african art pattern
 A
Masai Shield with african art pattern. Tanzania. Shield. Early-mid 20th
century. The Baltimore Museum of Art: Gift
of Robert and Jane Hellawell, Chestertown, Maryland, BMA 1998.476
Meditations on African Art: Pattern
March 12 – August 17, 2008
The Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218-3898
PH: 443-573-1700
The third and final installation in the BMA’s Meditations on African Art
series, Pattern features more than 70 diverse works—many on view for the first
time—that define the shape and surface of African art. Dramatic textiles,
fragile adinkra dye stamps, delicately carved ivories, boldly painted shields,
and figurative works show the role of pattern in cultural style, body adornment,
and dynamic visual design. Nigerian-born, London-based artist Mary Evans will
create several site-specific works for the exhibition, including: video montages
detailing the slave trade in British port cities, West Africa, and on
plantations in the southern U.S. that are viewed through a kaleidoscope;
floor–to–ceiling intricately patterned murals; and framed works on paper.
She has also created a series of rosettes for the windows above the BMA's
Visitors Entrance, that opened on February 24.
This exhibition is curated by Karen Milbourne, BMA Associate Curator of
African Art. The Meditations series is generously sponsored by Polk
Audio, Matthew Polk and Amy Gould.
found at art
bma exhibitions
BMA exhibition explores roles of pattern in African Art
The final installment of a three-part series, Meditations on African Art is
now on display at the Baltimore Museum of Art. The series is framed around
general artistic conventions, rather than geography or chronology.
The first two exhibitions concentrated on light and color respectively in
traditional and contemporary African art. This final show is focused on its
subtitle, "Pattern," and contains a wide range of styles and mediums
from across the continent.
Karen Milbourne, the University's curator of African art, has organized a
spectacular exhibition that succeeds in both focusing on the theory of pattern,
while also showcasing a broad array of creations from Africa over the last two
centuries.
This array includes approximately 70 works from 12 nations in sub-Saharan
Africa. The exhibit features a variety of objects including textiles, shields,
masks, figurines, cups and swords.
The exhibition welcomes visitors by inviting them to consider the cultural and
social functions of patterns. The works featured, the introduction states,
"address how artists create visually arresting forms and designs that
please the eye, adorn the bodies of neb and women and identify cultural
groups."
Many of the older works, like all products from traditional cultures, reflect
the societies in which they were produced. For example, the Kuba textiles
produced in Congo reveal the gender roles of this culture. The palm fibers are
originally gathered by men. After this, men and women together render the fibers
usable. Men then weave them into tapestries and women finish with the
embroidery.
The collection of shields featured in this exhibition also tell much about the
society's cultural assumptions including the character of ceremonial life and
the conceptions of masculinity. The shields are large and vibrantly colored. The
size and varied shapes are meant to communicate both the power and identity of
the possessor from a distance.
Though most of the exhibition focuses on traditional forms, the show's highlight
is contemporary. Mary Evans, a Nigerian-born, London-based artist, produced a
site-specific multimedia exhibition. There are four components to this
installation. The room is covered with a wallpaper-like mural with several human
shaped silhouettes produced in repetition.
The patterns seem innocuous at first, yet the work has a more sinister subtext.
The figures stacked upon each other are meant to recall the cargo-like treatment
of African captives on slave ships.
Evans's installation also includes a kaleidoscope with a digital video montage
of slave ports in England and West Africa, and a plantation in the American
South. Also included in this installation are framed works of paper and a series
of rosettes on display above the visitor entrance.
The most interesting aspect of the exhibition is the diversity of materials that
went into the works. Take for example a traditional Central African mask from
the early 20th century that is on display. This one mask alone is composed of
wood, metal, fiber, beads, shells and paint.
Meditations on African Art: Pattern will be on display at the Baltimore Museum
of Art through Aug. 17.
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