Quand le corps se fait parure

Entering its final month on view at the Musée du Cinquantenaire in Brussels is Quand le corps se fait parure, an exhibition examining the art of body modification and adornment in traditional cultures around the globe. The installation explores these practices as a type of language that integrates individuals into their social and cultural environment. Bodies are tattooed, scarified, pierced, painted, stretched or adorned, all of which practices demonstrate the social position of the individual and their links with their community. Amazonian body painting, nose pendants of Papua New Guinea, moulded skulls of the Amerindian peoples, and Chinese Miao earrings are just a few of many examples of this special form of physical communication on display in the exhibition.  On view through October 28.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Information and images courtesy of the Musée du Cinquantenaire

Sanza: African Thumb Pianos from the Collections of F. and F. Boulanger-Bouhière and MIM

Entering its final days on view at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona is Sanza: African Thumb Pianos from the Collections of F. and F. Boulanger-Bouhière and MIM. The exhibition showcases two hundred sanzas—thumb pianos (lamellophones or lamellaphones)—from a private Belgian collection, several pieces from MIM’s own collection, and others on loan from the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium. Made with various combinations of vegetable fiber, wood, and metal, the instruments are played by storytellers, historians, and ritual leaders.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Information and images courtesy of the Musical Instrument Museum, Phoenix

Mal D'Africa - La costruzione di una collezione

Approaching its final week on view at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan is Mal D'Africa - La construzione di una collezione, an exhibition showcasing the tribal art collection of the late Alessandro Passarè.  The collection comprises some 400 works from Africa, Oceania, and the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as thousands of slides and a range of manuscripts and travel diaries. Most of the objects on display in the installation are sourced from private collections and have never before been publicly exhibited.

Visit the exhibition's official website. 

Images courtesy of the Castello Sforzesco Museum, Milan

  

Interplay: Material, Method and Motif in West African Art

On view through October 21 at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa is Interplay: Material, Method, and Motif in West African Art, an exhibition  exploring the dynamic intersections of materials, methods and motifs among the Yoruba, Akan, Bamana, and Cameroon Grasslands cultures. By juxtaposing diverse art forms that share common elements and ideas, Interplay invites viewers to consider the ways in which understanding the relationships between many objects enhances appreciation for each individual object, and increases awareness of the astonishing richness of West African arts. The works on view in the installation have been sourced from the University of Iowa Museum of Art's permanent collection.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Mud cloth, bogolanfini  -  Bamana, Mali

Information and images courtesy of the Figge Art Museum

Maya 2012 at the National Museum of Korea

Through October 28, the National Museum of Korea presents Maya 2012, a special showcase of art and artifacts illustrating the creative history of the Mayan civilization. Marking the fiftieth anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and both Mexico and Guatemala, the exhibition offers an opportunity to display about 200 pieces of Mayan art on loan from a variety of Mexican and Guatemalan institutions. 

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Figural ornament  -  Guatemala  -  7th–8th century

Figural pair depicting the goddess Ixchel  -  Mexico  -  7th–8th century

Information and images courtesy of the National Museum of Korea

Cheveux Cheris: Frivolités et Trophées

An exhibition entitled Cheveux Cheris. Frivolités et Trophées (Cherished Hair. Frivolities and Trophies), conceived by Yves Le Fur, who has already organized a number of exhibitions that combine Western paintings and photographs with tribal works, opens at the Musée du Quai Branly on September 18. On view until July 2013, it addresses hair from a wide variety of human perspectives, from its use in the manufacture of objects to its preservation as a relic and a mnemonic device. Tribal works from South America, Polynesia, and elsewhere will comprise a significant portion of the objects on display.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Mask  -  Kanak, New Caledonia

Necklace  -  Polynesia

Shrunken head, tsantsa  -  Brazil

Information and images courtesy of the Musée du Quai Branly

For I am the Black Jaguar: Shamanic Visionary Experience in Ancient American Art

This month the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University in Atlanta will open “For I Am the Black Jaguar”: Shamanic Visionary Experience in Ancient American Art, an exhibition exploring the influence of shamanic traditions on the art of ancient Mesoamerican and Andean cultures. On view through January 5, 2013, the installation will highlight visionary art objects from Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, and elsewhere, all of which predate the European invasions of the sixteenth century.

View the exhibition's official website.

 Information and images courtesy of the Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University

African Influences on Modern Art

In the early twentieth century, traditional African art had a profound influence on the creative development of European abstraction. Thousands of African art objects had been brought back to Europe in the aftermath of colonial expansion and became assimilated into European visual culture, with dramatic repercussions. African Influences on Modern Art brings together works from the Dallas Museum of Art’s collection by Henry Moore, Pablo Picasso, and Paul Klee, presented alongside objects from the Museum’s internationally acclaimed collection of African art.

View the exhibition's official website.

Pablo Picasso  -  Bust, 1907–08

Kifwebe mask  -  Songye or Luba, D. R. Congo  -  Late 19th to early 20th century

Information and images courtesy of the Dallas Museum of Art