As the Yoruba say, art has the power to fa aju mora (magnetize the eyes), becoming awowo–tun–wo (that which compells repeated gaze). Embodying the Sacred in Yoruba Art, co-organized by The Newark Museum and the High Museum of Art, explores the relationship between art and the spiritual world in Yoruba culture. The exhibition presents nearly seventy works of art in diverse media, including recent gifts to the organizing institutions from the collection of Bernard and Patricia Wagner as well as works from the Museums' own collections.

Although a diverse culture, the Yoruba are united by religious beliefs, language and a common tradition of origin rooted in the institution of divine kingship. The city of Ile–Ife, the ancient capital where the king's palace is still located today, was urbanized as early as the eighth century and became a major center of artistic production by the eleventh century. The Yoruba today make up one of Africa's largest ethnic groups with more than twenty–five million living in Nigeria, as well as in the neighboring countries of the Republic in Benin and Togo. In the United States, an estimated one–sixth of all African Americans are of Yoruba ancestry, and there are many Yoruba who have immigrated more recently as part of a burgeoning Nigerian diaspora.

Embodying the Sacred in Yoruba Art is co-curated by Christa Clarke, The Newark Museum's Curator of Africa, the Americas and the Pacific, and Carol Thompson, the Fred and Rita Richman Curator of African Art at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. The accompanying catalogue includes a comprehensive essay by Dr. Babatunde Lawal, Professor of Art History at Virginia Commonwealth University and one of the foremost experts on Yoruba art, who served as exhibition consultant.

The exhibition will be on view through August 24, 2008. -- www.newarkmuseum.org