Hidden Power in African Art

Hidden Power in African Art, an exhibition devoted to African masks and sculpture on view at the Israel Museum until September 17, looks at the symbolic importance of these varied objects and particularly the roles of charges and other magical addenda. Long considered secondary accessories in the West, in reality these had more importance than the actual sculptures themselves, which were seen by the people who used them merely as vehicles for magical substances. The works selected for the exhibition, which come both from private collections and the museum's own holdings, are places into their spiritual context rather than simply relying on the secondary nature of their aesthetic qualities.

View the exhibition's official website.

Images courtesy of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Sotheby's - The Collection of Allan Stone Pt. 2

On May 16, Sotheby's New York will present two important sales of tribal art: The Collection of Allan Stone: African, Pre-Columbian & American Indian Art - Volume Two and African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian Art Including Property from the Krugier and Lasansky Collections, featuring a wide selection of exquisite works from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. Highlighting the second and final auction of The Collection of Allan Stone is a group of Songye power gigures and Kongo nail power figures from the Democratic Republic of Congo, including several by known hands.

View the online catalogue.

Power figure, nkisi nkondi - Kongo, DR Congo

Power figure, nkishi - Songye, DR Congo

Power figure, nkisi nkondi - Kongo-Yombe, DR Congo

Mask  -  Ibibio, Nigeria

Power figure - Kongo-Vili, DR Congo

Images courtesy of Sotheby's

Kongo Across the Waters

Kongo across the Waters is a collaborative project by the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida and the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium. It explores connections between the art and culture of the Kongo peoples of western Central Africa and African American art and culture in the United States. The exhibition addresses cultural and artistic themes within Kongo culture, beginning with the ancient Kongo kingdom that encompassed parts of Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Republic of the Congo and Gabon. Subjects include the arts of leadership, religion, and daily life interpreted within historical, archaeological, linguistic, musicological, anthropological and art historical contexts. On view through March 23, 2014.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Images courtesy of the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art

Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa

Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa is the first major exhibition and scholarly endeavor to comprehensively examine the rich relationship between African artists and the land upon which they live, work, and frame their days. On view until January 5, 2014 at the National Museum of African Art in Washington, DC, the exhibition brings together approximately 100 exceptional works of art from the late eighteenth to twenty-first centuries.

View the exhibition's official website.

Buti or nkiba figure  -  Teke, DR Congo  -  Late 19th to early 20th century

Reliquary ensemble  -  Punu, Gabon  -  19th century

Kidumu mask  -  Teke, DR Congo  -  Early 20th century

Nkisi nkondi  -  Yombe, Congo or Angola  -  19th century

Storage vessel  -  Kurumba, Burkina Faso  -  Mid-20th century

Tchif  -  Sunshineland, 1973

Information and images courtesy of the National Museum of African Art