Robert-Goldwater-Library

Art and divinity in Polynesia

< Bowl with two figure supports (detail) (Mid-late eighteenth century;  Wood, pearl shell, boar's tusks. HAW 46, British Museum) (image source)

The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts presents a comprehensive exhibition from its Pacific collection with Pacific Encounters: Art and Divinity in Polynesia 1760-1860, opening May 21, 2006, and on view until August 13, 2006. 

In Pacific Encounters, for the first time, important Polynesian material from British and other collections will be brought together for a major exhibition which will substantially extend appreciation of one of the world's great art traditions. Presenting rare and visually stunning god-images, sculptures, ornaments, textiles and valuables to a wide audience, this exhibition will explore Polynesia during the early period of contact with European voyagers, missionaries and settlers.

> Feathered head (late 18th century; feathers, basketry, fibre, dog canine teeth, pearl shell, wood. HAW 80, British Museum) (image source)

Over 250 objects will be on display, including major sculptures in wood and stone, feather and basketry images, feather cloaks, wooden bowls, decorated bark cloths, ornaments and valuables of ivory, shell, bone and nephrite, and other ritual items such as fly whisks, fans and drums. These objects represent the major regions of Polynesia - Society Islands, Austral Islands, Cook Islands, Marquesas Islands, Hawaii, Easter Island, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa and New Zealand.

The exhibition is curated by Dr Steven Hooper, Director of the Sainsbury Research Unit for the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas, University of East Anglia, on behalf of the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts and in collaboration with the British Museum.

British Museum Press will be publishing a fully illustrated catalogue to accompany the exhibition.

"Snap Judgments": contemporary African photography exhibition

Ali Chraibi, Uçhisar, un passage (image source) [for illustration only]

On Friday, March 10, the International Center of Photography in New York City opens the exhibition Snap Judgments: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography.

From ICP's press release:

Organized for the International Center of Photography by Okwui Enwezor, one of the world's foremost curators of contemporary art, the exhibition will present over 200 works by 35 artists from a dozen countries. Encompassing the African continent from the Muslim cultures of North Africa to the sub-Saharan nations of the south, Snap Judgments will feature a range of highly individual artistic responses to the enormous changes now taking place in economic, social, and cultural life throughout Africa ...

A symposium titled "Politics of Imaging Africa" will be held at ICP on March 11, 1006. It will feature Mr. Enwezor and approximately eight of the artists participating in the exhibition. The symposium will explore the split that now exists between the largely pessimistic view informing Western media accounts of today's Africa and the more nuanced approaches evident among artists who are actively engaged in the dynamics of African culture ...
[2 pm; $5 (free for ICP members)]

Snap Judgments will be accompanied by a full-color catalogue published by ICP and Steidl Verlag. It will include a substantial critical essay by curator Okwui Enwezor, commentaries on the individual works in the exhibition, and biographical entries on the participating artists ...
[300 pages (cloth), 250 colour plates; UK £40.00,US $65.00, EC €55.00;ISBN 3-86521-224-7; Publication date: May 2006]

The exhibit is open through May 28, 2006.

Statues Also Die

image source

from the Film Society of Lincoln Center website:

Statues Also Die / Les statues meurent aussi
Alain Resnais and Chris Marker, 1953; 30m

Banned in France for 12 years, Statues Also Die traces the devastating impact of French colonialism on African art. As Resnais’ co-director, Chris Marker, stated, “We want to see their suffering, serenity, humor, even though we don’t know anything about them.” Their film shows what happens when art loses its connection to a culture.

Statues Also Die will be screening along with 2 other films by co-director Alain Resnais (including All the Memory of the World / Toute la mémoire du monde filmed at the  Bibiothèque Nationale de France) at the Walter Reade Theater, Thursday, March 2, at 1:00 and 8:45 PM.  The films are part of the series : To Reality and Back: Classic and Contemporary French Documentaries.

Advance Warning : Dance Africa 2006

from the Brooklyn Academy of Music's website :

Legacy: African Dance in Our World
Artistic director: Chuck Davis

For 29 years BAM’s DanceAfrica festival has been a Memorial Day Weekend tradition in Brooklyn. A lively and diverse blend of African and African-American dance, music, film, and art devoted to preserving traditions and educating new generations, DanceAfrica’s spirit is personified by Founding Elder and Artistic Director Baba Chuck Davis.

This year’s mainstage program offers several exceptional companies from across the African Diaspora. Song-and-dance ensemble Perú Negro combines sensual dancing with the music of black Peru, a soulful mixture of melodic guitar, passionate singing, and percussive instruments that evolved from wooden crates Peruvian slaves once used to preserve their outlawed rhythms. Creative Outlet Dance Theatre of Brooklyn infuses dance with theater, voice, poetry, film, and music, telling exhilarating stories of heritage and resilience. The New Jersey-based Universal African Dance & Drum Ensemble combines traditional songs with an electrifying acrobatic/martial arts show featuring stilt walking and ancestral dances. An annual favorite as well as a symbol of youth involvement in the preservation of African heritage, the BAM/Restoration DanceAfrica Ensemble returns for its tenth year!

In addition, the DanceAfrica spirit flows throughout BAM with live music in BAMcafé, an African Diaspora film series at BAM Rose Cinemas, master classes for dancers of all ages, a sculpture garden, education programs with the Restoration Youth Arts Academy in Bed-Stuy, and the one-and-only DanceAfrica outdoor bazaar featuring African crafts, food, and fashion. Ago! Amée!!

See a Dance Africa video preview (click on the link in the right hand column)

May 26 & 27 at 7:30pm
May 27 at 2pm
May 28 at 3pm
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Tickets: $20, 30, 40, 45
Call
BAM Ticket Services
718.636.4100
Mon—Fri, 10am—6pm
Sat, 12 noon—6pm
Visit
BAM Box Office
Mon—Sat, 12noon—6pm
tickets@BAM.org

Spanning the globe: exhibits in Europe

A review of current, recently past and upcoming exhibits of interest.

The art of Francophone Africa -- Náprstek Museum, Prague, Jan. 25-March 26, 2006

Sénégal contemporain ; and Masques, 50 visages -- Musée Dapper, Paris, Apr. 27-July 13, 2006

< Peuples: exposition de photographes de Pierre de Vallombreuse -- Musée de l'Homme, Paris, Feb. 1-May 7, 2006

Traditional women's culture in South Africa -- Linden Museum, Stuttgart, Jan. 14-Feb. 4, 2006

Im Schatten des Kongo: Leo Frobenius, Stereophotografien 1904 bis 1906 -- Museum der Weltkulturen, Frankfurt/Main, Dec. 1, 2005-Apr. 30, 2006

Alles under einem Hut: Kopfbedeckungen aus Afrika, Asien und Ozeanien -- Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, Cologne, through Aug. 27, 2006

> Schwarze Götter im Exil: Fotographien von Pierre Fatumbi Verger -- Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde München, Feb. 22-May 14, 2006

< Eritrea: colori, ritratti, emozioni ... -- Museo Pigorini, Rome, Feb. 24-Mar. 23, 2006

Hedendaagse kunst uit Afrika en de Afrikaanse diaspora: Collectie Valk en verder ... -- Afrikamuseum, Berg-en-Dal, Jan. 31-end of Dec. 2006

The world photographer Marianne Greenwood -- Etnografiskamuseet, Stockholm, Jan. 28-Oct. 1, 2006

> Traces of Congo: Scandanavia in Congo, Congo in Scandanavia -- travelling exhibit: Museum of Cultures, Helsinki, May 9-Oct. 10, 2006

< Von Geistern, Schiffen und Liebhabern: Jenseitswelten -- Völkerkundemuseum der Universität Zürich, Nov. 2, 2005-Feb. 26, 2006

Gender in Oceania art

Posted by Joshua Bell (UEA)

A Pacific Islander exhibition, TURNING TIDES: Gender in Oceania Art, opened in San Diego in conjunction with a session held at the annual Association of Social Anthropologists in Oceania (ASAO) meetings. The exhibition ran at the University of California San Diego Graduate Gallery and Performance Space, Feb. 7-16, 2006.

< Reggie Meredith. Self Portrait. n.d. Mixed media.

Those not able to go to the exhibit can visit the following website:

http://classroom.sdmesa.edu/jcastro/turning_tides_exhibit.htm

This exhibition was curated by Samoan artist and studio art professor Jewel Castro, with Dr. Pamela Rosi and Samoan artist Dan Taulapapa McMullin.

As Jewel Castro has noted, "TURNING TIDES is the first exhibition of its kind on the United States mainland. It is curated by Pacific Islanders (we have adopted Pamela) for Pacific Islanders. It will highlight artists who are expressing a contemporary identity that links indigenous Pacific gender roles, with the history of traditional art forms, the influence of personal location and experience, in a desire for authentic representation. Artists based in Papua New Guinea, Samoa, New Zealand, Hawaii, the United States, and England, will be featured. Movement of the exhibition to other venues after UCSD is being planned."

The art exhibition featured paintings, photographs, sculpture, tapa and video by artists: Dr. Richard S. Cooper, Tupito Gadalla, Keala Kelly, Shigeyuki Kihara, Fonofale McCarthy, Dan Taulapapa McMullin, Regina Antoinette Meredith, Julie Mota, Rosanna Raymond, Larry Santana, Filipe Tohi, Daniel Waswas, Jane Wena; Jewel Castro; and the Otufelenite Tongan Community group's Ngatu project organized by Dr. Ping-Ann Ado.

North Pacific Coast Art at the Smithsonian

Nuxalk headdress, 19th century

Listening to Our Ancestors: The Art of Native Life Along the North Pacific Coast
February 3, 2006–January 2, 2007
Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall, Washington, DC

via ArtInfo:
N.W. Indian Objects Shown in New Exhibition

WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 6, 2006 - The mythical thunderbird celebrated by some Northwest Indian tribes will make an appearance at the Super Bowl—right there in the sleek, beaked logo of the Seattle Seahawks.

While there is no such thing as a seahawk, some say the fierce-looking bird on the team's helmets resembles the thunderbird or eagle celebrated by the Makah Tribe and others in Washington state.

Visitors can judge for themselves at a new exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian.

The exhibition, ''Listening to Our Ancestors: The Art of Native Life along the North Pacific Coast,'' features ceremonial and everyday objects used by Indian tribes from Washington state to Alaska.

Among the items displayed are wooden masks representing the thunderbird, the mythical creature that symbolizes power and prestige.

Dave Sones, the Makah's vice chairman, laughed off any notion that the Seahawk logo is directly connected to the tribe, but he said it resembles Indian art common in the region.

''We're pretty proud Seahawk fans,'' he said.

Sones said he hopes the exhibition brings greater awareness of all the tribes represented. Besides the Makah, the exhibit features the Coast Salish tribes in Washington state, the Tlingit in Alaska and eight tribes from British Columbia, Canada.

''There's talent everywhere in the Northwest, from Vancouver Island to Vancouver, Wash.,'' he said.

Raising awareness of the tribes' contributions is a major goal of the exhibit, which runs through Jan. 2, 2007, said W. Richard West Jr., the museum's founding director.

''The exhibition shows how, in a contemporary sense, Northwest Native Americans listen to their ancestors. They take from this material the values that guide their lives even today,'' said West, a member of the Southern Cheyenne tribe.

Tribal members participated throughout the process and played a key role in everything from choosing the objects to the written commentary that accompanies the displays, West said. Tribal musicians, dancers and story tellers also participate in the exhibit, which is designed to be interactive.
[read on...]

African Terra Cotta Pots @ the Art Institute of Chicago

Altar Vessel
Gur-speaking peoples, Burkina Faso
early/mid 20th century

via Artnet Magazine (2/9/06):

FOR HEARTH AND ALTAR
by Victor M. Cassidy

"For Hearth and Altar," an exhibition of 125 African terra cotta pots made mostly during the 20th century, is the Art Institute of Chicago’s most stimulating, challenging show in memory. It takes us back to the origins of civilization and raises fundamental questions about the nature of art. Severe and unfamiliar, the work delivers no lazy sensual delights. Differences among the pieces are subtle. Viewers must look -- and think -- carefully to get the best from this work.  

"For Hearth and Altar," which runs at the Art Institute until February 20, celebrates Keith Achepol’s gift of African ceramics to the Art Institute. A printmaker and now-retired art professor, Achepol acquired the pottery over 20 years, making many purchases on the spot in Africa. He used his artist’s eye to select pieces and then investigated the work he had just bought. Achepol calls African pots "profoundly handmade." He likes their anonymity -- the name of the artist is rarely known -- and says that these works are not about "who did it," but about beauty.

10,000 Year Tradition
African ceramics can be traced back to 8,000 BC, says Kathleen Bickford Berzock, curator of African art at the Art Institute and organizer of this exhibition. Pottery represents an important step in civilization, for it makes cooking and food storage possible. It appears in many parts of Africa at once, usually in connection with iron working.

Most potters are women and the trade is hereditary. Potters mine the clay (men help with this physically taxing chore), bring it to the village and work it to remove air bubbles that would explode as the vessel is fired. Some potters add temper (sand, ground-up pebbles, finely chopped fibers) to the clay, which makes it less plastic and prevents cracks during firing.
[read on...]

VICTOR M. CASSIDY writes on art from Chicago.

"The New African Photography" in Italy

Nontsikelelo (Lolo) Veleko
Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder
2003 - 2004
30 x 20 cm



personae & scenarios
the new african photography
[Link]

David Goldblatt
Hala Elkoussy
Lara Baladi
Nontsikelelo "Lolo" Veleko
Maha Maamoun
Malala Andrialavidrazana
Mikhael Subotzky
Tracey Rose

I-Roma
February 3 - March 31, 2006
Opening February 3, 2006

B R A N C O L I N I G R I M A L D I
A R T E C O N T E M P O R A N E A
Via dei Tre Orologi, 6/A 00197 Roma
Tel +39 0680693100
Tue-Fri 10am-1pm + 3pm-7pm
info@brancolinigrimaldi.com
Press release (PDF)

Vicolo dell'Oro, 12/R 50123 Firenze
Tel +39 0552396263

from the press release:

Brancolini Grimaldi Arte Contemporanea presents "personae & scenarios the new african photography". Through a vast and eclectic selection of photographs, Personae & Scenarios invites the viewer to discover the unexplored world of contemporary African art, seen here on a comprehensive scale for the first time in Italy.

Both the complexity and the diversity of the African continent are evidenced in this exhibition, bringing together works from some of the most important figures in African contemporary art, featuring both emerging and more established African artists.

Through this rich and penetrating selection of work, the exhibition shows the hidden face of Africa: the creativity, wealth and culture of a continent full of life and of differences, a land as vast as it is difficult, expressing its contemporaneity through photography and video.

Despite the growing trend of contemporary art in Africa, in the world of contemporary photography, it remains one of the few less chartered areas, a continent apart. Africa cannot be defined by a single country, but as an entire continent, and as such encompaasses an infinite variety of styles, customs, and languages. The exhibition shows the complexity and the prosperity of contemporary African photography, reflecting the wealth of culture and history of a continent in perpetual change.

Inca Show Pits Yale Against Peru

 








Images of Hiram Bingham III, the Machu Picchu exhibition, and an Inca shawl pin in the Yale Peabody Museum collection [source]

via the New York Times :

By HUGH EAKIN
Published: February 1, 2006

NEW HAVEN, Jan. 26 — By any conventional measure, Yale's exhibition about Machu Picchu would seem a windfall for Peru. As one of the most ambitious shows about the Inca ever presented in the United States, drawing over a million visitors while traveling to half a dozen cities and back again, it has riveted eyes on Peru's leading tourist attraction.

Yet instead of cementing an international partnership, the exhibition, which returned to the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale in September, has brought a low ebb in the university's relations with Peru. At issue are a large group of artifacts that form the core of the show, excavated at Machu Picchu in a historic dig by a Yale explorer in 1912. The government of Peru wants all of those objects back.

Peru contends that it essentially lent the Machu Picchu objects to the university nearly a century ago and that the university has failed to return them. Yale has staunchly rebuffed Peru's claim, stating that it returned all borrowed objects in the 1920's and has retained only those to which it has full title.

The dispute is inflamed by the swashbuckling exploits of Hiram Bingham III, a Yale professor, aviator and later senator, and the special dispensations he brokered with the Peruvian government to take Inca bones and ritual tomb objects out of Peru. Add a Peruvian president who has made the country's indigenous heritage a central theme of his administration and an Ivy League archaeology department with a towering reputation in the Inca field, and the dispute has all the ingredients of an Indiana Jones movie.

[...]

Both Yale and the Peruvians say they hope for an amicable resolution, and talks continue. In December, Yale even offered to return numerous objects to Peru and help install and maintain them in a Peruvian museum. Up to now Peruvian officials have not responded to this proposal, saying that recognition of Peru's title to the entire collection must be the basis of any agreement.

[...]

They [the objects] were removed during an authorized archaeological dig nearly a century ago; they were inspected by the Peruvian government before they left the country; and even Peruvian officials acknowledge that the objects themselves — which consist largely of bones, ceramic pots and common Inca tools — do not have great aesthetic or museum value.

On the other hand, Peru did have laws in force at the time governing archaeological finds, and its government in theory had ownership of any artifacts unearthed from Peruvian soil. As a result, the dispute has become something of a test case for the limits of cultural property claims against American institutions. [read the full article]

related reading :

The Yale Peabody Museum

Peru talks continue as lawsuit looms (Yale Daily News)