African Art and the Shape of Time

Recently opened at the University of Michigan Museum of Art is African Art and the Shape of Time, an exhibition exploring the ways in which African art gives material form to diverse concepts of temporality, history, and memory. While African art is often interpreted in Western analytical frameworks as expressions of timeless myths and rituals, interrupted only by the colonial encounter, this exhibition complicates such conventional views by considering diverse modes for reckoning time and its philosophical, social, and religious significance. On display until February 3, 2013, the installation features thirty works from the University of Michigan Museum of Art.

View the exhibition's official website.

Bell, kunda  -  Kongo, D. R. Congo  -  Late 19th century

Pwo mask  -  Chokwe, Angola  -  Early 20th century

Information and images courtesy of the University of Michigan Museum of Art