The Cleveland Museum of Art Organizes Exhibit of African Figure Sculptures

CLEVELAND.- The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) presents Art and Power in the Central African Savanna, an original exhibition that explores the political and religious power of 60 sculptures created by artists in four Central African cultures: the Luba, Songye, Chokwe, and Luluwa. Carved primarily from wood, these power figures act as containers for magical organic ingredients and serve purposes both religious and political. According to traditional beliefs, the figures mediate between the human and spirit world to ensure a healthy birth, successful hunt, or triumph over an enemy. The exhibition explores the aesthetic complexity and the mysterious potency of these diverse objects. Premiering at the Menil Collection in Houston from September 26, 2008 to January 4, 2009, Art and Power will then travel to the CMA (March 1 – June 7, 2009) and the de Young Museum in San Francisco (June 27 – October 11, 2009). “Art and Power demonstrates how certain works traditionally perceived by Western scholars as religious in nature also embody references to the political sphere—and vice-versa,” said Constantine Petridis, the CMA curator of African art who conceived and organized the exhibition. “This exhibition attempts to introduce a sense of history and time into the discussion of African art, by linking developments in artistic styles with corresponding changes in Luba, Songye, Chokwe and Luluwa political structures.” Many of the featured objects combine “power” in both a religious and a political sense, countering the usual divisions made by scholars of African art between “sacred” art, framed by beliefs in the supernatural, and “secular” art, connected with the exercise of leadership. Indeed, this exhibition contains power figures that signal rank, wealth and status while simultaneously possessing the power to cure, protect, or harm. Although the four artistic traditions explored in Art and Power have each been the subject of in-depth monographic studies, this is the first exh...