French 1883 expedition that was led by Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza. Another distinctive genre consists of Bwende and Bembe soft sculptures from the Republic of Congo.

Among the most spectacular and rare examples is a life-size female figure by the Bwende master Mucosa of Kingoyi that was collected by the Swedish missionary Efrain Anderson in 1938 (from the Museum of World Culture).

Made possible in part by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, the exhibit is accompanied by a film that emphasizes the importance of performance rites as devotional forms of expression and a catalogue, “External Ancestors: The Art of the Central African Reliquary,” published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and distributed by Yale Press.

The catalogue is available at the Museum’s bookshops for $65. This is a wonderful, educational exhibit for the family

read also : Ancestral Origins of African Masterpieces Explored

African Death

African masks -- and more

African masks -- and more

03/29/07By TAYA FLORES found at Capital News Service

BALTIMORE -- African art goes beyond the traditional mask. At least that's what a new exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art is intended to show.
While the connection between an Egyptian alabaster vase and the stunning kaleidoscope of video images by Ethiopian artist Theo Eshetu may not be obvious, one thing is certain -- African art is changing.
"Americans are new to learning about the diversity of the African continent because we haven't learned it," said the exhibit's curator, Karen Milbourne. "What is represented in media is this generic African culture of people living in tribes. Those nuances of who the individual is get lost in these stereotyped styles."
The pieces come from different countries, have different purposes and are loosely wound around the current exhibition's theme, Light. It is the first of a three part series of exhibitions called Meditations on African Art, which explores the use of light, color and pattern in African art. Light opened in December and ends April 1.
The second exhibition, Color, features African art that may be more familiar to Americans. It has some 30 masks and focuses on the symbolism of the colors red, black and white used within the masks. This exhibition opens April 18 and ends Aug. 19.
The last exhibition, Pattern which opens Aug. 29 and ends Jan. 13, 2008, explores the use of dynamic pattern within African art.
Light show
Light showcases a diverse mix of African art ranging from a pair of 19th to 20th-century brass ankle bracelets worn by a high-ranking Nigerian woman to a Yoruba bead painting from Nigerian artist Jimoh Buraimoh.
Traditional African art is functional and connected with religious ceremony or rituals. Africans do not create art for art's sake as in Western cultures, said Gabriel Tenabe, director of museums at Morgan State University.
Although most of the pieces in the exhibit are traditional masks and statues, some, such as those by the Ethiopian, Theo Eshetu, and by Buraimoh, depart from the traditional style and create artwork that is conceptual.
Eshetu's video installation uses images, television and mirrors to create a video montage, in which viewers stand in front of a frame and stick their head in to see a globe of images from America, Africa and Bali, emerging, moving and melding together.
Buraimoh's piece from 1991, Three Wise Men, shows three figures "painted" with beads. The figures allude to the three wise men of the bible and the three men who negotiated with the English for Nigeria's independence in 1960.
Religion's influence
The Morgan State museum director, Tenabe, said traditional art is dying out and giving way to new art forms for many reasons.
For one thing, younger generations have moved away from traditional religions, Tenabe said.
"Everything traditional is connected to religion," he said. "But Islam prohibits images and Christian missionaries took art works out of the continent. As a result a lot of young people moved away from it."
He said that authentic African art became popular among Europeans and Americans around the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The masks, sculpture and wood carvings were used for religious rituals, ceremonies and to adorn shrines. He said the art was never meant to be sold, but some people would steal it from the shrines and sell it or foreign missionaries would bring it to Europe or the United States.
Tenabe said another reason the art is changing is that younger people are also moving to cities were the traditional artwork is not practiced. Still, Tenabe said, traditional art will not disappear overnight.
"There are still pockets of Africans that create their own works because they follow their own religion and even up to now people still use masks in Nigeria," he said.
Selling to consumers
But some artists are moving away from the traditional style and moving not only to conceptual styles, but consumer styles of art as well.
"The new people make it to make a living, but not for religion," he said. "They are moving away from traditional style because a lot of work goes into it and they are making it for consumers. The quality is not there because people are no longer doing it for religion, but for tourism."
He said an authentic African mask would normally take a year to make, and sell for $2,000, but now the same artist makes four or five masks in six months and sells the new masks for $50 each.
At 58, Erness Abron Hill, a lecturer at Morgan State, said she has seen the prices of authentic African art soar during the 30 years she's been collecting.
A mask she paid $35 for in 1980 would be $350 now.
AIDS epidemic
She suggested there is a simpler but more tragic reason traditional art is dying out: The African AIDS epidemic is killing the artists.
"As the disease spreads it's going to phase out the old tradition," she said. "When Africa stabilizes, the culture will be different."
Even within traditional art forms such as masks, the imprint of AIDS is apparent. Milbourne said that there are masks that have the AIDS ribbon built into them.
She also said that Africans are using the arts to educate the youth about AIDS and people infected with the disease are using artworks to raise money for their care, such as women in South Africa making and selling baskets made out of telephone wire.
Although traditional African art is changing, it's not a negative thing, Hill said.
"This will change the way people view African art for the good," she said. "It will help people have a better view of Africans, besides the traditional."

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