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African Art exhibit

African Art exhibit Warren Robbins in the Pensacola Museum of Art's

Pensacola Museum of Art

8/14/2009-10/10/2009 Art of Africa: Objects from the Collection of Warren Robbins August 14 - October 10, 2009 Art of Africa: Objects from the Collection of Warren Robbins, highlights the private collection of the founder and former director of the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution. Art of Africa presents more than 80 objects including sculpture, textiles, beaded clothing and jewelry, which broadly represent the creativity and diversity of artistic expression of nearly 30 cultures of sub-Saharan Africa. Accompanied by music and photographs, the exhibition will illustrate the broader cultural context in which these art forms were created and used. The collection is on loan from the Center for Cross Cultural Communication in Washington, D.C. Warren Robbins, its founder and director, is also founding director emeritus of the National Museum of African Art, now a branch of the Smithsonian Institution.

Museum exhibits a diverse collection of African art

by Mike Roberts • pensacolaeyeonart@yahoo.com • August 28, 2009 found at pnj.com

One of the pieces on display in the Pensacola Museum of Art's African Art exhibit. (Special to the PNJ News Journal)

In another unexpected move, the Pensacola Museum of Art's exhibition "Art of Africa: Objects from the Collection of Warner Robbins" is an educational preface to the continent's contribution to the art world. Not only does it attempt to resist packaging African art as a singular style, it also asks tough questions about the difference between craft and art and how to judge when utilitarian work becomes art.

Unfortunately, the show fails to provide answers, so you're on your own. It runs through Oct. 10.

It's the exhibit's presentation that posits African art's variety and distinction, with placards for its three-dimensional works. Each one describes the function of each piece, the specific group of people that made it and includes maps showing what country it's from. Its push to individualize African art is a bit forced, but you get the point.

The common thread here is the handmade object. Most of the work is from West Africa near the Atlantic coast. The collection ranges from iron weapons from the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) to ceremonial masks from Cameroon, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Cote D'Ivoire, Mali and Nigeria. Headdresses are also prevalent, often combining animal forms like a crocodile bearing the eyes of an owl.

While African art has suffered from an identity crisis, ironically, it has gained significance in collecting circles because of its simple labeling. Western collectors have prized it for its cultural cachet, an implicit effort to ameliorate European and American imperialism and the exploitation of Africa. Likewise, one can almost picture the show's pair of tomb sculptures from Madagascar positioned just so in a well-heeled entrepreneur's private study. The same goes for the decorative granary door from Mali, the ceremonial cloth from Ghana or the three-figure-supported stool from Nigeria.

But cynicism aside, at least here, for the moment, we get to view a few of Africa's treasures within the protective halls of a museum.

Mike Roberts

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Read also in this section:  [ Home ] [ Up ] [ the Gelbard Collection ] [ Peggy Guggenheim collection ] [ Alexis van Opstal ] [ Collecting African Art-Supernatural ] [ African Map ] [ Paul and Clara Gebauer Collection of Cameroon Art ] [ Alan Mann ] [ Jolika Collection lawsuit ] [ durand-barrere ] [ african art club January 09 ] [ fundation Beyeler ] [ Ebay looting ] [ african art terracotta ] [ African Art exhibit ] [ haitian art ] [ ife bronze ] [ charles derby ] [ Corneille ] [ African Arts in Italian collections ] [ Cashing in on growing interest in African art ] [ Merton Simpson ] [ Bill Jamieson ] [ auction drouot paris ]  

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