Robert-Goldwater-Library

Black History Month @ MMA

From the Museum's Met News newsletter for February 2007:

Black History Month–A Celebration

The Museum's annual celebration of Black History Month includes an array of special programs highlighting the achievements of Africans and African Americans in the literary, performing, and visual arts.

The following events recognize African influences in the arts and are free with Museum admission:

40 Years of Film in New York City:

Saturday, February 17, at 2:00 p.m.
Uncommon Images: The Harlem of James Van Der Zee (22 min.) and Conversations with Roy DeCarava (28 min.)

Saturday, February 17, at 3:00 p.m.
Against the Odds: The Artists of the Harlem Renaissance (57 min.)

These programs are part of the borough-wide celebration of the 40th anniversary of the New York City Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting (MOFTB). The MOFTB name, logos, and insignias are trademarks of the City of New York and are used with the City's permission.

Gallery Talks:

Thursday, February 15, at 11:00 a.m.
Medicine in the Metropolitan Museum—Egypt

Saturday, February 17, at 3:00 p.m.
The Spirits of Animals in African Art

Sunday, February 18, at 1:00 p.m.
Royal Arts of Africa

Thursday, February 22, at 11:00 a.m.
American Artists: Documenting History

Tuesday, February 27, at 11:00 a.m.
African Influences in Modern Art

New Met Podcast Episode:

The actor Charles Turner reads vivid and amusing descriptions of Parisian daily life by Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859–1937), the first African American artist to achieve international acclaim. Listen to or download this Met Podcast episode.

For all events and programs related to Black History Month, please see the online calendar.

Image: Pendant Mask: Iyoba, 16th century, Nigeria; Edo, Court of Benin. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1972 (1978.412.323).

Black History Month @ MMA

Mask, 19th-20th century Senufo peoples; Côte d'Ivoire. Wood, horn, fiber, cotton, feather, metal, sacrificial material; H. of mask 14 1/8 in. (35.9 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Purchase, Nelson A. Rockefeller Gift, 1965 (1978.412.489).

Celebrate Black History Month Gallery Talks Saturday, January 27, 7:00 p.m. African Influences in Modern Art Denise Murrell Sunday, January 28, 1:00 p.m. Royal Arts of Africa Gayle Rodda Kurtz Thursday, February 1, 11:00 a.m. American Artists: Documenting History Hazel Rodriguez Thursday, February 15, 11:00 a.m. Medicine in the Metropolitan Museum—Egypt David T. Mininberg Saturday, February 17, 3:00 p.m. The Spirits of Animals in African Art Gayle Rodda Kurtz Sunday, February 18, 1:00 p.m. Royal Arts of Africa Gayle Rodda Kurtz Thursday, February 22, 11:00 a.m. American Artists: Documenting History Hazel Rodriguez Tuesday, February 27, 11:00 a.m. African Influences in Modern Art Denise Murrell The Art of Learning: Classes for Adults Friday, February 16, 3:00 p.m. Discussion of the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (1958) and gallery talk. Led by Alisa LaGamma, curator, Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Part of a series of monthly seminars in which an experienced art historian leads a small group of adults in the galleries and discusses how a selected book provides new ways of looking at and understanding great works of art. For complete details see our online listings of classes for adults. Ticket prices for these classes do not include handling fees. To purchase tickets by mail or telephone, please call 212-570-3949 or fax 212-650-2253, Monday-Friday, 9:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. For more information, please contact [email protected] or call 212-396-5460. Films Saturday, February 17, 2:00 p.m. Uncommon Images: The Harlem of James Van Der Zee (1977), directed by Evelyn Barron (22 min.); Conversations with Roy DeCarava (1983), directed by Carroll Parrot Blue (28 min.). Saturday, February 17, 3:00 p.m. Against the Odds: The Artists of the Harlem Renaissance (1993), directed by Amber Edwards (57 min.).

Exhibition of Michael Rockefeller photographs

Michael Rockefeller: New Guinea Photographs, 1961
Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University
November 15, 2006-February 28, 2007

Boys playing at war with grass spears. Netherlands New Guinea, 1961, photo by Michael C. Rockefeller, PM 12.1.69.3.

• The exhibition is accompanied by a volume of the same name that features over 75 photographs, including all exhibition photos, an essay by curator Kevin Bubriski, and a foreword by the Harvard-Peabody New Guinea Expedition director and filmmaker, Robert Gardner.

• On March 8, 2007, at 5:30 p.m., Virginia-Lee Webb, Research Curator, Metropolitan Museum of Art, will give a lecture entitled Visualizing Art and the Ancestors: Photographs of Asmat Art and Artists at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

From the Peabody Museum's web site:

The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology presents the first, solo show of the photographs of the late Michael Rockefeller taken in 1961 in the highlands of New Guinea. This selection of black-and-white photographs have been chosen from the 117 rolls of black-and-white film (approximately 3,500 images) taken while Rockefeller was a member of the Peabody Museum's New Guinea Expedition (1961–1963). The photographs document the life of the Dani people dwelling in the Baliem Valley, high in the mountains of New Guinea, today Irian Jaya, Indonesia. In addition to their rich documentary content, these photographs reveal much about the sensibility behind the camera. Many of the photographs in the exhibition are vintage prints made in the early nineteen sixties. A few of the photographs were published in the volume about the expedition Gardens of War (Random House, 1968). Most have never before been published or publicly displayed.

Sunday at the Met

Celebration of the Art and Culture of Central Africa

• Sunday, September 24, 2006 : Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This afternoon's program on Congolese artistic expression--past and present -- considers one of Central Africa's major artistic traditions as well as notable contemporary forms of expression that have developed in the region. These lectures are offered in conjunction with the exhibition Art of the Lega: Meaning and Metaphor in Central Africa, currently on view at the AXA Gallery, 787 Seventh Avenue at 51st Street. The exhibition is organized by the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History and presented by the Museum for African Art in New York.

• 2:00 p.m. Lega Aesthetics: Thinking Visually through an African Art Form

Elisabeth Cameron, associate professor, History of Art and Visual Culture, University of California, Santa Cruz

• 3:00 p.m. Congolese Urban Arts and the Invention of Modernity

Ch. Didier Gondola, associate professor of history, Indiana University

Free with Museum admission; tickets and reservations not required.
For more information, please consult www.metmuseum.org or call (212) 396-5460.

Museum to host Festival de Arte Prehispánico

On August 5, 2006, El Primer Contacto con el Arte and the Muticultural Audience Development Intiative of the Metropolitan Museum will present El Festival de Arte Prehispánico. This program of family activities, inspired by the exhibition Treasures of the Maya Sacred Kings, includes lectures and gallery chats, music, film and theater on Maya culture. Bring the whole family!

To learn more, Download MayaPoster_lores.pdf [yes, a pdf file]


El 5 de agosto 2006 El Primer Contacto con el Arte y Desarrollo Iniciativo para Audencia Multicultural del Metropolitan Museum of Art presentarán El Festival de Arte Prehispánico. Esta programa de actividades para la familia, inspirada para la exposición Treasures of the Maya Sacred Kings, se incluye lecturas y charlas, música, película y una representación teatral sobre la cultura Maya. ¡Asista con su familia!

Para más información, Descargar MayaPoster_lores.pdf [sí, un archivo informático 'pdf']

Sunday at the Met—Treasures of Sacred Maya Kings

via MMA website:

June 18, 2006
Sunday at the Met--Treasures of Sacred Maya Kings
Film screening and lectures
The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

The program explores the elaboration of the concept of divine kingship among early Maya peoples. The grandiose ambition of earthly rulers seeking to transform themselves into gods produced some of the most visually stunning imagery of the ancient Americas.

10:45 a.m. Popol Vuh: Creation Myth of the Maya (60 min.)
Directed by Patricia Amlin, 1986. Uses animated images derived primarily from 8th-century Maya depictions on ceramic vessels to chronicle the much older epic story of the dawn of life in the Maya world. Introduction and postscreening commentary by Justin Kerr, independent scholar, New York.

1:30 p.m. The First Maya Kings: The Emergence and Expression of Their Sacred Power
Virginia Fields, curator of pre-Columbian art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

2:15 p.m. The Blood of Sacrifice, the Lord of Creation: Maya Art, Myth, and Power in San Bartolo, Guatemala
William A. Saturno, assistant professor of anthropology, University of New Hampshire.

3:00 p.m. The Rosalila Temple, Heart of the Acropolis and Sacred Precinct of Early Classic Rulership at Copan
Ricardo F. Agurcia, executive director, Copan Association.

3:45 p.m. The Search for K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo': Archaeology and Dynastic Origins at Copan, Honduras
Robert J. Sharer, Sally and Alvin Shoemaker Professor in Anthropology and curator in charge, American Section, University of Pennsylvania Museum.

 Pictured above : Tripod Vessel with Human Figure, 450–550, Mexico, Campeche, Becan Structure XIV, Ceramic; 6 1/2 x 7 1/8 in. (16.5 x 18.1 cm). Museo Regional de Yucatán, "Palacio Cantón," Mérida (source)

Mapping the Worlds of 16th century Mexico

Title
Codex Reese. [left quarter]

Published/Created
n.p.
ca. 1565.

Physical Description
1 ms. map : hand col. ; 72.5 x 177.5 cm.

Call Number
WA MSS S-2533

Notes
Nahuatl map on maguey paper documenting agricultural holdings in the Valley of Mexico, probably fields of bulrush or maize under the colonial jurisdiction of Tenochtitlan, Mexico City, ca. 1565. [READ ON...]

via Diana Fane (thanks!):

Announcing:
MAPPING THE WORLDS
of sixteenth-century Mexico

A symposium at Yale University
September 15 & 16, 2006

The recent discovery of a sixteenth-century Mexican land map in the collection of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library provides the starting point for this Yale-sponsored symposium. Drawn by indigenous artists and probably commissioned by the Spanish colonial government, the map is one of the earliest depictions of New Spain. Symposium participants will cover a broad range of topics relevant to studies of the early colonial period in Central Mexico, including the changing politics of land usage, the role of women in society, and the place of religious institutions in the Nahua-Christian world. The symposium will also examine other related manuscripts from 16th-century Mexico and their social, cultural, and visual contexts.

Sponsored by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Council on latin American & Iberian Studies of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies, and the Department of the History of Art, Yale University.

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

Friday September 15
A keynote lecture by Rolena Adorno, Reuben Post Halleck Professor of Spanish, Yale University

Reception to follow.

Saturday September 16
Speakers scheduled to appear:

Dennis Carr, Yale University; Maria Casteñeda de la Paz, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; Jaime Lara, Yale Divinity School; Diana Magaloni, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; Mary Miller, Yale University; Barbara Mundy, Fordham University; Matthew Robb, Yale University; Gordon Whittaker, Göttingen University.

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Coaxing the Spirits to Dance

Coaxing the Spirits to Dance: Art and Society in the Gulf of Papua New Guinea

An exhibition organized by the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, in collaboration with The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Opening next weekend

April 1 - September 17, 2006
Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, NH

This exhibition will explore the relationship between social life and artistic expression since the nineteenth century in one of the most important art-producing regions of Papua New Guinea. It includes over sixty magnificent art objects from the Hood's own important Franklin Family Collection and select other collections, including ancestor boards, masks, drums, skull racks, and personal items. It will examine the effects of colonialism on artistic production, the relationship between patterns of collecting and interpretations of art and culture in the Papuan Gulf, and the variation of styles among differing social structures and cultural practices.

A lecture, reception, and symposium will be held in conjunction with the opening of this exhibition at the Hood Museum.

Opening Lecture and Reception
March 31, Friday, 4:30 p.m.
Arthur M. Loew Auditorium
REMARKS
His Excellency Evan J. Paki, Ambassador of Papua New Guinea to the United States of America
COAXING THE SPIRITS TO DANCE
Robert L. Welsch, Visiting Professor of Anthropology and curator of the exhibition. A reception hosted by the Friends of Hopkins Center and Hood Museum of Art will follow in Kim Gallery.

SYMPOSIUM: Art and Society in the Papuan Gulf of New Guinea
April 1, Saturday, 9:00 a.m. - ­2:30 p.m.
Arthur M. Loew Auditorium 
This symposium brings together experts from the United States, Great Britain, and Papua New Guinea to explore the relationship between social life and artistic expression since the nineteenth century in one of the most important art-producing regions of Papua New Guinea.

Welcoming Remarks
Brian Kennedy, Director

Session I
Robert L. Welsch, Visiting Professor of Anthropology, Dartmouth College
Virginia-Lee Webb, Research Curator, Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Sebastian Haraha, Senior Technical Officer, Department of Anthropology, Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery

Session II
Joshua A. Bell, Assistant Professor, Sainsbury Institute, University of East Anglia
Kaia Rove, Local Level Government Councillor, Baimuru District, Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea
Terence Hays, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Rhode Island College

Moderator: Nick Stanley, Director of Research and Chair
of Postgraduate Studies, Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, University of Central England

Coaxing the Spirits to Dance will travel to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, on view from October 24, 2006 through September 2, 2007. 

Reminder: Saturday Artists' Talk: The Politics of Imaging Africa"

Photo: Boubacar Touré Mandémory, Couleurs de Pêche, from the series Capitales Africaines, 2000–2005

Artists' Talk
The Politics of Imaging Africa
Saturday, March 11, 2 pm | $5 (free for ICP members)
This afternoon conversation offers an intimate setting to engage in a dialogue and view the work of several artists whose work is represented in the ICP exhibition Snap Judgments: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography (opening March 10.) This program will be moderated by the exhibition's curator, Okwui Enwezor. Register now.

African American art research

Press release forwarded vis ARLISNY-L:

Activating Archives: The Archives of American Art as a Resource for Research on African American Art
Wednesday, November 16, at 7:00 p.m.

SPEAKERS:
Benny Andrews -- Artist, Activist, Archivist
Richard Wattenmaker, Ph.D. -- Senior Scholar, Archives of American Art

MODERATOR:
Lowery Stokes Sims, Ph.D. -- President, The Studio Museum in Harlem

Please join the Studio Museum in Harlem for a panel that addresses the institutional and individual aspects of creating, maintaining and using archives. This discussion will explore these issues through the lens of an artist, a scholar and a curator. Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of The Archives Of American Art, special attention will be given to the archives’ collection of African American materials.

This program is free and will take place at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please call 212/864-4500 x264 to RSVP.

Studio Museum
144 West 125th Street
New York, New York 10027
(between Lenox Avenue (6th) and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd (7th);
map available at http://www.studiomuseum.org/getting_here.html )