February 22, 2008 by Ali Standish found at tsl.pomona.edu

African Art at Fowler Impresses, LACMA Disappoints

If you’re looking to enjoy some local art museums, you might have decided to check out the Getty or the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Certainly, both are worth seeing, but if it is African art you want, you’re better off skipping these hot spots in favor of the Fowler Museum at UCLA.

Though LACMA has advertised its new African Art exhibition, it’s not worth taking the metro ride into the city for admission to see their newest attraction. A room the size of a single in the dorms houses the entire exhibit, which is heavily dominated by masks from the 19th and 20th centuries. The works are displayed behind glass cases and are randomly distributed around the room, with little thought given to geographical or chronological organization.

A very different experience awaits you at the Fowler Museum, a gem known for its extensive collection of international art, snuggled into UCLA’s campus. Currently, four exhibitions are running that make you see international and African art in a new way.

Intersections: World Arts, Local Lives is a long-term exhibit displaying a collection of 250 works from Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the Pacific that span three millennia. Not only can you expect to find hidden treasures such as an intricately beaded Yoruba crown designed to transcend its wearer, but you’ll also learn their cultural—and sometimes global—significance.

Art from different cultures and eras is grouped according to theme, showing, for instance, the way that art can empower women, how outward form and beauty can meet inward meaning and efficacy, and the relation of art and power dynamics. You’ll see some items in collections and some pieces on their own. Additionally (and unlike LACMA), the Fowler actually credits most of the artists.

Inside Intersections is a focus exhibit, The Art of Women’s Masquerades in Sierra Leone. It focuses on coming-of-age rituals for young women of Sierra Leone’s Mende people. About two dozen masks, which play an important role in this sacred process, are on display. The exhibit will be open through the end of April.

Inscribing Meaning: Writing and Graphic Systems in African Art effectively demonstrates the beauty and power of African art forms. There are ancient sacred scripts and the politically charged fabric sculptures of Nigerian Yinka Shonibare, as well as South African Kim Berman’s prints, which explore the media’s role in assigning guilt during the post-Apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Committee. The exhibit closed last weekend.

The last exhibit, Visual Griots of Mali, is a collection of photographs taken by pre-teens in Mali. They capture views of everyday rural life and are quite sure to move you, or at least give you a glimpse into another world. The collection will be up through Mar. 11.

Opening next weekend is Make Arts/Stop AIDS, an exhibit aimed at showing the response of artists from around the globe to the HIV/AIDS crisis and the role that its art has played with regard to the pandemic. The multimedia exhibit will include everything from sculpture to photography to animated shorts and digital media.

The Fowler is open Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m., and on Thursday until 8 p.m. And to top it all off, admission is free.

Though none are perfect, all of the exhibits will give you a new appreciation for the art of Africa and other international communities. And though they only offer a brief introduction into these long-standing artistic traditions, the exhibits will prove that African art is diverse, powerful, and always communicating with its own culture and the world.

Visual Griots of Mali
through Mar 11, 2008
See how young photographers in Mali have captured their lives on film.
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Intersections: World Arts, Local Lives
Now on display
"Spanning centuries of multicultural creativity, this exhibition is the kind of art experience that might restore your faith in the sad old human comedy."
The New York Times
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Make Art/Stop AIDS
opens Feb 23, 2008
Join us for the opening party on Saturday, February 23 from 7:30-11 pm!
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Fowler in Focus: The Art of Women's Masquerades in Sierra Leone
through Apr 27, 2008
See twenty-eight beautiful and highly symbolic masks inside Intersections: World Arts, Local Lives.
learn more >