9 posts tagged “art”

The Art Institute's recently opened exhibit "Benin-Kings and Rituals: Court Arts from Nigeria" has thrust Chicago into an international debate over the rightful ownership of African art held in western museums. The Art Institute does not own any of the 220 objects on display as part of the exhibit, but does own 20 objects from Benin that a spokesman says it would consider returning to Nigeria if asked to do so.

The University of Central Oklahoma Max Chambers Library will celebrate an evening of recent art exhibits and acquisitions with, "Beyond Books — An Evening at the UCO Library" from 5 to 7 p.m., Aug. 14.The evening will include free food, walking tours of the exhibits, including the African Collection, and African dancers and drummers.The African Collection features a comprehensive representation of art from Sub-Saharan Africa that has been re-housed in museum quality cases on the library's second and third floors.According to UCO Art Professor, Dr. William Hommel, the African Collection is the most comprehensive representation of art from that region in the United States."The collection of rare Sao archeological pieces from the area south of Lake Chad is the largest of its kind in the United States," explained Hommel."Other highlights of the exhibit include a large variety of stone Mintadi figures from the Kingdom of the Kongo as well as several 15th and 16th century stone pieces from Sierra Leone."Also on exhibit is the George Calvert Collection donated to the UCO Library in 2006 by the Melton Art Reference Library and Jack and Patricia Welch. The collection consists of more than 100 drawings, paintings, etchings and other printmaking formats created by Calvert, an Oklahoma artist and educator. The collection is installed on the fourth floor of the UCO library.In addition, the artwork from the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building is on display. The collection was initially displayed at the UCO Library in 2000 and used as a teaching tool within the university's visual arts and education programs.These recovered works were found mainly on the upper floors of the Murrah building or in the east plaza following the bombing in April 1995.This collection of fiber tapestries, woven hangings, photographs and metal sculptures represents the height of the contemporary crafts movement during the 1970s. For viewers, the return of this collection offers a unique opportunity to le...

    The African Night show, performed by nearly 100 artists from South Africa, Tanzania, Mauritius, Rwanda, Senegal, Cameroun and Kenya, was among the celebrations for the 10-day countdown to the Beijing Olympic Games.

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...

Over a career that has spanned more than three decades, Martin Puryear has gained international acclaim as a sculptor. Now the National Gallery of Art, in his hometown of Washington, D.C., is paying tribute to the artist with a major retrospective. VOA's Susan Logue reports.Puryear's sculptures Mus (foreground) and Old Mole suggest the familiar although they are abstract Hand-crafted from wood, wire, rawhide and tar, many of Martin Puryear's sculptures look like they might be tools, but it isn't quite clear how they would be used. Others are reminiscent of animals, boats or primitive shelters."He has always made objects that look like they should have a name, but we can't name them. They seem like something we know, but not really," says Ruth Fine, National Gallery of Art curator of special projects in modern art.

"My white friend Wally was a little embarrassed to tell me about it, but I wanted to see it," recalled Kinsey. "It arrived on my desk the next morning. When I held this document in my hand, chills just went through me. It was like entering into another person's fate."