Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey newarkmuseum.org

African Art

Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey newarkmuseum.org

The Cultured Body

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Male and Female twin figures(flanitokele)20th CenturyKala, Mali; Bamana artist Wood, Metal

The figures here likely represent a deceased twin and its spiritual companion. In Bamana culture, twins are considered to have special powers and featured prominently in stories of human origin. When a twin dies in childhood, it is commemorated with a sculpted figure that is cared for by its mother and later by the surviving adult twin. When the twin marries, a companion sculpture is commissioned. While the figures are clearly male and female, their overall similarity and symmetry reflects Bamana ideals about the need for harmony and balance between gender.

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Apron, (Jocolo), 1940sSouth Africa; Ndebele artistLeather, glass beads, fabric81.526

Ndebele women began to create beadwork to proclaim their cultural identity after a forced resettlement in the late 19th century. Aprons and cloaks were traditionally made from sheepskin and decorated first one with white beads, then with multiple colors as imported beads became more available in the early 20th century. Beaded garments also indicate significant stages of a woman’s life. A five-paneled apron called jocolo is an important part of a bride’s attire on her wedding day and would be worn until she delivered her first child.

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Space and Place

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Door for Bwiti temple, late 19th - early 20th century, Gabon; Tsogo artist, Wood, pigment, metal, Purchase 2003 Membership Endowment Fund 2003.12

This door was once part of a temple used by members of an association called Bwiti, which was an important religious, political and social institution found among many societies in central Gabon, including the Tsogo. Through Bwiti ritual practice, knowledge of the origins of humanity, cosmic order, life and death and the supernatural world is imparted to the initiated. The rites take place in sacred enclosures, knows as ebandza, whose form sumbolizes mans in the cosmos. The door designs refer to the important deities and concepts in Bwiti religious thought.

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Shrine Vessel20th CenturyNigeria/Chad; Ga’anda artistTerrocotta

Made to represent a specific person, this vessel would have been placed in a shrine as a repository of his or her spirit. Its form clearly replicates a female torso with a protruding navel, which symbolizes the physical presence of past ancestors. The intricately incised designs ion the vessel’s lower body represent scarification marks given to Ga’anda girls during their rites of initiation into womanhood. The boarder of cowrie shells formed in relief symbolizes fertility.

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Art and Audience

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Created by artists in various cultures throughout southern Gabon, mukudj masks portray exceptionally beautiful women. Masks representing these idealized families are transformed into spiritual beings by applying kaolin, which is a fine white clay associated with healing and the spiritual realm of the ancestors. The mask would be worn by a skilled male dancer standing on stilts who performed a highly complex and acrobatic dance. Today, mukudj masks are danced mainly for entertainment, although they still fulfill a ritual function at funerals.

Mask (mukudj)

Late 19th – early 20th century

Gabon; Eshira or Punu artist

Wood, pigment

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This impressive gold-covered staff is an insignia of office for a high-ranking adviser (okyeame) to an Asante ruler. The adviser is referred to as a linguist since he is the principal intermediary between the chief and those who seek his counsel. Hold his staff, the adviser relays a visitor's words to the leader and offers the leader’s response, often in the form of proverbs. Imagery on this finial is based on a proverb that comments on chiefly power:

“The food is for the man who owns it, not for the man that is hungry”

Linguist Staff

20th Century

Ghana; Asante artist

Wood, gold leaf

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Africa & The World

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Double-sided diptych, mid to late 17th centuryGondar, EthiopiaTempra on wood, Purchase 1990 W. Clark SymingtonBequest Fund 90.480a-c

Since its establishment as the state religion in Ethiopia in the fourth century, Christianity has inspired the creation of sacred objects for worship or study. This small, double sided diptych made for personal devotion is the work of an artist active in the city of Gondar, the seventeenth-century capital of Ethiopia. Its stylized figures with bold outlines and rich hues or red, blue, green and gold are characteristic of a distinctive regional style. The icon was made to be portable, closing to reveal an unpainted wooden exterior with intricately carved cruciform designs. When opened (as shown here), one side of the diptych features an image of the Virgin Mary, whose worship intensified in Ethiopia beginning in the mid-fifteenth century through the initiatives of Emperor Ze’ra Ya’equob. The main panel depicts Mary with the Christ Child, flanked by archangels Michael and Gabriel. The adjoining panel illustrates the Covenant of Mercy, the Christian belief that Mary serves as intercessor for God. To the lower right is the patron who commissioned the work, prostrate, identified in the accompanying inscription as a man named Tewodros. In associating himself with Mary, Tewodros hopes that she will intercede on his behalf.

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Owusu-Ankomah(b. 1956, Ghana; lives and works in Germany)Movement #36, 2002Acrylic and pigment on canvas75 x 98 ½ inPurchase 2007 Helen McMahon Brady Cutting Fund2007.23.1

Owusu-Ankomah’s paintings combine an interest in the human body with the visual power of symbols from around the world. Initially inspired by the symbolic language of adinkra from his Ghana homeland, Owusu-Ankomah also draws from Chinese ideograms, corporate logos, icons and other ideographic designs.

These symbols are employed not for their inherent meaning, but for their expressive visual purposes. They suggest a hidden world that is revealed by the designs, yet whose meaning remains concealed for those unable to interpret the signs. The human figures that move across the canvas are similarly elusive–the contours of their bodies are noticeable, yet never fully emerge from within the grid of symbols.

Artist’s Perspective“To move is to strive for perfection. Music, dance and sports are an expression of the dynamics of movements. I see movement as an important principle of life, an authentic human principle. Life is in constant motion, from the cradle of human race and culture in Africa up to modern times.”