TABU?! Verborgene Kräfte - Geheimes Wissen

Through April 7, 2013, the Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum Hannover is presenting TABU?! Verborgene Kräfte - Geheimes Wissenan (Taboo? Hidden Powers - Secret Knowledge), an exceptional assemblage of works from a wide range of traditional cultures which all have a function in dealing with social and cultural tensions and crisis situations. From a Siberian shaman's costume collected in 1788 to a Micronesian Mortlock Island mask, the objects on display evoke a variety of ritual contexts, the true understanding of which was the exclusive province of initiates.

View the exhibition's official website.

Information and images courtesy of the Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum Hannover

Les maîtres du désordre

A new exhibition at the Musée du Quai Branly presents the figures of disorder, both mythic and mortal.  Shamans and other intercessors are here dubbed "masters of disorder," responsible for negotiations with the forces of chaos.  In a constant compromise between turbulence and reason, rituals are the preferred mode of propitiation toward the powers that govern human societies.  Les maîtres du désordre presents objects, costumes and representations from major anthropological collections alongside contemporary works by Annette Messager, Jean-Michel Alberola, Thomas Hirschhorn, and others.

Visit the official website.

Ndungu mask with costume  -  Kongo, DR Congo  -  19th century

Mask depicting Chinasupay  -  Bolivia  -  Early 20th century

Mask depicting a shaman in trance with auxiliary spirits  -  Northwest Coast  -  1840–1860

Magical figure  -  Loango  -  19th century

Sourvaskar costume  -  Bulgaria  -  20th century

Information and images courtesy of the Musée du Quai Branly

Bundu: Sowei Headpieces at the QCC Art Gallery

The Bundu or Sande Society is a pan-African association of women found among several West African groups in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.  It educates and initiates young girls so as to enable them to assume their place in an adult society as wives and mothers and as social and political leaders.  Entry into this society confers not only political power, but also introduces members to the association’s role in promoting wellness and treating disease.  As a result, it is also a medicine society that employs both spiritual and physical therapies to help those in need, especially women and children.

Bundu masks, which are the focus of a current exhibition at the QCC Art Gallery in New York, are unique in sub-Sahara Africa in that they are the only ones worn by women in public masquerades.  These sowei helmet masks, which are diverse in form, are worn by female masqueraders draped in black raffia who embody the society’s spirit and serve as intermediaries with the ancestors.

This exhibition presents sixty sculptures that display the wonderful stylistic diversity of these masks among the Bassa, Gola, Mende, and Vai peoples of Africa.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Information and images courtesy of the QCC Art Gallery

Shapeshifting: Transformations in Native American Art

Entering its final weeks at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, Shapeshifting: Transformations in Native American Art celebrates Native American ideas that have crossed time and space to be continuously refreshed with new concepts and expressions. Visitors are welcomed to experience this vitality through sculpture, paintings, ceramics, textiles, photographs, videos and monumental installations drawn from collections in the United States, Canada and Europe. Rarely seen historic pieces, shown alongside some of the finest contemporary works, demonstrate the diversity and continuity of Native American art and culture from 200 B.C.E. to the present.

Visit the official website.

Information and images courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum

Jade Masks of the Maya

The Pinacothèque in Paris is currently presenting Les Masques de Jade Mayas, an exhibition highlighting an astounding and highly important collection of jade mosaic masks which represent one of the most momentous archaeological discoveries in Mexico during the last decade. These exceptional masks, entirely restored by the most eminent specialists in Maya archaeology, represent the faces of deities. Created for the elite rulers of Maya cities, their primary purpose was to guarantee them their bearers eternal life after death.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Information and images courtesy of Pinacothèque

Tribal Art Auction - Pierre Bergé & Associés, April 2

Pierre Bergé & Associés will present a sale of Oceanic, African, and Native American antiquities in Paris on April 2. A marvelous array of Pacific weaponry and ritual carving from the collection of Claude Meyer will be offered to the bidders alongside a range of fine African carvings and American Indian works spanning from the Pacific Northwest to the Woodlands.


View the online catalogue.

Avian grave post figures  -  Sakalava, Madagascar

Mask  -  British Columbia or Alaska

Halibut hook  -  Tlingit or Haida, British Columbia

Mask, apouema  -  Kanak, New Caledonia

Ceremonial headdress  -  Malaita, Vanuatu

Standing figure  -  Sakalava, Madagascar

Canoe prow  -  Maori, New Zealand

Information and images courtesy of Pierre Bergé & Associés