Escultures Musicals

Through April 21, 2014, the Museu de la Música in Barcelona presents a sampling of 130 pieces from the Fundación La Fontana’s magnificent collection of musical instruments, which encompasses 2,000 objects from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Oceania. Created by Helena Folch-Rusiñol and her husband Alejandro Maluquer, its volume, diversity and artistic value make this collection a prime international example of musical heritage conservation in Spain. 

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Information and images courtesy of the Museu de la Música

San Francisco Tribal

From October 25–27, the sixteen-member dealer group San Francisco Tribal will hold its annual group show at the Fleet Room of Fort Mason Center, not far from the Golden Gate Bridge. Artworks offered will include a wide array of African, Oceanic, pre-Columbian, Asian, and Indonesian sculpture, masks, jewelry, and textiles. This show always reveals unexpected treasures at rational prices. 

For more information, visit the official SF Tribal website.


Image courtesy of SF Tribal

Tribal Art Fair Amsterdam 2013

From October 24–27, the eleventh annual Tribal Art Fair will take be held in the Amsterdam church known as “De Duif.” Twenty dealers from the Netherlands and abroad will exhibit objects from Oceania, Africa, Asia, and South America, including sculptures and jewelry but also textiles, masks, implements, and furniture. The fair will also include a number of lectures: Harry Beran will talk about traditional Massim art and the extent to which Massim woodcarvers develop a recognizable personal style, while Leif Pareli from the Norsk Folkemuseum will talk about the art and life of the Sami, who live in the Scandinavian arctic region.

For more information, visit the official Tribal Art Fair website.

Image courtesy of Tribal Art Fair Amsterdam

Fishing Implements from Oceania and North America at Jacaranda Tribal

The practice of fishing has sustained coastal and seafaring tribes across the globe for some four hundred centuries. Fish hooks, those ancient inventions on which so many lives have depended, have passed through the generations in as many forms as there have been hands to craft them. At times ingenious, at times simplicity itself, these fragile works remind us that survival hangs by but a thread, and that the shapes of beauty often spring from our deepest needs.

Jacaranda Tribal is currently presenting an online exhibition of fishing implements from all quarters of the Pacific, from ancient Eskimo charms to enchanting, iridescent hooks from Melanesia. Their striking sculptural qualities matched only by their astounding variety, these miniature masterpieces are triumphs of age-old artistry.

Selections from the exhibition are on display here.

For a closer look at these beautiful pieces and many more, please visit

www.jacarandatribal.com

Fish hook  -  Hawaiian Islands, Polynesia

Bonito hook  -  Solomon Islands, Melanesia

Eskimo fish charm  -  North America

Pair of fish hooks  -  Hawaiian Islands, Polynesia

Eskimo hand rig  -  North America

Fish hook  -  Wuvulu Island, Papua New Guinea

Trio of fish hooks  -  Polynesia

Pair of fish hooks  -  Marshall Islands, Melanesia

Trio of fish hooks  -  Pacific

Halibut hook  -  Northwest Coast

Fish hook  -  Nukuoro Atoll, Caroline Islands, Micronesia

Prehistoric Eskimo fish hook  -  North America

Quartet of fish hooks  -  Tahiti, French Polynesia

www.jacarandatribal.com

Images property of Jacaranda Tribal - Copyright James Worrell 2013

Inities, bassin Congo

On view now at the Musée Dapper in Paris, Initiés, bassin Congo (The Initiated: Congo Basin) is an homage to the material and immaterial richness of the initiation rituals of the peoples of Central Africa. Visitors will have the opportunity to admire major pieces from the Musée Royal d’Afrique Centrale in Tervuren. As it always does, the museum wants these older works to resonate with contemporary art, so it will simultaneously host an exhibition of creations by Romuald Hazoumé, whose well-known “masques-bidon,” or “jerrican masks,” represent both a continuation and a fertile reinvention of African traditions.

View the exhibition's official website.

Helmet mask  -  Bembe

Mask  -  Lega

Ivory pendants  -  Pende

Information and images courtesy of the Musée Dapper

The Nelson A. Rockefeller Vision at the Met

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s holdings of the artistic traditions of sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands, and the Americas are today regarded as canonical. They constitute such an integral part of the institution that few realize their inclusion is the result of the vision and sustained efforts of a uniquely influential figure in both American political life and the New York art scene: Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (1908–1979). This fall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art celebrates that legacy with The Nelson A. Rockefeller Vision: In Pursuit of “the Best” in the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, on view from October 7, 2013, through October 5, 2014.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Feathered tunic  -  Inca, Peru  -  1450–1550 CE

Hunchback figure with staff  -  Huastec, Mexico  -  10th–12th century

Seated figure  -  Dogon, Mali  -  16th–20th century

Images and information courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gods and Gifts - Vatican Ethnological Collection

From the vast holdings of the Vatican Ethnological Museum comes a presentation of indigenous spiritual pieces that will enable visitors to learn about the global significance of the objects and their journey to the Vatican. These sixty-five sets of remarkable objects have been selected for their artistic and cultural relevance spanning all of earth’s populated continents, including the Pacific region. Gods & Gifts: Vatican Ethnological Collection will be on display at the Bowers from September 29, 2013 through February 9, 2014.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Lidded bowl  -  Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia  -  19th century

Information and images courtesy of the Bowers Museum

Fowler at Fifty

The Fowler Museum at UCLA will honor its 50^th anniversary with a suite of special exhibitions and programs from fall 2013–fall 2014. The exhibitions in the fall of 2013 will fill the Fowler's Getty Trust and Lucas Family galleries with nearly 1,000 objects from the Fowler’s vast, acclaimed, and diverse permanent collections. The installations will honor traditional cultures from South Africa, New Zealand, Peru, Mexico, and elsewhere.

Find out more at the Fowler website.

Snuff container  -  Zulu, South Africa  -  Late 19th century

Textile with crowned figures bearing staffs  -  Chancay or Rimac, Peru  -  12th century CE

Female figure  -  Nayarit, Mexico  -  100 BC–250 CE

Images and information courtesy of the Fowler Museum, UCLA