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Indepth Arts News:
"In the Presence of Spirits"
2000-09-27 until 2000-12-31
Museum for African Art
New York, NY,
USA
Sumptuous design and sculptural innovation meet spiritual power
in the new exhibition of art from Angola, Mozambique and Guinea
Bissau. Culled from the African collections of the National
Museum of Ethnology, Lisbon, In the Presence of Spirits features approximately 140
objects endowed with spiritual or secular
power. Ranging from masks and intricately carved combs, pipes
and staffs used during initiation rituals, to impressive chairs com-
missioned for chiefs from the Songo and Ovimbundu peoples,
many of the objects in the exhibition will be on public view in the
United States for the first time.
Showcasing a selection of the finest pieces from the Portuguese
museum, highlights include important ancestral figures from
various Kongo peoples, an extraordinary ensemble of stone
funerary figures from the Solongo and Mbali, and a spectacular
group of carvings from the Bidjogo peoples -- from monumental
masks representing sharks, buffaloes and birds, to delicately
finished figural spoons. Other impressive objectscome from
Chokwe, Songo, Yaka, Nkanu, Zombo, Suku, Matapa,and
Ngangela peoples, as well as the Dan from Ivory Coast; the
Baga from Guinea; and the Fang from Gabon.
Following its premiere at the Museum for African Art in New York
from September 27 - December 31, 2000, the exhibition will travel
to three other American venues: the Flint Institute of Arts in Flint,
Michigan; the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian
Institution, in Washington, D.C.; and, the Birmingham Museum
of Art in Birmingham, Alabama. The exhibition will be
accompanied by a four-color catalogue, published by the Museum
for African Art in both English and Portuguese language.
IMAGE:
Mask: Chipepa. Matapa, or Kongo-Dinga peoples,
Canzar, Lunda Norte province, Angola.
Burlap cloth, twig frame, feathers, fiber, pigment.
H. 82 cm.
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