African Art portal. Stay informed. Build your African Art dream collection !David Norden African Arts Info presents :
tribal masks & African Art News

African Art newsletter African Arts >> Buy African Art

amazon store & african art books

join the African Art Club

Mail David Norden Sint-katelijnevest 27 B2000 ANTWERPEN-Belgium  (map) Tel +32 3 227 35 40
African Art on Facebook
PLEASE SHARE WITH YOUR FRIENDS  Share

 

 David Norden's African Art Newsletter :


 

NEWS: tribal art fair New York 2012 preview

A lifelong love of tribal masks & African art

Peabody researcher, former faculty, 90, still studying tribal masks

By Alvin Powell Harvard Staff Writer found Thursday, March 3, 2011 at news.harvard.edu

  tribal masks

Rose Lincoln/Harvard Staff Photographer

Monni Adams, a researcher at the Peabody Museum, turned 90 in October and says she doesn’t plan to stop anytime soon. Her latest venture is the exhibit “Masked Festivals of Canton Bo (Ivory Coast), West Africa,” which grew out of a year Adams spent living among the people of the dense forests in Liberia and the Ivory Coast from 1989 to 1990.

African art has been a lifelong passion for Monni Adams, an anthropologist and researcher at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology who most recently has been working on African masks and their meaning in local culture.

Adams publishes regularly and is the curator of an exhibit on masks at the Tozzer Library Gallery that runs through March 31. Those around her are amazed not just at her pace, but that she’s been able to maintain it at such a high level.

Adams turned 90 in October, with a party and much fanfare at the Peabody, and says she doesn’t plan to stop anytime soon.

Though Adams’ longevity has brought her attention, Peabody Director of Exhibitions Samuel Tager said it’s a mistake to define her by her age. As much as anyone he’s ever met, Tager said, Adams lives the life of the mind and is “occupied by ideas every single day.”

“Age is an absolutely irrelevant thing for Monni,” Tager said. “She publishes the way someone trying to get tenure might.”

Adams received a master’s degree in 1963 from Columbia University and a doctorate in 1967 on Indonesian art, which became the subject of her first book, “System and Meaning in East Sumba Textile Design.”

She first saw Harvard in 1970 when she attended a conference at the University and has held a variety of faculty and research positions over the years. She taught art history at Columbia and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1972 to 1974, and then in the mid-1970s was selected for a five-year position as an associate professor of art and anthropology at Harvard and a curator at the Peabody.

She also taught at Wellesley College and the Harvard Extension School from 1980 to 1998. Adams curated a major exhibition in 1982 at the Carpenter Center, “Designs for Living: Symbolic Communication in African Art,” which presented an array of objects that typified art in Africa. From 1999 to 2001, she had an exhibit at the Peabody, “Heads and Tales: Adornments from Africa,” when she was the Hrdy Guest Curator at the Peabody. She was also a senior research fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School from 2002 to 2003.

The Tozzer exhibit, “Masked Festivals of Canton Bo (Ivory Coast), West Africa,” grew out of a year Adams spent living among the people of the dense forests in Liberia and the Ivory Coast from 1989 to 1990. The Canton Bo people conduct masked festivals to invite spirits to protect their villages, bless their crops, and improve fertility among their women. Adams published an article on the Canton Bo in 1993, examining women’s art — largely restricted to the faces of girls, the walls of houses, and the surfaces of pots — as a way of expressing their control of those areas in their otherwise male-dominated communities.

Her most recent article, in the summer 2010 issue of African Arts, reviewed the mask work of the Mano people of Liberia and explores reasons why the creations of the neighboring Dan people tend to be displayed and written about more prominently.

She recounts the career of medical missionary George Harley, who worked in the area and collected masks under threat of death. He amassed 247 Mano and Dan masks to the Peabody.

Adams says an active lifestyle has paid off. She wakes each morning without aches and pains that plague some of her peers, and she takes no pills. She exercises regularly and lives less than a mile from campus, walking back and forth when the weather permits.

“I’m so glad I found such an interesting subject to pursue that I can still think of articles to write,” Adams said. “It’s an unending source of ideas and insights as to how people live together.”

African Antiques e-Newsletter
Dan mask collected by Houzeau de Lehaie in 1936We are working on a book about how to collect African Art, join below to stay  updated!

A Dan mask collected in 1936 by Houzeau de Lehaie

Subscribe to our free newsletter : 

 David, I never thought I would receive so much information's about the African art world ! Dealers, auctions, museum exhibitions, fairs, etc...

african art | african antiques | african art shop | african art club

Recent postings:

Nok Statue Crushed. A $300G oopsie! 

Bad Review - April 2012

L Africa Di Attilio Pecile & Peter Savorgnan de Brazza

masques Gelede Les mille et un symboles des masques

Tribal Art Society , an online website that replicates the fine tribal art gallery experience.

African art fakes and expertise

Hand Held-Personal Arts from Africa

Books I like :

Making of History african art

Invention and Tradition

Herbert M. Cole. released on May 25, 2012.

Surfaces: Color, Substances, and Ritual App...

african_faces

Africa Tom Phillips, Roya..

A Personal Journey: Central African Art from the Lawrence Gussman Collection

more african art books

visit my amazon store

In this section :

Home
Up
Berg en Dal museum
Barbier Muller icons
African Art Museum
tribal masks
Museums in Africa
University Of Ghana
african treasures
German museums
Grassi museum leipzig
vereinigung der freunde afrikanisher kultur
L Africa Di Attilio Pecile

african art | african antiques | african art shop | african art club | African Art books

African Art : follow me on TwitterMail David Norden
Sint-katelijnevest 27
ANTWERPEN-Belgium

Tel +32 3 227 35 40

David Norden


Share

David Norden African Arts profile on facebook | African Arts on twitter

a few african art advertisers:

tribal art gallery | Amyas Naegele | Bedaux Brussels | Zemanek |  african art dealersorigine expert, etc....

discussion groups :

African Art on facebook

African Art |Art Africain 

Sites Roll :

African Art Visit our online gallery

African Art Books David Norden's selection

African Art Club, be an insider, pro African Art collectors and dealers access  !

Buy African Antiques Genuine fine African Antiques from known collections.

African art blog

excellent diamonds | diamonds news |

Do you love ? A new start in life

African Antiques e-Newsletter
I never thought I would receive so much information's about the African art world !

Home
Up

Hope you enjoyed reading this article about tribal masks. To stay informed about little known auctions and receive insiders images of exhibitions and fairs and receive special members privileges join the African Art Club for a low monthly fee and become a better collector ....

tribal art fair New York 2012 preview :

Buy African Antiques Genuine African Art coming from known collection www.buyafricanantiques.com

African Art books  Discover more books I like, visit my amazon store

TIP: Discuss this article with your friends on Share

If you are a collector you should visit Buy African Antiques to discover genuine African art. David Norden is a serious dealer expert in African Art since 1992 and grew up among it. Buy African Antiques is a good place if you want a selection of authentic pieces coming from known collections, you will get free delivery and fifteen days guarantee and six months exchange guarantee

Learn more about tribal masks ? Search for "tribal masks" books at Amazon

Read also in this section:  Home ] Up ] Berg en Dal museum ] Barbier Muller icons ] African Art Museum ] [ tribal masks ] Museums in Africa ] University Of Ghana ] african treasures ] German museums ] Grassi museum leipzig ] vereinigung der freunde afrikanisher kultur ] L Africa Di Attilio Pecile ]  

African Art portal. Stay informed. Build your African Art dream collection !

Click to Buy African Antiques 
Discover David Norden's African Art Collection

Visit David Norden in Antwerp till end November
Sint Katelijnevest 27. B-2000 Antwep. Belgium. Tel.: +32 3 227.35.40

We advise great collections since 1992 !

Mail David Norden

Mail David Norden Sint-katelijnevest 27 B2000 ANTWERPEN-Belgium (map) Tel +32 3 227 35 40

museum news  | African Art Dealers  |  | African Art Fairs  | African Art Auctions | do you love | subscribe | African Art ClubMonitored by BelStat - Your Site Counts

Click to subscribe to the free African-Antiques newsletter !The African Antiques newsletter

 

Want to buy some genuine African Art ? 
masks
| statues | objects | outside
Site Meter