"African Artistry in Iron and Clay" at The Birmingham Museum of Art

A new exhibition at the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama features approximately fifty-five works of African ceramics and iron art, including vessels, musical instruments, currency objects, sculpted figures, staffs, tools and ritual objects. The objects come primarily from the countries of Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. 


Iron and clay are extremely important materials and media in West African culture. They are valued not only for their practical use in the fabrication of essential tools, weapons, currency, and vessels, but also for their spiritual potency. Objects made of iron and clay play important roles in rites of passage, healing rituals, divinations, governance, religious practice, and conflict mediation. Many myths and legends recount the importance of the blacksmith and the potter in African society. 


Throughout Africa, blacksmiths are generally born into their occupational specialty, and may only marry women from other blacksmith families. While the men smelt and forge iron, the women in their families specialize in ceramics, creating vessels for daily use and ritual objects. It is fire that transforms raw clay and iron ore into the secular and sacred objects that are essential to the well-being of African communities. This specialized occupational knowledge is jealously guarded by these men and women, who acknowledge that it was originally imparted by a divine source, usually as part of a sacred covenant. 


The ceramics in this exhibition are only loan to the Museum from The Dick Jemison Collection. Jemison, an artist who divides his time between Birmingham and the American Southwest, is interested in tribal arts around the world. The iron objects in the exhibition were given to the Museum in 2004 by Mort and Sue Fuller, of New York. 


The exhibition is on view through March 2011. 


Source: The Birmingham Museum of Art

Spirits and Headhunters: Art of the Pacific Islands at Bowers Museum

Photographer Chris Rainier guest curates this ongoing exhibition of art from the South Pacific at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, California. Spanning the geographic region collectively referred to as Oceania, this comprehensive exhibition highlights masterworks from the three cultural regions of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia. Particular focus is placed on New Guinea, land of the headhunter, and the rich artistic traditions infused into daily and ritual life. 

The exhibition includes more than 150 unique pieces including larger than life masks, objects associated with the secretive Sepik River men's house, magic figures and tools of the shaman, spectacular-crafted personal adornments, weapons of warfare, stunning shell and feather currency, masterfully crafted feast bowls, and the most precious of human trophies taken in retribution and reverence. 

Melanesia, which includes the world's second largest island, New Guinea, is an island that has been explored by Bowers Museum President Peter Keller and Bowers Board Member Edwards Roski on 10 month-long expeditions over the last decade. 

"Oceania is significant for Californians since it is our neighbor and is an area where there is still much to be learned," Mr. Keller says. "This is part of our strategic plan to build a significant Oceania collection in an area of the world where we can make a difference."

This comprehensive exhibition will become a permanent exhibit at Bowers Museum. 

Source: Bowers Museum website

Oceanic & African Arts Sale at Webb’s

Webb's has been appointed by a US museum to manage the return of a significant collection of Maori, Australian Aboriginal and Oceanic pieces to the South Pacific region. Exceptional examples of sculpture, traditional dress and adornment, weaponry, ceremonial clubs, and other forms of indigenous art from Aotearoa and the broader Oceania area will be offered. The event also gives collectors the opportunity to consider a selection of African art of exceptional provenance from private Australasian, European and North American collections.

The viewing will be from June 11 through June 16, 2010. The auction itself on Thursday, June 17, 2010 at 4PM.

Lot 344a from the Sale:




Important Pou-Tokomanawa – Ancestral Totem - Architectural Element 
A highly prestigious form of ancestral carving, the pou-tokomanawa supported the central pole of the meeting house (pou-koukou-aro) at the base and signalled the delineation between entry and exit. As an ancestral totem, the pou-tokomanawa often represents celebrated traits of important leaders and thinkers. This pou-tokomanawa is carved with a firm muscular stance and an unflinching, confident, relaxed expression. Holding a patu in the right hand, denoting his knowledge of martial arts, and his left hand resting equally on the stomach. The torso is accentuated by its strong round shoulders and the simplicity of the form are both typical of the carving style of the North Island, east coast region. There is evidence of a piupiu having been previously attached. During the late 19th century, as Western sensibilities influenced concepts of social decorum and prestige, the addition of piupiu and cloaks to ancestral figures became increasingly common. The patina suggests significant age with remnants of early trade paint, heat damage and weather exposure evident. The base of the figure has deteriorated which is common given that this architectural form rested on the ground. The moko is prestigious with triple hae hae forms and complex rarua spirals evident on the upper and lower quarters of the nose and cheeks. The four extending forehead rays are also in triple haehae form. The stability of the wood is generally good, however the head, used to support the meeting house, carries a support cavity and is split. Later addition of mounting 19th century nails at the base still in place. Contemporary application of white paint to eyes. The Y registration form states that the object was found amongst the sand dunes of Gisborne during the 1950s and was then gifted to a member of the current owner’s family. H782mm W313mm. Y14046. 
$40,000 - $80,000

African 'Magic' Influences Western Art in VU Exhibit

Gregg Hertzlieb, director of Valparaiso University's Brauer Museum of Art, can see the influence of the pieces in his "The Art and Magic of Africa" exhibit on some of the 20th Century's most acclaimed artists.

"Both Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse were very influenced by African tribal art," he said. "To look at the exhibit from the perspective of influencing modern artists can be a pretty neat way of looking at it."

Celebrating the opening of the exhibit with a reception at 7 p.m. Friday at Brauer Museum, "Africa" is made up of pottery, weapons, metal works, masks and carved figures created by African tribes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The artifacts that make up the exhibit are part of the collection of Beverly Shored-based dealer and collector Lawrence P. Kolton.

Kolton has spent more than four decades traveling the globe in search of tribal art. In 2005, he lent the Brauer Museum approximately 150 pieces of New Guinea tribal art for an acclaimed exhibit, "Art and the Spirit World of New Guinea."

Hertzlieb estimated that more than 300 artifacts from Kolton's collection will be on display in "Africa."

"I don't think there are a lot of people nowadays that could achieve what these tribes people were able to achieve, not only with the materials and technique, but in terms of imagination and possibilities," Hertzlieb said. "If you look at the patterns and abstractions, it's just endlessly inventive."

Kolton is slated to be in attendance at Friday's reception to give a brief lecture. Hertzlieb is scheduled to host a gallery talk in relation to "Africa" at Brauer Museum at 7 p.m. July 21.

"(Kolton is) really excited about this African show, because it shows some of his best stuff," Hertzlieb said.

The Brauer Museum of Art is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday and 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Brauer Museum of Art, Valparaiso University, 1709 Chapel Drive, Valparaiso

By TIM SHELLBERG - Times Correspondent

New Book: African Art in Detail

From the Harvard University Press comes a book written by Chris Spring entitled African Art in Detail. The book opens with the question: What is African art? The answer is a brilliantly colorful and detailed look at the myriad materials and genres, forms and meanings, cultural contexts and expressions that comprise artistic traditions across this vast and varied continent. Viewing artworks in their contexts—ancient and modern, urban and rural, western and eastern, decorative and functional—the book is nothing less than a virtual tour of African culture.

Masks, textiles, royal art, sculpture, ceramics, tools and weapons—in each instance, the book features examples that reveal the most significant aspects of workmanship, materials, and design in objects of wood, stone, ivory, clay, metalwork, featherwork, leather, basketwork, and cloth. Photographs of each piece alongside close-ups of fine details afford new views of these works and allow for intriguing comparisons between seemingly unrelated objects and media. The featured details evoke the hand and eye of the most accomplished craftspeople across Africa, past and present. In sum, these photographs, along with Christopher Spring’s enlightening commentary, offer an experience of African art that is at once broad and deep, richly informed and intimately felt. They are, at the same time, a kaleidoscopic view of art from pre­history to gestures prefiguring the future.

The book, which can be purchased for $22.95 is available in hardcover and was published in February 2010.

Marc & Denyse Ginzberg Collection Offered at Jacaranda Tribal

Two years ago, in September 2007, the Marc & Denyse Ginzberg Collection of African Forms went on sale at the Sotheby’s auction house in Paris. The auction was unlike anything that had ever been offered before at Sotheby’s – there was no figurative sculpture, no masks, and indeed little that would mark a traditionally inclined African art collection. Instead the collection celebrated the utilitarian and the nonfigurative; it celebrated the mastery and creativity that the African artist can bring to the everyday object. The objects in the collection have pushed the boundary between form and function, being at once fine works of art and useful household objects. After forming a full and comprehensive collection, writing a popular book called African Forms, and widely exhibiting the collection in museums and galleries, the Ginzberg’s were reluctantly ready to part with it. It’s no surprise that an extraordinary collection by renowned collectors should fetch €1,032,000, with many works fetching world record prices.

Marc & Denyse Ginzberg pictured

The Ginzberg collection brought much deserved attention to an under-recognized field of African Art and has brought recognition to some very fine, nonfigurative works. Jacaranda Tribal has been fortunate enough to debut a select exhibition of the Ginzberg Collection. The exhibition includes a range of objects – all of very fine museum quality – from snuff containers to jewelry, hats to weapons. We are delighted to be able to offer such a fine collection of works to the public. Be sure to check back at our blog often, as we will be posting several blogs on individual works in the coming weeks.

These highly decorated knives from Zimbabwe and the Congo are part of the collection offered by Jacaranda Tribal