An African mask is only a fragment of the art canvas. Masks are dramatic, musical costume events of which the headgear plays only a part.
The way we are used to seeing masks, as a lone sculptural statement, mounted on a stake or plastered against a wall, is an incomplete performance.
The Dallas Museum of Art is rectifying that indignity with an exhibition of masks paired with their full body costumes, often accompanied with photographs and videos of the dancing masquerade.
There is so much more to masks than face covering, and learning that they rarely covered the face is only the beginning of the education that is offered in “African Masks: The Art of Disguise,” which opens Sunday August30, 2010.
We like disguises. That is probably why we like to celebrate Halloween costumes during every month with 31 days (much to the chagrin of our neighbors). This exhibition sounds like it will be right up our alley. About 50 objects from the museum’s collection and local collectors will be on display, and observers will be able to see masks of many different styles and purposes. Full masquerade costumes will also be displayed, so viewers can get the full effect of the ensembles
Read details and see these 7 nice masks from the Dallas Museum in the members section:
African Art Museum of the SMA Fathers
official site: http://smafathers.org/museum
Ruby Washington/The New York Times
There’s the National Museum of African Art in Washington. And the Museum for African Art in New York, reopening in a new Fifth Avenue home next spring. And there’s a third you’ve probably never heard of, the African Art Museum of the SMA Fathers here.
This museum is small and unorthodox in its setting: a stained-glass-windowed hall attached to a Roman Catholic church. But it’s the real African deal, with a collection covering the continent, top to bottom, coast to coast, old to new.The Permanent Collection, Part I, remains on view for a year at the African Art Museum of the SMA Fathers, 23 Bliss
Mayombe -photo (c) K.U.Leuven, foto Hugo Maertens
Exposition du 8 avril au 3 juillet 2011
Cette exposition présentera plusieurs oeuvres majeures tirées des collections exceptionnelles de sculptures africaines et d’objets traditionnels de l’ancien Congo belge, détenus par l’Université
Un fétiche à clous , qui avait mystérieusement disparu des collections publiques après la deuxième guerre mondiale, a été restitué aujourd’hui au musée du quai Branly par la fille d’un collectionneur d’art africain qui l’avait acquis de bonne foi.
Ce fétiche Nkondé avait été volé dans les réserves du musée de l’Homme entre 1944 et 1955. Il était entré par la suite chez un collectionneur parisien Armand Charles.
Le fétiche à clous refait surface en public en décembre 2009, lors de la vente de la collection Armand Charles organisée par Enchères Rive Gauche à l’Hôtel Drouot. (voir les photos sur Art Africain info)
En consultant un livre sur les fétiches à clous d’Afrique centrale, l’acheteur Didier Claes s’aperçoit apres la vente que cet objet appartient à l’origine au musée de l’Homme. La vente est annulée. La fille d’Armand Charles, Annie Salles, décide alors de restituer cet “objet magique” au musée du quai Branly, dédié aux arts et civilisations d’Afrique, d’Asie, d’Océanie et des Amériques. More »
Un Valeureux Explorateur Africain
du 1er juin au 11 novembre 2010
Musée du président Jacques Chirac – 19800 Sarran
Tél. 05 55 21 77 77
Edmond Dartevelle collected more than 3,500 objects, in this exhibition you can see 130 of them . The Exhibition is in the Corrèze, 481 km below Paris ( a 4h37 min drive) near Clermont-Ferrand.
See this french video with some in situ images
Figurine d’envoûtement maloango – Ethnie : VILI (région de Loango) Musée Royal d’Afrique centrale de Tervuren © Hughes Dubois
Ensemble nkisi – Musée Royal d’Afrique Centrale de Tervuren © Hughes Dubois
read more about Edmond DARTEVELLE (in french), and see another video in the members section with some images from the exhibition
”Through African Eyes: The European in African Art, 1500 to Present 
”
Unlike previous exhibitions on this topic, ”Through African Eyes: The European in African Art, 1500 to Present ” will combine diverse representational forms from 16th century Benin bronzes to late 20th century satiric masks and figures, with related material to demonstrate the multiple relationships between Africans and Europeans and their profound impact on African visual arts. It provides an examination of 500 years of cultural and political interactions between African cultures and European outsiders. The exhibition will showcase approximately 130 of Africa’s finest three-dimensional artworks and utilitarian objects executed in wood, ivory, metal, and textiles from leading American and international museums and private collections.
Date: September 25, 2010 to January 9, 2011.
Venue:
The Nelson-Atkins Museum Of Art,
4525 Oak Street,
Kansas City, MO 64111.
Other venues: Detroit Institute of Arts: 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-833-7900; Detroit Experiences: Robert Frank Photographs, 1955; through July 3. Through African Eyes: The European in African Art, 1500 to Present; through Aug. 8. Hours: Wed., Thu., 10 a.m.-4; Fri., 10 a.m.-10; Sat., Sun., 10 a.m.-5. (4/11/10 to 8/8/10).
The “Through African Eyes: The European in African Art, 1500 to Present ” catalogue is a good reading, the 200-page exhibition catalogue include essays by recognized experts and numerous color and black-and-white illustrations that will expand on the ideas conveyed by the exhibition. :
More information, life press release and interview videos and more pictures :
In this press release AmericaJR.com’s Jason Rzucidlo reports from the Detroit Institute of Arts for their press conference just before the unveiling of their new exhibit “Through African Eyes.” Watch for remarks by DIA Director Graham W.J. Beal and exhibit curator Dr. Nii Quarcoopome.
This summer 2010, the musée du quai Branly will showcase 170 major works and eighty documents as part of an important exhibition devoted to the artistic traditions of Central Africa, namely Gabon, the People’s Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo, with a catalogue of François Neyt
François Neyt, Sté…
(author of 
Songye )
A real trip of initiation that will take the visitor from the forests in the north to the savannahs in the south, the exhibition brings out the links existing between the works produced in the areas lying on the banks of the majestic Congo River by various communities which speak the Bantu language…
| catalogue of the travelling exhibition : |
|---|
 James Coo k and the Exploration of the Pacific  ~ Adrienne L. Kaeppler Nathaniel DanceCaptain James Cook (1728-1779) London 1776,© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London |
Gala After Party at the Museum for African Art –Next Thursday May 13th 10:30 pm !
Reservation email RSVP at the email below. If in New York go …
A conversation with the Smithsonian Institution’s Richard Kurin
Richard Kurin, under secretary for history, art, and culture at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, sat down with the State Department’s Bureau of International Information Programs for a discussion on protecting cultural heritage.
…I believe that when people lose their cultural heritage they lose their moral grounding, their connection to their own past…
…The cultural economy has grown extraordinarily in the last several decades, and I think nowadays it is actually the largest part of the international economy….
…it is very important to invest in culture, give it value, give it a place, and nurture it, not just for its intangible qualities – the aspects that give meaning to life – but also for its very tangible benefits, which are sometimes economic, sometimes political, sometimes even medical and scientific….
Tuesday, 16 March 2010, in collaboration with America.gov
Read the interview..
Trance Diviner’s figure, “African, Baule peoples, Ivory Coast”, 19th century. Wood, beads, and cloth, 19 ½ x 5 ¼ x 6 inches. Promised gift of Adele and Donald Hall in honor of the 75th anniversary of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 10.2007.2.
KANSAS CITY, MO.- The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art today announced a promised gift of seven extraordinary works of African art from the private collection of longtime Museum patrons Adele and Donald Hall, in honor of the Museum’s 75th Anniversary.
More about the donation and a portrait of MR. & Mrs. Hall & further informations about this Gift of Stellar African Works of Art
GENEVA – They have always been known as primitive arts specialists, or even as book lovers. Now the Barbier-Mueller family presents another side of its appetite for beautiful things: jewels and ore. In this dynasty characterized for over a century by a «collecting disease», the patriarch, Joseph Mueller, is followed by his great grandson, Alexis Barbier-Mueller.
The former acquired before WW II certain jewels presented here (Polynesian ear ornament in sperm whale tooth or a Cameroonian ivory bracelet), while the latter has headed towa rds minerals, including quartz, schist, malachite and lapis-lazuli.
«Jewels by man» and «Jewels from the Earth» are confronted in a «contamination» practice which has been tested since the « cabinets de curiosités” and the Surrealists: crystals are side by side with Maya pendants, necklaces from Mesopotamia and head dresses from Tibet.
For the first time the AGO is presenting a gallery dedicated to the display of historical African art with important Cameroun Art like the Bangwa Statue of Queen Nana with Child, collected ca. 1914, included in the renowned, recently donated Frum collection.
One the world’s finest collections of sub-Saharan art, the Frum collection is mainly composed of figurative sculptural works from West and Central Africa, dating from the 14th and mid-20th century.
This celebrated collection includes sculptural works mainly from the sub-Saharan regions of western and central Africa.
Explore the diversity of this regional art from the eleventh to the twentieth centuries. Discover the values and ideas underlying these works.
See more images and information in the members area.
Upcoming USA exhibition opens on April 11, 2009, “Through African Eyes: The European in African Art, 1500 to Present.” Those used to European images of Africans — often condescending or downright racist, depending on the era — will enjoy the sometimes ironic results when the mirror is turned from colonized to colonizers. The show closes Aug. 8 2009
In many societies power is based on knowledge, experience, merit, and loyalty. Yet power is more Janus-faced than virtually any other phenomenon. The taking of human life in order to seize or retain power is an extreme form of expression which manifests itself most brutally during wartime. Religion has often served power, and relationships based on exchange have stabilised power structures. Indeed, trade and religion have often not only supported the status quo, they have aided and abetted, even embodied, the darker aspects of the ruling forces. Power has also always made use of art, and artists have taken power as their theme – either critically or commissioned by the powerful themselves.
Figure of Chibinda Ilunga, Angola, Chokwe, 19th Century; Ethnologisches Museum, SMB. Photo: Claudia ObrockiThe Chowke today live in north-western Angola and in the south-west of the Democratic Republic of Congo.The end of the slave trade in the first half of the 19th century, which had connected Africa, Europe, and America in a tight net of trade for several centuries, entailed a deep economic cut for the peoples living on the shores of Western Africa. Many communities of huntersand of refugees from the slave hunts came to wealth and political power through trade with products like Ivory and bees wax. Only in this process their identity as Chokwe emerged. Their political and economic expansion soon threatened long-established political organisations like the neighbouring kingdom of the Lunda. The numerous competing and trading leaders also bolstered their claim to power by promoting artistic expression. Chokwe artists integrated stylistic elements of the neighbouring African peoples and the Europeans into their own art and thus developed one of the most impressive styles of art of the African continent.
Contact informations to visit this exhibition:
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