north wing study guide - Detroit Institute of Arts

Transcription

NORTH WING STUDY GUIDE
1.
This study guide uses the same format throughout. There is an entry
for each object from Spring Training 2007. In the future when new objects
are added, new entries will be written and distributed.
Note: Description of the entries
• Object Data, Object Label Text, Group Label Text and Gallery
Group Label Text: texts that will be placed in the galleries. The
Study Guide has not edited these texts.
• Additional information: these texts do not appear in the gallery.
Information from your training and other sources appear here.
• Pronunciation: if needed.
2.
Gallery text may refer to two or more objects where only one is
included in your object list. REMEMBER TO ONLY SPEAK ABOUT
THE OBJECT USED IN TRAINING.
Spring 2007
SG NORTH WING adult
1
OBJECTS BY DEPARTMENTS
AFRICAN:
Cultural and Historical Highlights
Warrior Figure (Djenne)
Bust of Queen Mother (Akan)
Camel Saddle (Tamsak)
Symbols of Leadership and Status
Sacred Kingship
Horse and Rider (Benin)
Royal Ceremonial Sword (Akan)
Royal Presentation Bowl by Olowe of Ise (Yoruba)
Chief’s Throne (Akan)
Container with Carved Head (Mangbetu)
Spoon with Head on Handle (Guro)
Status Symbols
Masquerade
Masks that Manifest or Harness Forces
Epa Cult Mask (Yoruba)
Egungun Mask (Yoruba)
Yoruba Gelade
Gelede Headdress (Yoruba)
African Masquerades
Royal Masks
Masks that Enforce Law and Teach Morals
Communicating with Art
Akan Drum
Adinkra Cloth (Asante)
Asafo Flag (Fante)
Art and the Yoruba Spirit World
Yoruba Altar
Temple Pillar (Yoruba)
Seated Female Shrine Figure (Yoruba)
Shango Wand (Yoruba)
Ancestors
Power Sculptures
Nail Figure (Kongo)
Female Figure (Akan)
Ancestors and Other Spirit Forces
Seated Male (Fang)
Ancestral Screen (Ijo)
Ancestor Figure (Dogon)
Commemorating Ancestors
Art and World Religions
Triptych: Icon of the Virgin Mary (Etheopian)
Summer 2007
SG NORTH wing Adult
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Hand-Held Processional Cross (Coptic)
Hunter’s Tunic (Asante)
Cycle of Life
Birth and Childhood
Mother and Child Figure (Bamana)
Marriage
Mpondo Bride and Groom’s Ensemble consisting of 105 Pieces
Coming of Age
Antelope Headdress (Chiwara)
Death
Mask (Fang)
ASIA:
China, Korea and Japan
Hall of Thirty-Three Bays (Sea of Buddha), by Hiroshi Sugimoto, Japanese
Sakyamuni Emerging from the Mountains, Yuan Dynasty, China
Pillow, Koryo Dynasty, Korea
Tea Storage Jar, Bizen ware, Japanese
South and Southeast Asia
Parvati, Chola Dynasty, India
Bodhisattva Padmapani, Gandhara, present day Northern Pakistan
Subjects from the life of Parsvanatha, India
AFRICAN AMERICAN ART:
African American Artists in the 1800s
Little Girl in Pink with Goblet: Portrait of Emma van Name, Joshua Johnson
Ellen’s Isle, Loch Katrine, Robert Scott Duncanson
Flight Into Egypt, Henry Ossawa Tanner
Ourselves/Our Lives
John Brown, a man who had a fanatical belief that he was chosen by God to
overthrow black slavery in America, Jacob Lawrence
Gamin, Augusta Savage
The Art of the Negro: Artists, Hale Woodruff
Political and Social Consciousness
Change Your Luck, Robert Colescott
Autobiography: Air–CS560, Howardena Pindell
Portrait of Christopher D. Fisher, Fourth Reich Skinhead, Peter Williams
Examining Identities
To Disembark: Billie Holiday, Glenn Ligon
Beyond Midnight (Magie Noire), Betye Saar
African American Art after World War II
Terracotta Head, Elizabeth Catlett
Summer 2007
SG NORTH wing Adult
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The Arc Maker I & II, Sam Gilliam
Untitled, Therman Statom
MODERN ART:
Influence of Other Cultures
The Chinese Man (Le Chinois), Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
Pair of Plates, Joseph-Théodore Deck and François-Émile Ehrmann
"Egyptian" Pedestal, Kilian Brothers
Famous Artists of the 19th Century
Self Portrait, Vincent Willem van Gogh
Mont Sainte-Victoire, Paul Cézanne
Dancers in the Green Room, Edgar Degas
What Makes Them So Great
Nocturne in Black and Gold, the Falling Rocket, James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Bather Sleeping by a Brook, Gustave Courbet
Eve, Auguste Rodin
Breaking with Tradition
Gladioli, Claude Monet
Jewish Boy (Bambino Ebreo), Medardo Rosso
View of Le Crotoy from Upstream, Georges Pierre Seurat
Studio Pottery
Rozane "Della Robbia" Vase, Frederick Hurten Rhead
Indian Vase, Adelaide Alsop Robineau
European and American Collections Segment
Genius of the Dance, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
Georg Brandes at the University in Copenhagen, Harald Slott-Moller
Woman with Macaws, George Benjamin Luks
Picasso and Cubism
Melancholy Woman, Pablo Picasso
Bottle of Anis del Mono, Pablo Picasso
Still Life, Juan Gris
Matisse and His Circle In Paris
The Window, Henri Matisse
Coffee, Henri Matisse
Young Man with a Cap, Amedeo Modigliani
Beauty—Industry
Decanter, Christopher Dresser
Sugar Bowl with Hinged Lid, Dagobert Peche
Side Chair, Josef Hoffmann
Beauty for All—Objects for Interiors
Hallstand, Hector Guimard
Dining Table from the Robert R. Blacker House, Greene & Greene
Modern Art Spine Collections Segment
Naked over New York, Reginald Marsh
Love Flight of a Pink Candy Heart, Florine Stettheimer
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SG NORTH wing Adult
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Reclining Figure, Henry Moore
Cattle, Candido Portinari
Log Jam, Penobscot Bay, Marsden Hartley
Expressing the Spiritual
Study for Painting with White Form, Wassily Kandinsky
Winter Landscape in Moonlight, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Assunta, Georg Kolbe
German Expressionism
Self Portrait, Otto Dix
Still Life with Fallen Candles, Max Beckmann
Evening by the Sea, Karl Schmidt–Rottluff
Seeing the Unseen
Self Portrait II, Joan Miró
Shadow Country, Yves Tanguy
Night Songs, Joseph Cornell
What is Modern Art About?
Rotorelief, Marcel Duchamp
The Environs of Paris, Henri Rousseau
Still Life, Ben Nicholson
CONTEMPORARY ART:
Experiments in Expressionism
Merritt Parkway, Willem de Kooning
Tom, Mark di Suvero
Standing Woman II, Alberto Giacometti
Shot in the Wing, Jean Dubuffet
Less is More
Modular Open Cube Pieces (9 x 9 x 9) Floor–Corner 2, Sol LeWitt
Union I, Frank Stella
What Can Be Art?
Silver Shoes (23 objects), Yayoi Kusama
Firefly: Portrait of the Artist with Cosmic Bubble, Jim Pallas
Pop Art
Self Portrait, Andy Warhol
The Tunnel, George Segal
Giant Three-Way Plug, Claes Oldenburg
Decorative Arts
Flacon I, Howard Ben Tré
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SG NORTH wing Adult
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Untitled Stacked Pot, Peter Voulkos
Untitled, Lucie Rie
Identity, Not Portraiture
Dissonance to Detour, Shahzia Sikander
L'Amour (For Panic D.J.), Elizabeth Murray
Found, Not Fabricated
Adolf Loos' Ornament and Crime, Josiah McElheny
Waterlilies #58, Donald Lipski
Mapping, Not Landscape
Non Site - Site Uncertain, Robert Smithson
C.E.L. 109, Beverly Fishman
Stone Line, Richard Long
The Times, Not History
Das Geviert, Anselm Kiefer
Atrabiliarios (Defiant), Doris Salcedo
Carnival Time, Mike Kelley
Changing Times, Changing Art
Untitled, Martin Puryear
Stepwise, Terry Winters
Detroit Industry, Diego Rivera
Summer 2007
SG NORTH wing Adult
6
The African galleries are organized by themes:
Cultural and Historical Highlights
Warrior Figure (Djenne)
Bust of Queen Mother (Akan)
Camel Saddle (Tamsak)
Symbols of Leadership and Status
Sacred Kingship
Horse and Rider (Benin)
Royal Ceremonial Sword (Akan)
Royal Presentation Bowl by Olowe of Ise (Yoruba)
Chief’s Throne (Akan)
Container with Carved Head (Mangbetu)
Spoon with Head on Handle (Guro)
Status Symbols
Masquerade
Masks that Manifest or Harness Forces
Epa Cult Mask (Yoruba)
Egungun Mask (Yoruba)
Yoruba Gelade
Gelede Headdress (Yoruba)
African Masquerades
Royal Masks
Masks that Enforce Law and Teach Morals
Communicating with Art
Akan Drum
Adinkra Cloth (Asante)
Asafo Flag (Fante)
Art and the Yoruba Spirit World
Yoruba Altar
Temple Pillar (Yoruba)
Seated Female Shrine Figure (Yoruba)
Shango Wand (Yoruba)
Ancestors
Power Sculptures
Nail Figure (Kongo)
Female Figure (Akan)
Seated Male (Fang)
Ancestral Screen (Ijo)
Ancestor Figure (Dogon)
Commemorating Ancestors
Art and World Religions
Triptych: Icon of the Virgin Mary (Etheopian)
Hand-Held Processional Cross (Coptic)
Hunter’s Tunic (Asante)
Summer 2007
SG NORTH wing Adult AFRICAN
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Cycle of Life
Birth and Childhood
Mother and Child Figure (Bamana)
Marriage
Mpondo Bride and Groom’s Ensemble consisting of 105 Pieces
Coming of Age
Antelope Headdress (Chiwara)
Death
Mask (Fang)
Summer 2007
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Gallery Text: Cultural & Historical Highlights
Africa’s twenty-five centuries of artistic achievement
“…Africa to me…is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth.”
– Maya Angelou
Africa’s history spans thousands of years, and the people that call this continent their
home come from diverse cultural backgrounds. Africa’s arts are as diverse as its history
and peoples. From 2,500-year-old figures to 20th-century ceramics, from stone sculpture
to an elaborately decorated camel saddle, the works of art in this gallery reflect this
diversity.
While the objects in this gallery do not represent the total artistic legacy of Africa, they
do testify to the range, vitality, and imaginative power of African artists. As you explore,
look for some of the artistic threads that tie these works of art together:
• an emphasis on the human head as the center of knowledge and individuality
• rare and precious materials conveying status, wealth, and power
• artworks that serve as forms of symbolic language
Additional Information:
• This is the first gallery that you enter from the “spine.”
• These objects introduce the story of African art history.
• This area allows people to see historically significant artworks.
• It tells the visitor that African objects are not just ethnographic curiosities, but that
African art is important creative art.
• The display is not chronological but displays objects from a 2500 year span of
African art history.
Summer 2007
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Object Data
Warrior Figure, 1300–1400
Terracotta
Unknown artist
Djenne culture, Mali
16 ¾ x 9 ¾ x 7 inches
DIA no. 78.32
Object Label Text
This figure represents a warrior who once protected the medieval city of Djenne
[pronounce: jenn-AY], now in Mali, western Africa. His necklace, sash, knife, and quiver
all convey his role in the military ruling class.
The long chin, upward gaze and multiple eyelids typify the sculpture of Djenne artists,
renowned for creating some of Africa’s finest terracotta sculptures.
• The subject might have been a member of the military aristocracy that ruled the
ancient empire Mali.
o The empire of Mali was one of the three largest empires of West Africa
• The conical headgear is distinctive.
o It is associated with warriors in this section of west Africa.
o The dagger and armor on the upper torso also identifies it as a warrior.
• This may be a horse rider (there are other figures in the same pose of horse riders).
o Horses were imported from northern Africa, across the Sahara Desert, to
the Sudan grasslands.
o This allowed the Mali Empire’s armies to cross the vast extent of the
empire (which was almost the size of the entire USA).
• The use of terra cotta (fired clay) indicates that the object was meant to last for a long
time.
o This object was probably made to keep the memory of this person fresh in
the community)
o Attributes of the sculpture are:
The jutting out of the chin so that the jaw line is almost horizontal.
It is bearded.
The lips are jutting out.
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The nose is small.
The eyes are also bulging, with multiple eyelids.
Pronunciation:
Djenne: jenn-AY
Summer 2007
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Object Data
Bust of Queen Mother, 18th century
Terracotta
Unknown artist
Akan culture, Asante subgroup, Ghana
15 x 11 inches
DIA no. 2006.148
Object Label Text
This object has no text in the gallery
• This object has features that we attribute to Akan sculpture:
o Sweeping eyebrows. They are not connected to the bridge of the nose; in wood
sculpture, the eyebrows would be linked to the bridge of the nose.
o The nostrils and ears are perforated. The holes allow heat to escape from the head
when the figure is being fired (this whole head is almost solid).
o The closed eyes are an indication of death.
o The rings around the neck are indications of well-being.
o The head is tilted-back because it was intended to be seen from above.
• Royal sculpture
o This head of the queen mother, broken at the neck, would have been attached to a
cylindrical torso that allowed it to be freestanding.
o It is made of terra cotta (fired clay) and it is intended to be a lasting memorial to
the dead.
o Among the Akan people, terracotta sculptures were associated with royalty from
the 1500s through the 1700s. From the 1800s, terracotta use became more
inclusive, to newly wealthy people of Akan society.
o The distinctive crown or tiara also associates this sculpture with royalty.
Pronunciation:
Akan: AH-kahn
Summer 2007
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Object Data
Camel Saddle (Tamsak), 1800s-1900s
Leather-covered wood, silver, copper,
brass
Unknown artist
Tuareg culture, Mauritania/Morocco
31 x 15 ½ x 25 inches
DIA no. 1994.23
Object Label Text
Critical to desert trade, camels became status symbols. But this ornate camel saddle was
for show. Used in races, festivals and short trips, the saddle’s elaborate silverwork and
fine painted leather suggest the work of a skilled artist and a wealthy owner.
• The elaborate craftsmanship indicates that this saddle was made for show, not a
saddle intended for the common use of trans-Saharan travel (taking goats between
North and West Africa).
o Dating from the 1800s, this saddle was not connected to earlier transSaharan trade, which ended in the 1400s.
o The Tuareg are nomadic desert people, who do not accumulate a lot of
wealth.
o A saddle—highly-ornamented like this one is—would be one of the few
things that indicated the wealth and prestige of its owner. It would have
been intended primarily for display.
Pronunciation:
Tamsak: TAM-sak
Tuareg: TWAR-egg
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Gallery Text: Leadership and Status Symbols
Materials and artistry meet in works fit for a king
Objects intended for African royalty reflect power through precious materials and
exquisite craftsmanship.
Glittering gold and shiny brass symbolize the divine qualities of kingship; the durability
of these metals conveys the permanence of leadership. Their ability to reflect light can
suggest certain spiritual attributes, supernormal energy, and ancestral power. Beads, once
used as money, advertise royal wealth and ancestral authority. Red coral beads may
indicate the hot temperament of the ruler.
The use of rare materials, such as gold and ivory, displays the leader’s control over
economic resources. Fine craftsmanship advertises the ruler’s capacity to command the
services of the best artists. Objects with complex imagery and intricate forms, details, and
surface finishes require exceptional skills and many hours to create.
The display and use of objects made of:
• precious materials (such as gold, copper, and beads)
• superior craftsmanship, project the unique lineages of their users and invest the
objects with spiritual energies that are crucial for African leadership.
Group Theme Text: Sacred Kingship
Materials symbolize the king’s sacred nature
African leaders are believed to possess a combination of both earthly and spiritual
powers. In some special cases, a leader may be elevated to god-like status. The source of
this extraordinary spiritual power may be ancestral, magical, or divine. Because these
leaders are considered to be so powerful, communities may deem it dangerous to come
into direct contact with them. Some sacred leaders cannot appear or eat in public in order
to protect the community.
Particular precious and rare materials suggest a leader’s status or reflect his special
spiritual qualities.
•
•
•
Beads—certain kinds have ancestral significance that validates the leader’s authority
or facilitates contact with his ancestors.
Metals—because they are durable, their use in leadership arts suggests the
permanence of political authority.
Ivory—use of the elephant’s tusk compares the leader’s strength to that of the
elephant, a large and powerful animal
Summer 2007
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Object Data
Horse and Rider, early 17th century
Bronze
Unknown artist
Benin culture, Nigeria
15 ½ x 7 ¼ x 15 inches
DIA no. 1992.290
Object Label Text
This figure comes from a royal ancestral altar in the Benin kingdom of Nigeria, where
horses were rare. It may represent the kingdom’s founder, Oranmiyan, on horseback,
symbolizing his superior status.
This piece began as a wax model, similar to the one in the case to your right.
• This sculpture was made to be used on an altar for a deceased king.
o Every king of Benin is entitled to a royal commemorative altar, where
rituals are performed annually to his spirit.
• It is cast by the lost-wax process.
• The brass-red color of the piece is symbolic of the king’s fiery temperament.
o As with red coral beads, which are also used for royalty, red is an attribute
of the king.
o Also, the durability of brass and bronze is symbolic of the durability of
royal leadership.
o The interlacing motif (guilloche, pronounced gee-LOHSH) that you see on
the shield and elsewhere is also an attribute of royalty.
• The horse, which is rare in the forest environment of Benin, signifies the wealth of
the court.
o Elevated position of a rider on the horse is also symbolic of the elevated
social status of the leader.
• The identity of this figure is in question.
o It could be either
The founder of the royal Benin dynasty, Oranmiyan (pronounced
Oh-ran-mee-yan), who came from the Ife (pronounced EE-fay)
kingdom.
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•
An emissary of the northern grasslands, where, in northern Nigeria,
horses are more common. This depiction of an emissary would
also symbolize the importance of the Benin court and the fact that
it was so renowned that it drew the attention of rulers far away.
This piece is a very rare, one of only four or five in the world.
o It is one of the special treasures of the DIA’s collection.
Pronunciation:
Benin: ben-EEN
Oranmiyan: oh-ran-mee-yan
Ife: EE-fay
Summer 2007
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Object Data
Royal Ceremonial Sword, late 1800s–
early 1900s
Wood, gold leaf, rayfish skin, cast gold,
leather
Unknown artist
28 x 6 ½ x 6 inches
DIA no. 2005.2
Object Label Text
This sword has no cutting edge, but symbolizes the king’s power over life and death.
Gold advertises royal wealth.
The bird figure, twisted into a “wisdom knot,” and carrying a keg of gunpowder and
cannons, illustrates the proverb, “A great leader goes to war with full armor, swiftness
and wisdom.”
Additional Information
• Sword
o Materials include wood, gold leaf and cast gold.
o The blade is iron.
o There is rayfish skin on top and leather on the bottom. The rayfish skin
and the leather protect the blade.
• The sword has no practical function.
o The scabbard is sewn around the blade, making it practically unusable as a
weapon. Its purpose is symbolic.
• There is a bird image: the bird of bravery.
o It is shown with kegs of gunpowder: in its beak and on its back.
• On the wings, there are two cannons.
• The body of the bird is twisted into a “wisdom knot.”
o This image symbolizes the notion that a leader goes to war with wisdom
and armor.
o Both are essential for the leader.
• In the Akan area, the sword is carried by a bodyguard when the king is in public.
o Gold communicates the wealth of the court. The dull colors of the rayfish
skin and leather, focuses attention on the gold.
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Pronunciation:
Akan: AH-kahn
Summer 2007
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Object Data
Royal Presentation Bowl, early 20th
century (late 1920s)
Wood
Olowe of Ise, 1875-1938
Yoruba culture, Nigeria
T2006.205
Object Label Text
This object has no text in the gallery.
• Bowl
o This bowl is carved from a single block of wood; it is in two halves--bowl and lid.
o The exterior shows figures standing on top and figures supporting the bowl.
There is a freely-rolling human head locked, underneath the bowl,
surrounded by the figures, which had to be carved in place within the
casing of the surrounding figures; it could not have been inserted.
The rolling head refers to decapitation--It symbolizes the leader’s
control over life and death.
o The bottom of the bowl shows three males on one side, three females on the other.
The males have half-shaved heads; symbolic of royal messengers.
The women each hold one breast up, which signifies a greeting in
Yoruba culture.
o The figures on the lid encircle a diviner’s staff topped by a bird image.
The strong prominent beak of this bird is associated with witchcraft.
The women carrying babies on their back represent “the mothers of
society.”
The mothers of society are women beyond child-bearing age and thus
are spiritually endowed to affect everything good and bad in Yoruba
society.
Here, they carry the staff of the diviner, symbolizing their support of
the work of the diviner.
o There are images of birds pecking the eyes of a human victim on both sides of the
bottom of the bowl.
This also signifies witchcraft. Birds of the night, owls and other
raptors are associated with witchcraft.
Witches kill by slowly pecking their victim’s eyes and brains out.
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•
o A presentation bowl is used when one visits the house of a very important Yoruba
person, a chief or diviner.
On arrival, the guest is served kola nuts from the bowl.
A kola nut is a symbol of hospitality.
The kola nut is broken in two halves and shared by host and visitor.
o This piece may also be used to transport gifts from one palace to the other.
The gift is placed within.
It would have then been carried on the head of a young woman of the
palace.
Artist
o The maker of this object, Olowe of Ise (pronounce oh-low-WAY of EE-seh), is
the same Yoruba artist who made the palace door in the DIA.
o Olowe had a unique style of carving (as can be seen on the door, as well): women
are depicted in a more flattering manner than men.
The women have beautiful hair styles.
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Object Data
Chief’s Throne, 1800s
Wood and gold
Unknown artist
18 x 31 x 15 inches
DIA no. 2006.70
Object Label Text
This throne symbolizes the authority of an Akan [pronounce: AH-khan] king. The
complex form was painstakingly carved from a single block of wood. The throne was
probably used during ceremonies for purifying the king’s soul. The gold disk on the seat
is similar to the soul-washer’s badge in the case to your far right.
• This is the throne of an Akan chief.
• There is gold ornament on the four corner tips of the seat, and a circular gold plate on
the center of the seat.
o The type of wood has yet to be determined.
o If you turn it upside down you would see that it is hollow.
o The artist has carved it from a single block of wood.
• The gold signifies the wealth of the court.
o The throne is an emblem of political authority, a primary symbol of the king or
chief’s leadership.
o It is carried into any public arena ahead of the king to announce the chief’s
arrival.
o When the chief passes away, the throne is retired may be and put into an ancestral
shrine to honor the chief’s memory.
o A chief usually has many thrones.
o His essence is said to be contained within the throne.
o A throne that is treated that way is believed to contain the chief’s essence.
Pronunciation:
Akan: AH-kahn
Summer 2007
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Object Data
Container with Carved Head, 1850–
1900
Wood, fiber
Unknown artist
Mangbetu culture, Democratic Republic
of Congo
21 ¼ x 6 ¾ (diameter) inches
DIA no. 77.70
Object Label Text
Made from tree bark, this honey container combines abstract and representational forms.
The carved head and base indicate that the container was intended for a chief or person of
great wealth. The distinctive hairstyle identifies the figure as an aristocrat among the
Mangbetu of central Africa.
• This is a honey container.
o A carved wooden female head is attached to the lid.
o The container itself is made of tree bark, a pliable material that is easier to
roll into a cylinder
o Tree bark is a pliable material, making it easier than regular wood to roll
into a cylinder.
o The vessel sits on a stool or throne, a symbol of leadership.
• The hair style is characteristic of the aristocracy.
o This was a personal item, intended for display by a member of the elite.
Pronunciation:
Mangbetu: mang-BET-oo
Summer 2007
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Object Data
Spoon with Head on Handle, date
unknown
Wood, darkened
Unknown artist
Guro culture, Côte d’Ivoire
7 3/8 x 2 1/8 x 2 ½ inches
DIA no. 70.108
Object Label Text
Handed down for generations, this long ladle represented generosity and leadership in
Guro culture. The leading woman in a village used it to serve rice at communal feasts.
The ladle’s large size reflects the abundance of the rice crop and generosity of the
hostess. The hairdo communicated her high status.
• This is a ceremonial ladle, used by the woman who is a symbol of hospitality in Guro
society.
o Such a woman must have excelled in farming.
o Considered prosperous, she is expected to welcome and entertain
important dignitaries who visit the community.
o This woman’s distinctive hair style reflects her unique status.
• For Guro society generosity and hospitality are critical attributes.
o For big ceremonies, festivals, and receptions of dignitaries, the women
show off their status in society by serving rice with the ladle.
• The owner will occasionally carry this object in a public dance to show her status and
material prosperity.
o This is not an object of daily use.
It is used only for special occasions to serve rice, the main staple of
the Guro diet and economy.
Pronunciation:
Guro: GU-roh
Summer 2007
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Gallery Text: Masquerade
The power and influence of masks
“An iron gong sounded, setting up a wave of expectation in the
crowd…The drum sounded and the flute blew…The women and children
sent up a great shout …on that day, nine of the greatest masked spirits…
came out together…”
– Achebe Chinua from Things Fall Apart, 1959
Masquerades have enormous significance in African societies. Besides entertaining,
masquerade performances may validate the authority of rulers or enforce laws and social
norms. Many Africans believe that spirits, gods, and ancestors manifest themselves
through masks. Performances may also help to control spiritual powers or cleanse the
community of negative forces.
African masks often consist of two pieces: a face mask or head piece and an attached
costume of cloth, grass, or fiber that conceals the wearer. Masquerade ceremonies consist
of costumed performers, music, movement, and speech. The audience may sing along,
shout names of praise, bow in respect to the masks, or even dance along.
• The focus of this gallery is African masquerades, focusing on the totality of the
performance.
• Masquerades entertain; they also embody forces that mediate political, social, moral,
legal, and spiritual relationships.
• Masqerades consist of music, gestures, and costumes besides the face covering to
make very powerful statements.
• When masks are shown in a gallery, they are often stripped of their costume, music,
and movement, which are all part of the overall experience.
Group Theme Text: Masks that Manifest or Harness Forces
Fantastic images, powerful forces
Masks harness power through their forms or materials. Different animals represent
different spirits, and most of these masks combine multiple animal features to increase
their power. Some masks present animal elements, such as horns and feathers, carved out
of wood, while others incorporate actual animal parts.
Combinations of different animals create fantastic, imaginary compositions designed to
attract or to control spirits. For example, the large fish-shaped mask combines shark and
crocodile elements that allude to powerful water spirits, which Ijo [pronounce: ee-JAW]
people believe to inhabit their coastal environment.
These masks provide vehicles for water spirits to manifest themselves among humans.
But communities also use the masks to harness and control the spirits for the good of
society.
Summer 2007
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Object Data
Epa Cult Mask, 1920–1930
Wood
Bamgboye of Odo-Owa
Nigerian, died 1978
51 x 19 ½ x 20 ½ inches
DIA no. 77.71
Object Label Text
Originally brightly painted, this double-faced mask with almond-shaped eyes, square
ears, and rectangular mouths represents an ancestral spirit. Above is the portrait of the
ancestor on horseback, elevated above a group of his descendants. Masks such as this
honor the many ancestors who built the foundations of Yoruba [pronounce: YOUR-uhbah] society.
• This mask was made to celebrate ancestors and founders of society as heroes.
• An ancestor or hero riding a horse, indicates high status.
• The bottom part of the mask is a helmet with very abstract features.
o The masker sees through the holes at the bottom.
o The upper section (superstructure) is much more elaborate.
• This piece was once brightly colored.
o Traces of color can still be seen (red, yellow, white, and blue).
o The figures are members of the ancestor’s family in a supporting role.
• Towards the end of the masquerade performance, the dancer must leap onto a mound,
carrying the mask, which can weighe up to 100 pounds.
o This mask is one of several masks that would be used in a big masquerade
to celebrate the heroes of society or the founders of dynasties.
• Square holes in the “ears” of the mask allow for assistants (with poles) to help the
masker support the mask.
• The name of this artist is known (not anonymous, as is so often the case).
o He is Bamgboye of Odo-Owa, who is known for his Epa society masks.
Pronunciation:
Mamgboye of Odo-Owa: Bang-boy-ey of o-DO O-wa
Yoruba: YOUR-uh-bah
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Object Data
Egungun Mask, before 1950
Fabric, cowry shells, beads, and metals
Unknown artist
64 x 50 x 15 inches
DIA no. 2005.26
Object Label Text
In many African cultures, masks frequently cover not just the face, but the entire body. In
this brightly-colored costume made of expensive, imported textiles, the masker looks out
through a gauze-like opening. While dancing, the performer creates shapes with the
costume through gestures meant to signal the presence of ancestral spirits.
• Unlike masks carved from mostly wood, Egungun masks are made of several layers
of fabric.
o The person who wears the mask would look through a layer of gauze at
the face.
• Sometimes a mask like this would have a small wooden figure of an animal or human
on top to serve as an attractor.
o When the mask performs, ancestral spirits are believed to manifest
themselves..
• Locally woven cloths (such as the indigo blue cloth underneath) are combined with
varieties of cloth (here, the brocades and velvets, and silk) in many parts of the mask.
o These are prestigious materials.
o Also cowry shells—used as currency in pre-twentieth times—signify the
wealth of the ancestors.
• During the performance of an Egungun masquerade, the shape of the mask constantly
changes with movement.
o The flaps of the mask are made in such a way that the wearer of the mask
can alter the shape of the mask as he performs.
• A mask is intended to be enjoyed when it is performed.
o It is not meant to be viewed as static.
o The flaps of the mask make sounds when they spin, which indicates the
presence of ancestral spirits.
o The spirits are present, come to judge members of the community.
o Anyone in attendance, regardless of political or social status can be “the
target” of an Egungun mask.
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o Whatever the Egungun mask “says” is final, indicating the power of the
mask.
o The masks come out in succession, from those of lesser status to those of
greater importance.
o A powerful social statement is made, pointing attention to an atrocity that
has been perpetrated, or to praise and important deed made by someone in
this society.
Pronunciation:
Egungun: ee-GOON-goon
Yoruba: YOUR-uh-bah
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Object Data
Gelede Headdress, early 20th century
Wood and paint
Unknown artist
15 x 16 x16 inches
DIA no. 2006.84
Group Theme Text: Yoruba Gelade
A masquerade in honor of women’s power
Many African cultures honor the important roles women play in society. In addition to
bearing, raising, and nurturing children, women are also critical to spiritual life. Among
the Yoruba [pronounce: YOUR-uh-bah], the largest ethnic group in Nigeria, women are
believed to possess the power to influence all human activity for good or for ill.
In Yoruba culture, the Gelede [pronounce: gay-LAY-day] masquerade is performed to
recognize women’s power and to encourage them to channel it for the good of society.
Groups of men perform the ceremony, wearing carved wooden body parts under their
clothes to mimic the female form. Accompanied by drumming and singing, they imitate
the movements and gestures of women.
Gelede masks communicate women’s power through their imagery. A headdress may
symbolize a particular social role, status, or religious affiliation. Animal imagery often
represents women’s spiritual powers.
• All Gelede masks have the face of a woman.
• This mask wears a distinctive cap that is associated with warrior chiefs, an emblem of
power.
o In real life, a warrior cap is never worn by women, so when seen in a mask
like this, the significance is powerful.
o The mask originally had a costume attached.
• The costume usually has a woman’s body parts carved in wood, such as the tummy,
breasts, and buttocks.
o The masquerade is always danced by men.
o Men commission the masks.
o Several of these masks would be performed in one community.
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•
o Once these masks are danced, the women will feel appreciated and that
they will “take their hands off the triggers.”
o This is to make sure that a woman’s powerful spiritual powers will be
directed towards the positive interests of society.
Women are important part of Yoruba culture.
o The Gelede masks are performed annually to celebrate the powers of
women.
o Every woman, regardless of age, has a natural potential to perform
wonders.
o Women can affect things that are either good or bad in society.
o In Yoruba culture, the Gelede performance pacifies or placates women, to
let them know that society holds them in very high regard.
o Society respects the natural powers that they have, with the hope that they
can be coaxed to use those powers responsibly.
o The idea is to assure that society is in good favor with women; if not,
women may cause havoc.
o People describe this potential as witchcraft, which becomes accentuated
when a woman passes child-bearing age.
o When past menopause, and a woman becomes an elder, she has the
greatest potential to cause havoc in society and is most feared.
Pronunciation:
Yoruba: YOUR-uh-bah
Gelade: gay-LAH-day
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Gallery Text: Communicating with Art
Art speaks through symbols
Using patterns and images, African artists communicate complex messages without
uttering a word. Found in paintings, carvings, dress, or furniture, these images allow
artists to weave together a symbolic language that is understood by members of a
particular community.
In cultures with a long history of interacting without written languages, art becomes an
important means of communication. Symbols may indicate status, authority, wealth, or
gender. In some cultures, images communicate well-known proverbs, ideas, or points of
law and philosophy. Even color has meaning.
In special cases, only select individuals understand a given image. This sets boundaries
within cultures, between those “in the know” and the rest of the community. As societies
change and knowledge evolves, African artists continue to invent new images, constantly
adding to their body of symbols.
African artists use images to symbolically encapsulate and communicate complex
information about the past, proverbs (wise sayings), and moral ideas that are meaningful
to most members of a particular community.
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Object Data
Akan Drum, 20th century
Wood, hide
Artist unknown
Akan culture, Ghana
Dimensions unavailable
Object on loan to the DIA
Object Label Text
• On the side of this drum, there are six vertical registers, each with a series of motifs
carved in relief, including the British royal coat of arms, with the lion and the
unicorn.
o There are others that are proverbial motifs (motifs that symbolize
proverbs).
• This is like a book, a text with many proverbs. The drum serves a mnemonic purpose,
to help people recall proverbs. Some of these proverbial motifs are replicated in
textiles, flags, and royal regalia (such as the DIA’s Akan sword and Adinkra cloth).
• This drum would have been used in the Akan royal court.
o The language used in the royal court is heavily loaded with proverbs,
proverbs not easily understood by those of western cultures.
The double crocodile with two heads and two tails but with a
common stomach, means that when two crocodiles share the same
stomach, they have no reason to fight over food.
Another example shows a snail (with its shell and with its tentacles
with eyes), a tortoise, and a rifle: illustrating the proverb: if a snail
and a tortoise were the only animals in the forest, the hunter would
have no need for a gun. The meaning is that difficult problems
require difficult solutions. One has to know the proverb to fully
appreciate the imagery.
Another example shows a hornbill bird (with an enormous beak)
and a viper snake, attacking the bird. The viper and the hornbill are
symbols of patience. It refers to the story of a long-standing debt
owed by the hornbill to the viper. After a long wait, a long drought
came and the viper caught the hornbill at the only watering hole
available. The idea expressed is that if you are patient, you will get
what you want.
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Also, there is the proverbial image with a ladder, the ladder is
meant to express the idea that death is inevitable; if you are human
you will die. You can run but you cannot hide.
Detail showing figures on the drum
Pronunciation:
Akan: AH-kahn
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Object Data
Adinkra Cloth, 1800s–1900s
Vegetable Dye, fabric, with embroidery
Unknown artist
Asante culture, Ghana
136 x 88 inches
DIA no. 1991.1094
Object Label Text
• The adinkra cloth is divided into segments, which have several motifs that are lined
up into squares.
o Each square usually has a symbol, and each symbol has a specific
meaning associated with it.
• Symbolic forms:
o One is a reference to strength and humility: communicating that the
wearer is strong, but is humble about it. Some symbols are personal, some
are about social relations.
o The ladder means death is inevitable. The Adinkra cloth was originally a
funeral cloth, but in recent years the color of the cloth has changed.
• Colors of cloths will change as we rotate objects in the galleries, hence their cultural
associations will change.
o We now have white, blue, yellow, orange, and green because Adinkra
cloths are now used for festive occasions. The white, red, and black cloths
were associated with funerals.
o White is associated with very old people, because after a very old age
(eighty, ninety…) because you are celebrating the old age of the person,
rather than mourning the person.
o Black is associated with a younger person. It is worn by people supporting
the family of the dead.
o Red is associated with the closest members of the family.
Pronunciation:
Adinkra: ah-DINK-rah
Asante: ah-SAHNT-ay
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Object Data
Asafo Flag (Frankaa), about 1863
Appliqued and embroidered cloth
Unknown artist
Fante culture, Ghana
40 x 72 inches
DIA no. 1983.17
Object Label Text
This flag’s imagery boasts the ability of its owners to confront their British colonizers. Its
imagery suggests that, like a large fish, a British fortress can be captured by many
determined men.
The flag was carried by members of an Asafo [pronounce ah-sah-FOE] military
organization. Originally established to protect communities, these groups now perform
purely social functions.
• This flag shows an accomplishment.
o The big fish with a net around it shows that when fishermen unite, they
can catch a big fish.
o Many flags have double meanings.
o Flags would sometimes make critical comments, which were shown by
other groups in previous years (sort of an annual dialogue).
• The use of flags was borrowed from Europeans.
o The Fantes saw Europeans use flags in association with military activities.
o Therefore, the whole idea of using a flag as an emblem of an Asafo
company seems to also borrow from a European idea.
o The word “Asafo” means community.
o The “Asafo Companies” are military units previously used to protect Fante
communities.
o But, because the British came in bringing in the Pax Britannia (the British
peace), the Asafo Companies never went to war again.
o Once the military function was gone, the companies became social units or
entertainment companies.
o The Fante continue to celebrate their annual festivals, when the flags are
displayed.
o Flags are intended to communicate some of the accomplishments of the
Asafo Companies, who commissioned the flags.
• The British flag is in the upper left corner.
• In the early 1900s, the British began to realize that some of the flags contained
symbolic criticisms of the Asafo Companies relationship to the British colonial
government.
o This is probably such a flag.
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o The big fish is probably symbolic of the British fort, the seat of authority
for the colonial government.
o Perhaps this is boasting that in unity, they are capable of capturing the
British fort.
o The British eventually banned the display of Asafo flags, and they were
unable to be displayed for 20 or 30 years.
Pronunciation:
Asafo: ah-SAH-foe
Fante: FAHN-tey
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Gallery Label Text: Art and the Yoruba Spirit World
A rich spiritual life leads to rich artistic expression
“Olorun lived in the sky, and with Olorun were many [gods]. There were
both male and female [gods], but Olorun transcended male and female and
was the all-powerful Supreme Being.”
– Excerpt from a Yoruba creation story
Yoruba [pronounce: YOUR-uh-bah] people of Nigeria, western Africa, recognize over
400 gods—all children of Olorun, the Supreme Being believed to have created the Earth.
The Yoruba associate their many gods with various aspects of nature or daily life and
create works of art to honor them.
This gallery includes objects associated with Yoruba religious customs. Some were used
as shrine furniture; others were used to house spirit forces or facilitate contact with
spirits. Many objects appear in a display the DIA has created to simulate a historic shrine
dedicated to Shango, the god of thunder. The installation helps to suggest how
individuals used the objects to honor a deity.
• Many of these art objects were made to house, activate, honor, and facilitate
control of diverse spiritual forces.
• Not only the function of these pieces, but also their imagery and forms facilitate
these specific uses.
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Object Data
Temple Pillar, about 1900
Carved wood, pigments
Artist name unknown
65 ¼ x 11 3/16 x 11 inches
DIA no. 1991.215.6
Section panel text
A shrine focuses worship
Every important Yoruba [pronounce: YOUR-uh-bah] deity has a shrine, which may range
from a simple mound of earth to an elaborate structure. This display attempts to recreate a
famous shrine to Shango, the god of thunder, as it looked in 1910.
The seven posts originally decorated the façade of the shrine. Their imagery honors the
god by referring to his essential attributes. The lidded bowl holds additional ceremonial
objects, including figures of twins whom Shango is believed to protect.
The most important object here is the sitting woman carrying a bowl. This object rests on
the most sacred spot in the shrine and serves as the main point of contact with the deity—
what the Yoruba call “the face of worship.” Her bulging eyes and indigo-painted
headgear mark her as a possessed priestess pleading on behalf of the worshipper. The
bowl itself holds objects used in daily worship, such as staffs, rattles and sacred stones.
• There are at least seven shrine posts in our collection, and they all come from one
particular shrine.
o Each post was intended as an architectural support to the façade of the
shrine.
o The images on the posts are intended to celebrate the deity Shango, the
Yoruba god of thunder.
o Shango is widely worshiped in southwestern Nigeria.
• The sculpture shows a woman with the child on her back.
o The implication is that Shango gives children to women that are having
problems with fertility.
o The hairstyle specifically signifies the woman as a devotee to Shango, so
this is a worshipper of the deity, not a representation of the deity.
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•
•
•
•
o None of the people on the posts are representations of the deity; rather,
they are representations of individuals that have been associated with the
deity in the past.
The figure is sitting on a mortar, and the mortar is usually associated with the shrine
The body of the female is dotted with kaolin (a fine clay).
o This is a symbolic reference to the idea of Shango as being “the leopard of
the sky.”
o Just as lightning does not warn a person when it strikes, a leopard does not
warn its prey when it attacks.
o This is an attribute of the deity Shango.
The upper portion of the post has several objects that are associated with Shango and
every Shango shrine:
o In the center, is the double axe motif.
o On the right, is the stone axe.
o To the left, is the rattle.
Some of our posts can be identified in the watercolor (reproduced in the gallery) by
the German Explorer Leo Frobenius.
Pronunciation:
Yoruba: YOUR-uh-bah
Shango: SHAHN-go
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Object Data
Seated Female Shrine Figure, 1850–
1950
Wood, pigment
Unknown artist
39 7/8 x 21 ½ x 16 ¾ inches
DIA no. F78.18.A-.B
Object Label Text
• This object is called “the bowl carrier.”
• Details of the image include:
o a bowl
o a lid for the bowl with a blue-painted human head
o a figure with blue-painted hair
o The body of the female is painted red; red is usually associated with
Shango.
Her body is dotted with white spots.
These are a symbolic reference to the idea of Shango as being “the
leopard of the sky.”
Just as lightning does not warn a person when it strikes, a leopard
does not warn its prey when it attacks.
o There are two figures that flank the female figure.
They are representations of identical twins.
Shango is considered to be the protector of twins.
o The central female figure is nude.
Nudity, in connection with any Yoruba god is extremely important.
Nudity is one way that females can plead to the gods to get their
wishes.
This object is not intended to be worshiped; this is the
representation of a devotee.
But rather, because it sits on a sacred spot, it is considered a place
of worship.
When offerings of kola nuts are made, the person touches his
forehead the to face on the bowl, and then places the kola nuts in a
bowl in front of this figure.
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•
•
•
This object becomes the point of contact between the worshipper
and the deity.
The treatment of the hairstyle with blue indigo powder suggests that this is not just a
common devotee, but rather, this figure has had her head consecrated to receive the
spirit of Shango.
The bowl figure is a metaphor for the heavy responsibility that a devotee of Shango
must carry.
o This is a god that is not only powerful, but extremely dangerous.
o If you wrong the god, it will strike, and usually takes life, but it is also a
god that is very generous.
o Shango is a divinity of extreme benevolence and extreme violence.
The function of this object is:
o This kind type of object was originally represented as a simple mortar (a
bowl used for grinding).
o The bowl is used to carry attributes of Shango: the double-axe motif, some
of the stone axes, and the rattle
o to mark a particular spot in the shrine where all the essential elements are
buried that enable the shrine to anchor the spirit.
The spirit is everywhere, but in order for the shrine to be activated,
it needs those ingredients that are buried in the ground.
This bowl carrier would sit on that particular spot, becoming a
marker of the most sacred spot in the shrine, usually in the inner
sanctum of the shrine.
It warns the visitor of the shrine that they are coming to a
particularly sacred area of the shrine.
Pronunciation:
Yoruba: YOUR-uh-bah
Shango: SHAHN-go
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Object Data
Shango Wand, 1900s
Wood, pigment, nails
Unknown artist
26 3/8 x 9 15/16 x 3 5/8 inches.
DIA no. 1986.71
Object Label Text
The double-axe image on this wand signifies the power of Shango, the god of thunder in
Yoruba [pronounce: YOUR-uh-bah] society of Nigeria. It also represents the heavy
burden Shango places on his worshippers. Yoruba believe that when Shango possesses a
person, he “mounts the head,” causing the eyes to bulge out. Look for this image
elsewhere in the re-created shrine.
• This is a dance wand for the deity Shango.
o It has the double-axe motif (an attribute of Shango) on top of the head.
o The figure is representation of a female devotee of Shango, with a wrap
around the waist, and female breasts.
o Her eyes are bulging, which is an indication of spiritual possession.
• The dance staff is used in dances that induce a trance in a devotee.
o This is a depiction of a devotee in a state of possession.
o In Yoruba culture, when Shango possesses somebody, it is said that
“Shango has mounted the head of the person.”
• The double axe is reference to the stone-age axes that are found in the ground when
there is a heavy rain.
o Two stones, turned back to back, together form the double-axe motif.
o Here is the sharp edge of the axe enters the head of a devotee, in a state of
possession.
o This is a symbol of Shango’s spiritual force.
Pronunciation:
Yoruba: YOUR-uh-bah
Shango: SHAHN-go
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Group Theme Text: Power Sculptures
These sculptures channel powerful forces
These sculptures were originally believed to contain spiritual powers that could be
activated through secret words recited in ceremonies. Their owners manipulated the
sculpture’s spiritual force to achieve many goals—healing illness, garnering protection,
settling disputes, and overseeing other human interactions.
Artists often combined animal, vegetable, and other natural elements to create these
highly creative sculptures. Some objects in this room include dirt from graves, which
represents the world of ancestors. Others include conch and cowry shells from the sea,
believed to be the home of spirits. Nails, beads, feathers, and bones are other important
components that facilitate or enhance the sculptures’ spiritual capabilities.
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Object Data
Nail Figure (Nkonde), 1875–1900
Wood with screws, nails, blades, cowry
shell and other materials
Unknown artist
Kongo culture, Democratic Republic of
Congo
46 x 28 ½ x 14 ¼ inches
DIA no. 76.79
Object Label Text
• This is a male figure
o Standing on sandals
o The head is disproportionately large, as is traditional of most African
sculptures.
o The body is symmetrical.
o The conch shells in the eyes associated with water bodies and the ocean,
therefore indirectly connected to the spirits of the ancestors.
Conch shells are intended to reflect light, which is an indication of
insight into the spirit world.
o The teeth are filed, which is a practice of the Kongo elite.
This is an indication of the elevated status of this figure.
o The cap that the figure wears is also an indication of prestige
o Around the navel, there are several herbal substances, in addition to grave
dirt (relating to spirits of the dead).
The herbs are believed to have spiritual properties giving this
figure inherent power.
There are incantations associated with the control of those powers.
• Please note: this piece was never the focus of worship.
o Most wooden sculptures associated with religious practices in Africa were
never the focus of worship.
o Rather, pieces like this were a tool for achieving various ends.
o It is part of the symbolic language of oral cultures.
o Many the attributes—the hand gestures, the hair styles, the scarification—
were all meaningful to the original owners.
• Screws, blades, and nails are driven into parts of the head.
o A figure like this was used for a variety of purposes:
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•
•
•
•
as a tool for curing illnesses
to ratify agreements among different parties
for solving disputes between different parties
The piece is a historical document.
o Each nail represents a problem the figure has solved.
o The density of nails on the figure indicates the amount of good work the
nail figure has performed.
The figure itself has an affective power.
o It has a spiritual force that can punish a person who has not fulfilled their
obligation to the commitment made to solving the problem.
o In curing or ratifying agreements, usually they tie a knot or thread, put it
on the desired part of the figure, they drive the nail through, perform a
ritual, and fire a gun.
o This activates the force in the figure.
Several people had a hand in the production of this piece:
o The woodcarver, who carved the figure
o The medicine man, who puts the herbal substances, the grave dirt, and any other
substances to give
o The one who supervises its use and is the record keeper of a actions taken with the
figure is the medicine man, called the nganga (pronounced en-GAHN-gah).
This is one of a very few sculptures that have been well documented. Ours is
considered to be one of the most notable of all in this genre; it is a special treasure of
the DIA collection.
Pronunciation:
Nkonde: en-KON-day
Nganga: en-GAHN-gah
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Object Data
Female Figure, 1900s
Wood, gold, silver, paint
Unknown artist
Akan culture, Ghana
24 x 14 ½ x 7 ½ inches
DIA no. 76.94
Object Label Text
Look closely to explore this figure.
• Its pose suggests it sat on a throne or stool.
• The traces of precious silver coating and paint indicates its social significance.
• Microscopic impressions on the feet tell us it once wore sandals.
All of these features suggest this figure represents an Akan [pronounce: AH-kahn]
mother.
• This figure is slightly problematic.
o It was previously referred to as a dancing figure, but it has nothing to do
with dancing.
o The flexed knees are almost perpendicular to the body.
o It was a seated figure, but the seat is now missing. On the figure’s feet
there are traces of having worn sandals.
o The seated position and the sandals denote a person of status, probably a
queen-mother figure.
o The queen-mother figure would usually have been associated with a
shrine.
o This figure could have been made for a shrine, as shrine furniture, or as a
votive figure, an offering to a deity.
• The head has no hair style.
o Because of that, it is likely that the figure carried a headdress, maybe cloth
was tied around the head, which is why the upper part of the head is
slightly bulging; possibly to allow fabric to be tied around the head.
• Several layers of coating are on the piece.
o Traces of paints: red, green, molten copper and silver had been painted on
the surface.
o These are all indications that possibly the figure has been used in different
contexts.
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•
•
o The use of silver ties the piece to a religious function.
o The use of paints probably indicates a different, social, function. Some
images like this are tied to the front part of drums used by entertainment
groups.
o This is not a dancing figure; the hands look as if a previous collector may
have switched the hands.
o We don’t know if the hands were intended to be this way, or there might
have been a baby on the lap (because of the size of breasts).
o There is a good likelihood that the figure carried a baby on the lap.
o The fact that the limbs are attached is an anomaly, because most African
figures are carved from a single block of wood.
o We don’t quite know the original position of the limbs, so we may have
originally a seated mother with child.
o If so, it would have been used in a religious context.
A female, or male, figure with sandals on the feet clearly points to an important
person.
Akan sculpture characteristics:
o the treatment of the face with the eyebrows joining together
o a very thin nose
o small pursed lips
o the eyes are open. The empty gaze is associated with figures found in
shrines. They not necessarily meant to intimidate, but they are searching
whoever is standing in front of them.
o a very long neck, with several rings around the neck, which is typically
Akan
Pronunciation:
Akan: AH-kahn
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Gallery Text: Ancestors
Ancestors protect the living
When an especially moral and accomplished person dies, the family or community may
recognize that person as an ancestor. The deceased’s spirit intercedes with the gods on
behalf of the living. Some also believe ancestors enforce moral values, by protecting
those who uphold society’s norms and punishing violators.
Many Africans invoke ancestors as part of daily life, making small offerings before
starting an important undertaking. Personal and accessible, ancestors are not worshipped
as gods. Rather, Africans respect ancestors as representing a moral and social ideal.
Abstract portraits represent ancestors
A work of art, often a portrait, stands in for the ancestor as a focus for veneration. While
styles differ among African cultures, many ancestor sculptures have a neutral expression
and a cold, authoritative gaze. Scars, hair styles, bracelets, thrones, and other symbols
represent the high esteem in which cultures hold their ancestors.
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Object Data
Seated Male, 1800s–1900s
Wood, pigment
Unknown artist
Fang culture, Gabon
22 ½ x 4 3/8 x 4 ¼ inches.
DIA no. 70.90
Object Label Text
This object has not text in the gallery.
• This is a reliquary guardian figure, usually known as a bieri.
o It is wood with traces of copper in the eyes and along the top of the head.
o It is typically Fang, with the treatment of the heart-shaped face, the long
cylindrical neck, the cylindrical torso, as is the rest of the body.
• A cylindrical appendage in the back allows the figure to sit atop a cylindrical box.
o That box would usually have hole, so that the piece can be attached.
o When the figure sits on top, it becomes a guardian image, because it
guards the contents of the box.
o The box would include the skull and long bones of an ancestor.
o Most Fang families would have several of their ancestors preserved as
relics, and the figure would guard the relics.
• Another interpretation is that this is a depiction of the deceased.
o This would be the depiction of a male ancestor, and the figure would
protect the relics.
• When relics are preserved, they symbolize the perpetual presence of the ancestor in
the community or family.
o These images and relics are housed in shrines outside the communities and
they are owned by specific families.
o In times of crisis, the family can visit the shrine and perform certain rituals
so that they can invite ancestors to take control of the situation and help
them solve the crisis.
• There is a symbolic function, but there is also a practical function in dealing with
different kinds of crises, including harassment by witches, bad harvests, and illness or
epidemic in the community.
o All can draw attention to a piece like this in the community.
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•
It is carved from wood and has been used extensively, and this one is ranked among
the finest in the world.
Pronunciation:
biere: bee-AIR-ee
Summer 2007
49
Object Data
Ancestral Screen, late 1800s
Iroko wood, earth pigments, vegetable
fibers, metal
Unknown artist
Ijo culture, Nigeria
48 x 35 x 15 inches
DIA no. 2003.21
Object Label Text
• This is a funerary screen.
o Funerary screens were made in the 1800s for Ijo elders who had been
considered to have accomplished a lot in their communities.
o The screen is usually made of planks of wood and cane, or wicker.
o The style—figures carved separately and then attached to the surface—is
what some scholars have associated with European book illustrations.
o Some people have compared this style to Benin plaques (also in the
gallery), which were inspired by European book illustrations.
• In these representations, the central figure is always the representation of an ancestor.
o Here the ancestor is wearing a top hat.
o The top hat in Ijo culture is suggestive of the long relationship that they
have had with Europeans, which dates as far back as the 1400s, before
Nigeria became independent.
o The use of the European top hat is meant to indicate the high status of the
ancestor.
o It shows the ancestor as very cosmopolitan, as a successful trader, who
worked very closely with Europeans.
• Flanking the ancestor, are two family members, who are clearly distinguished from
the central ancestor figure by the fact that they are wearing traditional conical hats.
• The two heads on top of the screen are decapitated people.
o They are intended as a metaphor for the bravery of the ancestor.
o The ancestor may have gone to war, but this was a way to increase the
status of the ancestor.
o He may never have seen warfare, but descendants may have put the two
heads to signify the bravery of the ancestor.
• The square holes were intended for mirrors.
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•
•
o Mirrors reflect light, and therefore are said to reflect spirits.
o The mirrors are now missing.
These funerary screens were placed on altars, dedicated to the spirit of the ancestor
and were used in the families for a long time; any ancestor that accomplished a whole
lot was one worth commemorating.
Around the beginning of the 1900s, there was an evangelist of the Ijo area, who
decided to go on an iconoclastic frenzy.
o He felt these screens were idols that the local people were worshipping,
and he decided to convince the people to burn their ancestral screens.
o Many of the screens were thrown into piles, and fire was set to them.
o The British managed to recover about twelve of them.
o The British Museum most of them in their collection, and we were very
lucky that some of them survived in the community and survived in
American hands.
o The dealer who had this in his collection had it for over fifteen years, and
had purchased it from a local Ijo collector.
o This makes us one of the few American museums to have this type of
screen in our collection.
Pronunciation:
Ijo: ee-JOH
Summer 2007
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Object Data
Ancestor Figure, 1800s
Wood
Dogon culture, Mali
Object Label Text
• Appearance
o This is a male figure holding either a pipe or a flute. It looks very old and worn.
The figure sits on a cylindrical stool, with caryatid figures supporting it.
o The headgear and beard are distinctive; they are found consistently in Dogon art.
o Dogon always emphasize on verticals and horizontals, and a rectilinear approach
to the depiction of the human body. From the neck down a series that seem to
intersect each other at right angles, even the chest, which seems to be a cylinder
intersecting the neck and the torso, which is straight. The limbs are the same, and
the intersections of horizontals and verticals is very typical of Dogon art.
• Function:
o A figure like this would have been shown on an ancestral altar. It would have had
a female counterpart. It would have been the focus of considerable ritual attention
over the years, which is why the surface is so worn. The two figures would have
been the focus of clan and family rituals. Dogon ancestors would have played a
crucial role in clan and family life, including the agricultural activities and general
social life.
Pronunciation:
Dogon: DOH-gon
Summer 2007
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Group Theme Text: Art and World Religions
Christianity and Islam in African Arts
Within 300 years of Christianity’s beginning, monks brought Christianity to Egypt and
Ethiopia. Similarly, decades after Islam’s foundation, Muslim conquerors brought the
religion to northern Africa. In the years after each introduction, the new religions took
hold in parts of the continent to varying degrees in the wake of trade, conquest,
colonization, and missionary work.
While some Africans became Christian or Muslim, others held to their traditional
spiritual practices. Still others seamlessly blended elements of Christianity or Islam into
their own religions.
Discover some ways African artists express Christianity and Islam in their art. You will
find outward expressions, such as images of Christian saints. You’ll also find Islamic
objects without explicit imagery, such as the African tunic with Qur’anic verses tucked
away in an amulet.
Within the section of ancestors and other spirits there is a group of objects representing
Christianity and Islam. Ethiopia has one of the earliest Christian traditions in all of
Africa. Some scholars believe that Christianity started in Ethiopia much earlier than
many parts of Europe, going back to as far as the fourth century C.E. DIA objects date
from the 1600s-1800s.
Summer 2007
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Object Data
Triptych: Icon of the Virgin Mary, late
17th century
Oil on olive wood panel
Unknown artist
Ethiopian
19 x 23 3/8 x 1 inches
DIA no. 2002.3
Object Label Text
• This triptych shows the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ, and representations of the
Apostles.
• The wings are lashed to the central panel.
Summer 2007
54
Object Data
Hand-Held Processional Cross, 1800s–
1900s
Silver alloy
Unknown artist
Coptic culture, Egypt
13 ¾ x 5 3/8 x 1 5/8 in.
DIA no. 1991.1078
Object Label Text
• These were used in annual Christian festivals, when Ethiopian Coptic Christians
carried them in processions.
Summer 2007
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Object Data
Hunters Tunic, 1800s
Cotton, leather and dye
Unknown artist
48 x 52 inches
DIA no. 2005.59.1
Also included:
Conical Cap, 1800s
Leather and animal skin
Unknown artist
8 x 10 inches
DIA no. 2005.59.2
Flywhisk, 1800s
Animal tail fur and leather
Unknown artist
Length: 20 inches
DIA no. 2005.59.3
Sachet (Bag), 1800s
Leather and animal teeth
Unknown artist
¾ x 4 inches
DIA no. 2005.59.4
Object Label Text
• This is a complete set of objects of a warrior’s attire:
o The cap
o The flywhisk
o The medicine sachet, with lion’s teeth underneath
o The tunic, intended to protect the body of the warrior
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•
•
This group of objects is associated with Islam.
Islam, in West Africa especially, was far more tolerant of local traditions, than
elsewhere.
o This shirt has elements that tie it to local medicinal practice, also elements
that are tied to the Islamic religion.
o One leather-encased amulet has a leopard skin, some with lion fur on it,
and red fabric.
o All these elements are associated with warfare.
o The shirt was boiled in herbs, giving it a distinctive color.
o The herbs have different spiritual properties, and are capable of protecting
the person who wears it.
o Some of the leather-encased amulets contain different herbs, which are
supposed to provide another layer of protection.
o In addition you have leather-encased amulets that contain inscriptions
copied from verses of the Qu’ran.
o The written word—to many of the Akan (Asante and other Akan
people)—is very precious. Words that were taken out of the Holy Book of
Islam were considered to be efficacious when placed into these amulets
and sewn, and provided protection against guns or knives.
o This is the Asante version of medieval armor.
Pronunciation:
Asante: ah-SAHN-tay
Summer 2007
SG Adult African
57
Gallery Text: Cycles of Life
Milestones mark the journey of life
Human experience is marked with pivotal moments, and, like people everywhere,
Africans commemorate these milestones, often using works of art.
•
Birth. Ceremonial dolls are believed to protect the unborn child and to ensure a safe
delivery. Figures showing a mother and child honor the nurturing role of mothers.
•
Adolescence. Masks and sculptures are used in ceremonies to help educate children
as they mature mentally, physically, and spiritually into adults.
•
Marriage. Artworks portray the male-female relationship as the ideal social unit,
emphasizing the complementary roles men and women play in society.
•
Death. Through art and ceremony, the living help the dead complete the journey from
this world to the afterlife. Associated objects may communicate the earthly status of
the deceased person.
As you explore the artworks in this gallery, think about the objects you use to celebrate
the birth of a child, rejoice in a couple’s union, or honor the loss of a loved one
African works of art mark, celebrate, and reflect on crucial milestones in human life—
birth, puberty, marriage, death—that are significant to people at different stages of their
lives.
Summer 2007
SG Adult African
58
Object Data
Mother and Child Figure, early 1900s
Wood
Unknown artist
Bamana culture, Mali
51 x 10 x 11 inches
DIA no. 2003.66
Object Label Text (excerpt):
Mothers ensure society’s survival
Artists from many African cultures carve mother-and-child figures to honor women’s
spiritual, nurturing, and procreative roles. Individuals use these sculptures in ceremonies
to help women overcome fertility. While the image of the mother is usually carved in
great detail, the infant remains fairly abstract, a mere extension of the parent’s identity.
•
The sculpture on the left sits on a cylinder-shaped stool—a symbol of great honor,
usually reserved for leaders. The figure’s cone-shaped hat represents spiritual
power.
Group Theme Text: Birth and Childhood
Spiritual life begins before birth
Some African dolls, like those here, symbolize an unborn child whose spirit has not yet
taken human form. They reflect the ideals of beauty for particular cultures, giving
physical form to a parent’s wish. A doll also offers spiritual protection for the child once
born and later may become his or her toy.
Mother-and-child images promote fertility, protect the mother and her unborn child, and
honor the nurturing role of mothers. A suckling infant, large breasts, and an “outie” belly
button all symbolize women’s role in childbirth. Some maternal figures also bear
distinctive scars, which may indicate an ideal, morally-upright woman who has been fully
initiated into her society.
• This mother and child figure is used in a society that is responsible for helping
barren women overcome infertility.
• This figure never operates by itself.
o It is one of an ensemble of figures, including a male counterpart and
several representations of children.
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•
•
In these representations, the mother is always given power attributes.
o Sometimes there is a dagger on the side of the hand of the mother, or an
arrow, or a spear.
o The conical headgear is associated with warriors and, therefore, connotes
extraordinary power.
It is very worn on the surface because of the frequent ritual washing of the figure,
which has caused erosion of the surface.
o A figure like this would have been used for a very long period of time.
Pronunciation:
Bamana: BAHM-ahn-ah
Summer 2007
SG Adult African
60
Object Data
Mpondo Bride and Groom's Ensemble consisting of 105 Pieces, 1950's
Cotton, glass, plastic, metals, rubber, wool, bone, wood
Unknown artist
Xhosa culture, Republic of South Africa
DIA no. 2004.1.1-51 and 2004.2.1-54
Object Label Text
Xhosa (pronounce: KOH-suh) women from southern Africa meticulously strung and
wove the beadwork on these outfits made for a bride and groom. Friends and family
attending their wedding ceremony would have understood the special significance of the
work—the beads represented both families’ wealth and the importance they attached to
their ancestors.
Group Theme Text: Marriage
Marriage marks a change in status
In many cultures around the world, marriage is an important transition celebrated with
special clothes and treasured objects. In much of Africa, as elsewhere, marriage
transcends the union of two individuals, and becomes a bond between two families.
A couple’s wedding attire symbolizes this change in status. Colors, materials and designs
of wedding garments can have specific meanings to families. Clothing highlights family
history, acknowledging important ancestors. Outfits incorporating precious materials may
convey family wealth and a wish for abundance. Some elements of dress may ensure the
couple’s fertility, or provide spiritual protection during this critical transition.
The distinctive clothing you see here highlights the two levels of union—male with
female, and family with family—enacted in marriage. Ancestors, integral to all families,
are represented by the multiple strands of beads. The beadwork symbolizes the joining
together of family ancestors in the union between a husband and a wife.
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• This is a pair of bridal outfits, for a bride and a groom.
o It is from Xhosa culture (pronounced Koh-sah).
o The subgroup is called Mpondo, from South Africa. It was collected in the
1950s.
• There is a strong emphasis on beadwork.
o In the Xhosa culture, beadwork has to do with ancestors and social identity.
o In Xhosa culture, the weight of the beads is equivalent to the weight of one’s
pride in one’s ancestors.
o Most of these are seed beads; they are very tiny.
o They are trade beads, traded down south into the Xhosa area.
o They have been used elsewhere in the association of leadership, especially in
the late 1800s and early 1900s, when there was large importation of these
trade beads.
• These ensembles are made by family members, specifically for the occasion.
o Both outfits have crowns.
o The male is identified by the beaded can.
o On this occasion, this would have contained medicines to protect the male.
o The female is also given some protective amulets, including the medal.
o There is a total of about 423 individual objects with these two individual
outfits.
• The staff for the man is also covered in beads.
o Beads are not only status items, they have religious significance.
o When you wear beads, you are closer to the ancestors, whose presence is
symbolized by the beads.
o The colors of the beads reflect particular familial preferences.
Pronounced:
Mpondo: em-PON-doh
Xhosa: KOH-suh
Summer 2007
SG Adult/African
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Antelope Headdress (Chiwara), early
1900s
Wood, metal and fabric
Unknown artist
Bamana culture, Mali
17 x 21 inches
DIA no. 2005.40
Group Label Text
Chiwara, a mythical antelope
Masks depicting antelopes, called Chiwara [pronounce: CHEE-wah-rah], play a central
role in the initiation of Bamana boys into adulthood. According to tradition, Chiwara, a
mythical antelope, taught the Bamana people of Mali how to cultivate the land. Every
year, Chiwara masks are danced during an event in which adolescent boys compete to
demonstrate their farming skills—knowledge critical to adulthood. The winner of the
competition is deemed “Chiwara” for his exemplary agricultural talents.
Mask styles vary from region to region. Some masks portray the antelope realistically,
with a solid body and curving, horizontal horns. Others are abstract, with straight, vertical
horns, and an open latticework mane.
• This is a horizontal Chiwara (due to the configuration of the horns); a vertical
Chiwara will also be on view in the galleries.
• This is a headdress.
o A basketry cap attached to a base underneath, a face mask fits on the top of the
head of the person who dances the mask.
o A large raffia (fiber) costume that covers the rest of the body.
• The Chiwara masks generally shows an aspect fot he antelope form.
o This example is strikingly naturalistic.
• The wedge-shaped forms (decorations) incised on the surface are distinctive to
Bamana figurative forms.
o The red fabric tied to the horns protects the young men against negative forces.
• Chiwara is a mythical antelope credited with teaching ancestors of the Bamana people
how to agriculture.
o Chiwara is considered to be a cultural hero.
• In Bamana culture, at the end of a boy’s initiation into manhood, Chiwara
masquerade is performed.
Summer 2007
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63
•
•
o Dancers would wear masks depicting a male and a female antelope.
o This is a male Chiwara; the female Chiwara would have a baby on the back..
o The masks would honor the young men for going through the ritual of initiation,
but more specifically they will celebrate one initiate who will excel in the best
farmer competition.
o This honor reenacts the mythical Chiwara.
Although this is a boy’s initiation, the dancing of the male and female masks together
reinforces belief in the complementary roles of the sexes (they support each other).
o Women also sing, along with male drummers.
To be a farmer in Bamana culture is to be a responsible husband and father.
o This is the ideal that is instilled into all who go into the initiation ceremony.
Summer 2007
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64
Object Data
Mask, 1800s–1900s
Wood, kaolin
Unknown artist
Fang culture, Gabon
8 ¾ x 5 5/8 x 3 ¼ inches
DIA no. 70.92
Object Label Text
• The heart-shaped face is characteristic of the art of Fang culture.
o The white-face mask is associated with death and spirits of the departed.
o Such masks are used in commemorative performances in association with the
visit of spirits of the dead come into the community.
• Masks have simple faces and very distinctive headgear associated with Fang elite.
Summer 2007
SG Adult/African
65
NORTH WING--Arts of Asia: Introduction—2007 tour
Photography by Asian artists will be featured on a rotating schedule. Works will change
every three months.
Objects:
China, Korea and Japan
Hall of Thirty-Three Bays (Sea of Buddha), by Hiroshi Sugimoto, Japanese
Sakyamuni Emerging from the Mountains, Yuan Dynasty, China
Pillow, Koryo Dynasty, Korea
Tea Storage Jar, Bizen ware, Japanese
South and Southeast Asia
Parvati, Chola Dynasty, India
Bodhisattva Padmapani, Gandhara, present day Northern Pakistan
Subjects from the life of Parsvanatha, India
Summer 2007
SG NORTH/Adult ASIAN
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Object Data
Hall of Thirty-Three Bays (Sea of
Buddha), 1995
Hiroshi Sugimoto (b. 1948)
Gelatin silver print
Japanese
16 5/8 x 21 3/8 inches (image size)
DIA no. 2007.4.1-3
This object will be in rotation with other photographs.
Object Label Text
• Three photographs from a series of forty-eight black-and-white photographs entitled
Hall of Thirty-Three Bays.
• The subject is 1,000 standing sculptures of the eleven-headed (note the many heads in
his crown), thousand-armed Bodhisattva.
o The Bodhisattva’s name is Senju Kannon.
• These sculptures are housed in a Buddhist temple from the 1200s in Kyoto, Japan.
o The name of the temple is Hall of Thirty-three Bays, because structurally that
temple has thirty-three spaces (bays) separated by columns.
o The name also comes from the belief that the Senju Kannon was able to take
on thirty-three different manifestations (types of incarnations) in order to save
humanity in different guises.
• The artist photographed this installation over ten days in August 1995.
o It took him eight years to get permission to photograph inside this Japanese
temple.
o He received permission to remove everything in the temple that was not of the
period of the 1200s (including taking out the modern lighting).
o He went into the temple between the hours of 6:00 and 7:30 AM, so he could
have consistent light that filtered through the windows.
o The artist consistently used the same camera height and angle.
• The photographs that we exhibit will be three consecutive exposures in the series.
• The photographs are not merely documentary in intent.
o Sugimoto remakes images and reassesses place.
o They are not all evenly lit.
o He takes a modernist approach with repeated patterns and forms in the haloes
and faces, but at the same time, Sugimoto is aware of the historical
significance of this installation.
o The installation of 1,000 almost identical sculptures illustrates the idea of
merit through repetition in Buddhist thinking.
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o As with the repetition of chanting of prayers and sayings, you have the
repetition of devotions, towards acquiring merit.
o This is a photographic equivalent of this mantra-like repetition.
o There are slight differences among the sculptures and among the photographs.
Pronunciation:
Hiroshi Sugimoto: hee-ROH-shee SOO-gee-MOH-toh
Senju Kannon: SEN-joo KAN-non
Summer 2007
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Gallery Text: The Arts of China, Korea, and Japan
The works of art in this gallery span 3,000 years and are from China, Korea, and Japan.
These exceptional works represent outstanding achievements of artists from distinct East
Asian cultures, though many reflect shared characteristics. They were created over the
centuries for different contexts: the temple, the palace, as well as the tombs and
households of elite scholars and warriors.
As you explore this gallery, you will discover works of art distinctly associated with each
culture:

Bowls used in Japanese tea ceremonies
A box decorated with ox horn from Korea
Blue-and-white porcelain made in China
You will also notice similarities, both in subject matter and technique:
Images of the Buddha and his followers that illustrate the spread of Buddhism in
East Asia
Ink paintings of birds, insects, and plants that reveal a delight in nature
Lacquer ware, metalwork, and ceramics that point to the common use of artistic
techniques
Summer 2007
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Object Data
Sakyamuni Emerging from the
Mountains, late 1200s/early 1300s
Wood with lacquer, guilding, and traces
of color
Yuan Dynasty, China
11 ¾ x 8 1/8 x 6 ½ inches
DIA no. 29.172
Object Label Text
Sakyamuni [pronounced SAAH-kya-moo-nee], the founder of Buddhism, sits in serene
quietude. This sculpture depicts him in a moment after his emergence from the mountains
where he spent six years fasting and meditating while seeking enlightenment. His
sensitive, inward-looking expression reassures believers that enlightenment may be found
within one’s self.
• This sculpture is quite rare, it is one of the finest of this type from this period; not
many have survived.
• This is a rendition of the Sakyamuni Buddha, the founder of Buddhism.
• This pose is believed to depict Sakyamuni at a moment when he had emerged from
six years of fasting and meditation in the mountains in search of enlightenment.
o He wears a monk’s robe, draped over his left shoulder; swirling gracefully, it
covers both knees.
o He is shown in a meditative pose, not a pose of meditation, which would
traditionally have the figure with legs crossed. It is often called a meditative
pose, due to the expression on his face.
• He appears with attributions often included with Buddhist figures:
o The elongated earlobes: as a royally-born prince he would have worn heavy
gold-and-jewel-encrusted earrings, which, over time, distended his earlobes.
The missing earrings symbolize his renunciation of earthly riches on the path
to enlightenment.
o A slightly enlarged cranium (top of his head), the ushnisha is a symbol of
enlightenment.
o The circular shape (here depicted among the curls of his hair), a urna is a
traditional symbol of wisdom.
• Note the sculptor’s attention to detail and the serene, tranquil expression of the figure:
o The bones of his legs and arms indicate that he has been fasting
o Though damaged, one can see very long toenails and fingernails, denoting the
physical rigors of his many years of meditation.
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o There is gilding (the application of gold) apparent on his body and his face; a
first-century Chinese text describes the Buddha as emanating golden light.
o There are traces of decorative patterning on the red lacquer of the robe.
Pronunciation:
Sakyamuni: SAAH-kya-moo-nee
Ushnisha: oosh-NEE-shah
Urna: UHR-nah
Summer 2007
71
Object Data
Pillow, Late 1100s
Stoneware with celadon glaze and slip
(liquid clay) decoration
Artists unknown
Koryo Dynasty (935-1392,) Korean
4 ¾ x 9 ¾ x 3 inches
DIA no. 80.39
Object Label Text
Ceramics for the nobility
The ceramics on display were likely made for the Korean aristocracy for everyday or
ceremonial use. The tea bowl and pillow are stoneware ceramics with a green glaze
called celadon. This type of ceramics originated in China, but potters in tenth to twelfth
century Korea created celadons of distinctive forms and unrivaled quality. The particular
bluish-green glaze on these two pieces—called “kingfisher”—is especially prized.
• This object is quite rare: there are only a few Korean celadon pillows supported by
pairs of lions that remain in the world.
• Based on the small size of this pillow, it was likely made to function as a ritual object.
Small pillows like this one have been discovered from Korean tombs.
• In traditional East Asia, ceramic pillows were used in the summer and placed under
the neck, comfortably supporting the head while cooling the skin.
• The Koryo royal court used some of the finest examples of celadon pottery in their
palaces both as vessels for daily use and as objects of fine art.
• One of the “Four Animals” in traditional Korea, the lion was believed to protect the
home and family from fire.
• The Koryo people described the celadon’s mysterious color as “jade green.”
• The Chinese first made celadon wares in an attempt to recreate precious jade.
• Korean ceramicists made the unique and outstanding contribution of inlaying their
celadon wares. The inlaid decoration is created by incising the desired design on the
unglazed clay surface and filling in the incisions with slip (liquid clay) before glazing
and firing. Slip inlay was probably an attempt to imitate the effect of more expensive
inlaid bronzes.
Summer 2007
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Object Data
Tea Storage Jar, Bizen ware, late
1500s/early 1600s
Stoneware with ash glaze
Artist unknown
Japanese
16 7/8 x 17 inches
1989.73
Object Label Text
With its black fire marks, spots of ash glaze, and thumb marks, this earthenware jar
embodies rustic beauty, highly prized in Japan during the Edo period (1615–1868). Every
summer, tea storage jars were carried in a procession to the tea-growing region of Uji to
store and carry back fresh, young tea leaves for the shogun (military commander).
• In traditional Japanese ceramics, this is valued as embodying a “rustic aesthetic”
quality.
o This was originally a functional object, made in a rural kiln, with local
materials.
o They would feature fairly bold forms with simple unpretentious decorations.
o Objects like this were originally intended for everyday use by farmers, made
by, and for, the farmers.
• In the middle to late 1500s, a great master of the tea ceremony, by the name of Sen no
Rikyu, advocated the use of rustic ware for use in the formal Japanese tea ceremony.
o This is to promote the Zen Buddhist ideas of humility and simplicity.
o These types of storage jar—made for use by a farmer—were elevated in
prestige and status to be used by the highest echelons of society.
• This jar might have been used to transport new tea every year at harvest time.
o Documentation shows that there were processions that carried the best, newlypicked tea leaves from the tea producing region of Uji back to Edo (modern
day Tokyo, the center of power for the Shoguns).
• This is not a wheel-thrown pot. It is made by the method of coiling ropes of clay,
which is smoothed with a paddle.
o It originally had a cover, which would have been tied down by the lugs.
o These lugs have a tactile quality to them. They are pieces of the roped clay
that are pressed onto the shoulder of the pot. Thumbprints are easily seen on
them.
o Though this may look like a plain brown jar, there are well placed ash marks
and fire marks.
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o Originally occurring accidentally, the marks on this jar are intentional
decorative motifs, giving the pot a sense of effortless rusticity.
Pronunciation:
Shogun: SHOH-gun
Summer 2007
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Gallery Text: Arts of South and Southeast Asia
The Arts of South and Southeast Asia
This gallery displays works of art associated with the concepts and teachings of
Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism, three of the many religions that are practiced
throughout South and Southeast Asia. Today, this vast region includes sixteen countries,
and is home to over two billion people.
Thousands of years of exchange have brought about great diversity—in language,
culture, and philosophy—and also much commonality in the form of certain shared
artistic traditions and religious practices.
In this gallery, you will see:
• Stone sculptures that were once part of temples
• Bronze figures used in religious processions
• Small objects that serve as an aid to personal devotions
As you view these works, notice their details, such as a lotus blossom or the gesture of a
hand. These aspects work together to create complex symbolic meanings.
• This gallery is divided by religion, not by geographic culture.
o Hindu art
o Buddhist art
o Jain art
• All three of these religious images originated from India.
• They share the common belief of existence as consisting of cycles of birth, life, death,
and rebirth, which are repeated until one breaks the cycle by attaining full
enlightenment. Upon attainment of full enlightenment, one no longer needs to be
reborn.
• Works of art associated with these religions express these ideas, realized by religious
leaders, about behavior and actions that help one on their path to enlightenment.
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Object Data
Parvati, 1200s
Bronze
Artist unknown
Chola Dynasty, India
40 ¾ x 15 ¾ x 14 ¼ inches
41.81
Object Label Text
Elegantly voluptuous, the Hindu goddess Parvati [pronounced PAR-vah-thee] is often
depicted with a perfect balance of purity and sensuality, both perceived as female
attributes. Here she stands on a lotus-shaped pedestal—a flower that grows in muddy
water, symbolizing purity that emerges from impurity. Parvati is a companion to Shiva
[pronounced SHIH-vah] the Destroyer. Together they are the parents of the universe.
• This object is a processional bronze.
o On the pedestal base there are small rings, through which wooden poles are
inserted, so that the sculpture can be carried on the shoulders of men.
o She is taken out of the temple to be seen and venerated by worshippers on
important festival days.
o The act of seeing is important in Hindu culture. The worshipper both sees the
deity and is seen by the deity, who is embodied in the sculpture.
• This sculpture would not have been seen like this in the procession.
o It would have been richly adorned with silk, jewelry, and flower garlands.
o Viewers probably only see the hands and face of this sculpture.
o This is how the sculpture would have been seen in the temple, unadorned.
• Parvati is the consort of the god Shiva.
o Shiva is one of the three major Hindu deities that embody the cycle of
existence:
Brahma: the Creator
Vishnu: the Preserver
Shiva: the Destroyer
o This sculpture would have accompanied a larger sculpture of Shiva, side-byside in procession.
• According to Hindu belief, Shiva and Parvati are the primordial parents.
• She is also the peaceful manifestation of Devi, who is the major female Hindu deity.
o She embodies the ideal female form, with prominent breasts and hips.
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•
•
o She is shown in a classic triple bend pose, which is common to Hindu
sculpture:
The right shoulder is slightly dipped
The right hip is prominently thrust to its side
Her left knee is bent, distributing her weight to her right leg
Her right hand probably held an actual lotus flower during processions.
o The lotus is a symbol of transcendence and purity because the white lotus
grows out of muddy waters.
o She stands atop a base in the form of a lotus flower.
This sculpture is from a region in south India known as Tamil Nadu.
Pronunciation:
Parvati: PAR-vah-tee
Shiva: SHIH-vah
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Object Data
Bodhisattva Padmapani, 200/400
Gray schist
Artist unknown
Gandhara, present day Northern Pakistan
20 ¾ x 15 x 8 inches
2006.109
Group Object Label
• This is a Buddhist work of art from the ancient region of Gandhara.
o Gandhara is essentially modern-day northern Pakistan.
o During the years of 100s and 200s C.E., the Gandhara region was
dominated by many different ethnic groups and its rulers were tolerant of
religious differences, though many were Buddhist converts.
• Gandharan artists were among the first to make Buddhist images in human form.
o Prior to this time, most images of the Buddha where depicted
symbolically, for example by a palm.
o They were the first to depict the Buddha and Bodhisattvas as humans.
• This is a representation of a Bodhisattva.
o A Bodhisattva is one who has attained enlightenment and has escaped the
cycle of death and rebirth.
o Through their compassion, they have chosen to remain on earth and help
others on their own path to enlightenment.
• This figure:
o Wears an elaborate jeweled turban with a lion’s face as a crest.
o He has elongated earlobes, adorned with earrings.
o He has a variety of necklaces and cords across his chest.
• These are characteristic attributes of Bodhisattvas, who are considered spiritual
princes, and therefore richly attired.
o Bodhisattvas are traditionally richly adorned as opposed to images of the
Buddha, which are traditionally plainly dressed.
o He has a peaceful, serene expression
o The urna, the traditional symbol of wisdom, is depicted as a circular shape
between the eyebrows.
• This style of sculpture is typical to the Gandharan region
o It looks vaguely Greco-Roman:
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With classicizing features in the face
Idealized body and musculature
The counterpoised body
o In the forth-century B.C.E., this region was conquered by Alexander the
Great, and descendants still lived in the region.
o Gandhara was strategically placed on the trade routes between the Roman
Empire and India and China
o The classical style combines with Buddhist iconography
Pronunciation:
Padmapani: PAHD-mah-pahn-nee
Bodhisattva: BOH-dee-SAHT-vah
Gandhara: gahnd-HAHR-rah
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Object Data
Subjects from the life of Parsvanatha,
950/1050
Sandstone
Artist unknown
India
12 ¼ x 33 x 5 ¾ inches
43.39
Object Label Text
See next page for gallery pull-out panel for this object.
• This work is believed to have originally been part of a Jain temple.
o Jainism is probably less known by the public than Hinduism or Buddhism.
o Jainism originated around the same time as Buddhism: the sixth-century
B.C.E.
o Non-violence is a primary precept of Jainism, which has influenced Buddhism
and Hinduism.
• Jain belief includes the 24 Jinas, who are thought of as spiritual victors or spiritual
leaders who have attained perfect knowledge and enlightenment and have taught it to
others.
• There are two figures depicted as being posed in meditation.
o They are both interpreted to be figures of Parsvanatha, the 23rd of the 24 Jinas.
o Jinas are often, though not exclusively, depicted nude; the term used for this
sort of depiction is “sky-clad.” It is a symbol of renunciation of worldly
riches.
o On both figures, there is a diamond-shaped lozenge on Parsvanatha', which is
a typical mark associated with the Jina, which identifies it.
• Surrounding the two meditating figures are family scenes.
o The center scene shows Parsvanatha, before he became enlightened, with his
father, his mother holding him, and his brother.
o To the right, is a family scene, where Parsvanatha is being held by his mother.
o There is a notable contrast between the serene meditative scenes, and the
bustling family-life depictions, with richly adorned parents taking care of
children.
Pronunciation:
Jain: JAYN
Jinas: JEE-nahs
Parsvanatha: PAR-svah-nah-thah
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Summer 2007
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81
Images selected for docent training/tours of new African American art galleries
The African American art collection of the DIA is presented in galleries solely dedicated
to the presentation of African American art in order to help the public learn who the
artists are. We have organized them around specific themes so that visitors can learn
about issues pertinent to the development of African American art from the early
nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century. These themes also emphasize aspects
of the African American experience.
One gallery in the American collection is also dedicated to African American works. In
this study guide, they appear on pages 4-8.
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The African American galleries are organized by themes:
African American Artists in the 1800s
Little Girl in Pink with Goblet: Portrait of Emma van Name, Joshua Johnson
Ellen’s Isle, Loch Katrine, Robert Scott Duncanson
Flight Into Egypt, Henry Ossawa Tanner
Ourselves/Our Lives
John Brown, a man who had a fanatical belief that he was chosen by God to
overthrow black slavery in America, Jacob Lawrence
Gamin, Augusta Savage
The Art of the Negro: Artists, Hale Woodruff
Political and Social Consciousness
Change Your Luck, Robert Colescott
Autobiography: Air–CS560, Howardena Pindell
Portrait of Christopher D. Fisher, Fourth Reich Skinhead, Peter Williams
To Disembark: Billie Holiday, Glenn Ligon
Beyond Midnight (Magie Noire), Betye Saar
African American Art after World War II
Terracotta Head, Elizabeth Catlett
The Arc Maker I & II, Sam Gilliam
Untitled, Therman Statom
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Gallery Text: African American Artists in the 1800s
As African American artists gained access to the world of fine arts in the 19th Century,
they studied European and European-American traditions to create works that attracted
patronage and demonstrated their equal abilities.
• The nineteenth-century African American art gallery is in the American wing
because, aesthetically, these artists of the 1800s, either African American or
European-American, all shared similar interests.
• This gallery begins to tell the story of African American art by focusing on the theme
of how African American artists gained access to the world of fine art in the
nineteenth century.
o They studied European and European-American traditions to excel in
painting, sculpture, decorative arts, and works on paper, creating works that
attracted patronage, and demonstrated their equal abilities.
o Various social and economic advancements contributed to this development,
such as the support of abolitionists and the end of slavery, as well as the
increase in patronage for American art.
• The three artists discussed here are African American artists who individually became
experts in handling subject matter that dominated American painting of the nineteenth
century: portraiture, landscape, and Biblical painting.
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Object Data
Little Girl in Pink with Goblet: Portrait
of Emma van Name, 1805
oil on canvas
Joshua Johnson
American, about 1765-1830
29 x 23 inches
DIA no: T2002.121
Object Label Text
Joshua Johnson is the earliest documented African American painter. Like many other
American artists in the 1800s, he earned a living painting portraits.
At the time, portraits of children typically showed them as miniature adults. Here,
Johnson gave special attention to details of the child’s clothing, an indication of her
family’s prosperity.
• This painting depicts a little girl wearing a pink dress, who stands by an oversized
goblet. She has been identified as Emma van Name.
• She has a little whistle around her neck. Her size and clothes indicate she’s supposed
to be around four year old. Her face, however, sees like that of a little adult; typical of
early-American portraiture.
• Sometimes the subjects are shown near open-casement window with landscape views
as we see here. The incorporation of a large goblet of strawberries competes for the
viewer’s attention. The symbolic significance of these glass pieces, if any, is
unknown. They represent household furnishings owned by the sitters. They gave
Johnson an opportunity to try his hand at painting materials that were considered
difficult by most artists. The little girl’s dress and bonnet also reflect Johnson’s deft
handling of transparent materials and details during this period of his career.
• His style and early subjects link colonial portraiture to indigenous folk tradition. It
was a very conservative painting style. The straightforward painting technique
consists of closely-modeled forms, sharp value contrasts of light and dark colors, and
stilted poses. Johnson was self-taught. No Baltimore artist of the period painted more
portraits of children than did Johnson. Typically, the figures gaze forward, with
details of dress and face crisply delineated. The formulaic features of the children, the
overall stiffness of their figures, and the lack of any evocation of psychological depth
in their visage are characteristic of Johnson and various noted portraitists of this time.
• Johnson was a freed black artist who was active during the late eighteenth and the
first quarter of the nineteenth century, in Baltimore, Maryland. He is the earliest
documented professional African American painter. He’s believed to have been born
a slave, but was freed by 1796, supposedly by his white father.
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•
Unlike typical American portrait painters, who were itinerant, Johnson spent his
career in the vicinity of his home city. Itinerancy among black artisans and artists was
ill-advised, because slave traders were active and patrols and slave auctions routine.
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 rendered all African Americans potential escapees.
Despite such difficulties, Johnson thrived in his career, painting those who prospered
as mercantilists and their families.
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Object Data
Ellen’s Isle, Loch Katrine, 1871
oil on canvas
Robert Scott Duncanson
American, 1821-1872
28 ½ x 49 inches
DIA no: F80.215
Object Label Text
See extended interpretive on Duncanson in the gallery.
• Duncanson was able to convey the pastoral mood of a literary subject.
o The pastel-tinted mountains dissolve in the golden light on the horizon.
o The glowing sunset imbues Ellen’s Isle with a serene mood as it is reflected in
the shimmering surface of the lake.
o Breaking through the clouds and shining across the landscape, the light in this
picture is one of Duncanson’s most accomplished passages.
• One of Duncanson’s final paintings, Ellen’s Isle, Loch Katrine captures the charm
and serenity of the Scottish island described in Sir Walter Scott’s epic poem The Lady
of the Lake, published in 1810.
o In The Lady of the Lake, Scott intertwines Scottish legends of highland and
lowland wars with the theme of three men embattled over the love of a woman
named Ellen Douglas.
o Duncanson captured the landmarks mentioned in Scott’s texts, with Ellen’s
island home hidden by the domineering mountains of Ben Venue.
o Two boats with figures pass over this smooth sheet of the lake but they are
merely anecdotal elements and do not refer to a specific passage in Scott’s
text.
• Both painting and poem were popular with the European-American public, but they
held special significance to the African American community in the late 1800s.
o Abolitionist Frederick Douglass related, in his 1845 autobiography, that he
had adopted his surname from the Douglas clan referenced in Scott’s poem.
o Scholar W.E.B. DuBois spoke fondly of Scott’s poem as a memorable literary
work from his youthful education and ascribed the highland scenery of Loch
Katrine, the lake surrounding Ellen’s Isle, as the sort of world we want to
create for ourselves and for all in America.
o Duncanson’s painting contains the optimism associated with Scott’s subject,
through the vastness of the landscape and the sense of anticipation for what
lies beyond the horizon.
• Because the talent of African American fine artists was measured by their ability to
emulate art by European and European-American artists, they avoided creating works
that emphasized their race.
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•
•
•
o Instead, they focused on subjects that dominated the art of their time, and
landscape was one of those subjects.
As the result of his talent as a landscape painter, Duncanson became the first
internationally acclaimed African American artist.
o He grew up in Monroe, Michigan and came from a family of free African
Americans who made a living by specializing in house painting and glazing.
o He eventually taught himself about art by studying and copying engravings of
famous European paintings.
o By 1842, while traveling between Monroe, Michigan, Cincinnati, and Detroit,
he was painting mostly abolitionist portraits and landscapes.
o Within approximately fifteen years, he was proclaimed the best landscape
painter in the west, earning his reputation during frequent trips abroad to
exhibit in Canada, Scotland, England, and Italy.
Duncanson’s artistic success has been partly credited to the benevolence of American
and English abolitionists.
o These abolitionists made it possible for exhibitions of his work to travel to
different cities in the United States, particularly in this part of the country, but
also made it possible for his work to be shown in parts of Europe.
Duncanson was one of a group of painters who helped define a regional landscape art
known as Ohio River Valley Style.
o The eventual outbreak of the civil war discouraged outdoor sketching.
o Duncanson increasingly turned towards literary paintings.
o He was a member of the Cincinnati sketch club, and participated in their
discussions about literary subjects taken from the work of Lord Byron,
Thomas Moore, and John Milton.
o He continued to use literary subjects in his works for the rest of his life.
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Object Data
Flight Into Egypt, 1899
Oil on canvas
Henry Ossawa Tanner
American, 1859-1937
19 ½ x 24 ½ inches
DIA no: 69.452
Object Label Text
Henry Ossawa Tanner lived in France and was deeply influenced by impressionist
painting.
There are several indicators here of Tanner’s study of French painting. Notice how the
paint has been applied in a loose, almost sketchy manner. The pearly gray quality of the
nighttime scene also reflects the artist’s study of impressionist light affects.
• Flight Into Egypt was inspired by the environs of Jerusalem, which Tanner had seen
when he earlier visited the Holy Land.
o He provides visual details of the landscape, but he avoids defining the features
of Mary and Joseph, nor emphasizing the Christ Child, who is seen only as a
bundle of cloth on Mary’s lap
o He presents the Holy Family as ordinary people traveling towards their
destination.
They wanted to see the Middle East so they could paint the landscape
in their work as accurately as possible.
There was an interest in exotic cultures at the time, as well.
• This is a modernist approach to the presentation of a religious subject.
o He does not paint the haloes seen in earlier versions of New-Testament
subjects.
o These biblical figures become timeless travelers, whose anxious journey gives
them a universality that extends even to the African American migrants of
Tanner’s time.
• The blue-and-green palette here is permeated by a pearly gray, and the quicklyrendered brushstrokes provide a visual equivalent for the sense of touch.
o Tanner used an over-all light effect with luminosity generated by touches of
pale colors over dark.
• Tanner was born the son of a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
o Tanner spent most of his professional life in France, painting portraits, genre,
landscape, and religious subjects.
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•
o He received enthusiastic recognition in his own country and was the first
African American artist elected to full membership at the National Academy
of Design in 1927.
The theme of the flight into Egypt was one of Tanner’s favorites, and he rendered it
more than fifteen times during the course of his career.
o The DIA’s painting is believed, by some scholars, to be his earliest rendition
and sets the emotional and visual standard for subsequent versions.
o This subject of a biblical flight from persecution might have been linked in
Tanner’s mind with the plight of contemporary blacks, especially those who
migrated from southern states to the north.
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Gallery Text: Ourselves/Our Lives
New Art for a New Self-awareness
In the years after the Civil War, African Americans made significant inroads in areas
such as business, medicine, and the arts. At the same time, those who sought to
undermine black achievements and support white privilege flooded American mass
media with racist caricatures and imagery.
In the early 1900s, prominent African American intellectuals W.E.B. DuBois
(pronounced do-BOYS) and Alain Locke urged black artists to create positive images of
African Americans. They hoped that these depictions of African Americans would inspire
black people to new levels of confidence. The art in this room challenged the ways
African Americans were portrayed in mainstream American culture and countered racist
imagery.
• This gallery focuses on the theme of African American artists taking control of
defining the image of their people.
o This goal was raised in the early twentieth century during the period of the
Harlem Renaissance, when African American artists were urged by Black
intellectuals W.E.B. DuBois and Alain Locke to create new images of their
people to counteract the proliferation of racist stereotypes and caricatures by
white artists.
• The diverse and changing ways that African American artists achieved this over the
course of the twentieth century can be seen in this gallery, although much of the work
here dates from the first half of that century.
o This gallery includes sections on early portraiture produced during or inspired
by ideas associated with the Harlem Renaissance.
o There is a section on Jacob Lawrence’s John Brown series
o There are works dealing with the African American experience in urban
centers.
• There are several works on paper, and therefore rotations of work in this gallery will
take place. These rotations occur about every three months.
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Object Data
John Brown, a man who had a fanatical
belief that he was chosen by God to
overthrow black slavery in America,
1974–77
Screenprint
Jacob Lawrence
American, 1917–2000
20 x 14 inches
DIA no. F1983.18.1
Group Theme Text: John Brown, A Man Who Had a Fanatical Belief that He Was
The Beginning of John Brown’s Story
Jacob Lawrence portrays the story of John Brown, an intensely religious man whose
militance in the eradication of slavery led him and his followers along an increasingly
violent path.
To construct the composition of each image, Lawrence made striking use of simple
shapes and flat areas of color. This technique enables the artist to convey the story in a
direct and powerful manner
The first three images set the tone for the story. The crucifixion in the first image alludes
to Brown’s religious fervor while the weapons in the second foreshadow his violent end.
Land surveying was one way he supported his family and raised money for his antislavery activities.
• These works were originally executed in gouache (a water-based paint) on paper by
Jacob Lawrence in 1941. Screen prints were made later between 1974 and 1977
because the gouaches are delicate and can’t be exposed to light continually without
damaging the work.
• The series is related to the theme of this gallery because it is one of the earliest
examples of the desire of African American artists to portray historical events
pertinent to the history of their people, to take control of that history as a means to
educate their people.
• There are twenty-two images for this narrative series. Three of these images will be
on view at one time. These will be the screen prints. A railing displays smaller
reproductions of all of the twenty-two images at once, situated in front of the three
screen prints.
Additional Object Information:
• This work begins the John Brown series.
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•
•
•
•
•
•
o It is a crucifixion scene with Christ on the cross.
o John Brown appears as a small figure, hardly noticeable, standing in deep
contemplation at the foot of the cross.
The image serves as a prologue to the series.
o It foreshadows Brown’s eventual martyrdom.
o John Brown seems to be pondering his own tragic destiny.
o The caption, with its reference to Brown’s deeply-held Calvinist belief of
predestination lends credence to this interpretation.
o The setting that Lawrence has created is bleak, with the dark-brown hill of
Golgotha placed against a stormy sky with lowering clouds.
Some basic characteristics of Lawrence’s style, which was influenced by his lessons
in modernist style:
o opaque areas of color
o a reduction in details to emphasize the essential pictorial elements that will
convey the subject in the most direct manner.
o It is a fine example of Lawrence’s expressionistic use of color and its stylized
form to evoke the mood of a scene.
Lawrence created this famous narrative series on Brown while he was on his
honeymoon in New Orleans, where he experienced the racism and segregation of the
American South for the first time.
o Lawrence may have believed that John Brown’s dedication to fighting against
slavery represented the struggle for African American civil rights that lay
ahead.
o Lawrence had been doing some research on the subject of John Brown.
Critics of the time praised the paintings for Lawrence’s skillful balancing of the
pictorial elements for the sake of the overall design of the composition.
o Because of these qualities, Lawrence’s critics stopped discussing his work in
terms of “naïve” art, but began to acknowledge his modernist sophistication.
Lawrence’s formative years as an artist took place in 1930s Harlem, New York,
where Black artists, writers, and intellectuals had been actively working to construct a
new identity for the African American.
o Their dialogue focused on overturning stereotypes and creating a new self
image that reflected the cultural and intellectual achievements of the New
Negro Movement, more popularly recognized as the Harlem Renaissance.
o Nurtured and supported in this environment, Lawrence developed an approach
to making art that reflected a desire to empower African Americans and to
present their experiences through unique and modern imagery.
o By the age of twenty-four, he had completed several of his famous epic series
of paintings on the important African American heroic narratives.
o Because his main intention for turning to the serial format was to educate
African Americans about their history at a time when that information was not
widely available, each related painting in a series was accompanied by a
caption that explained what was going on in the image.
The John Brown series is unique in Lawrence’s body of work in that the main
protagonist is a white man.
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o However, John Brown the abolitionist who fought to his death with the
conviction that he had a divine mission to overthrow Black slavery in America
was, and is, regarded as a hero among many African Americans.
o The series represents Lawrence’s tribute to a man who laid down his life in
the struggle for freedom and justice.
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Object Data
Gamin, about 1930
Painted plaster
Augusta Savage
9 ¼ x 4 ½ x 3 ½ inches
DIA no. 2001.38
Object Label Text
• This is a small bust of a little boy: the painted plaster model. It is based on the image
of the nephew of the artist.
o This sculpture is one of several surviving plaster versions of the artist’s life
size bronze bust Gamin.
• “Gamin” is a term that was applied to street urchins who were often the subjects of
painting and literature in the nineteenth century.
o Here, the casually-attired street-wise boy appears to be about twelve years old.
o Although the sculpture represents a specific individual the subject
convincingly fits the profile of hundreds of pre-adolescent urban youths.
• Savage effectively captured the essence of her subject’s personality in this diminutive
bust.
o Wearing a bebop cap with a wide brim, cocked jauntily to the side, the figure
tilts its head in the same direction and looks past the observer with a slightly
sullen expression of typical boyhood defiance.
o This sculpture was modeled in clay, cast in plaster, and painted to resemble
the award-winning bronze version.
• Savage’s facility in handling the clay medium is clearly demonstrated in her sensitive
modeling of the boy’s broad features, deep-set eyes, and prominent ears.
o In addition, the open collar of his wrinkled shirt and crumpled cap, contribute
to the sculpture’s informality and immediate appeal.
• Today, we might assume that subject matter like this was always around and seems
quite benign, but actually it was a radical choice for an African American artist in the
earlier twentieth century.
o It is probably one of the earliest depictions of a little Black boy in American
sculpture.
• Savage had developed a reputation as a portraitist of Harlem Renaissance leaders,
such as W.E.B. DuBois and Marcus Garvey.
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Object Data:
The Art of the Negro: Artists, 1950-51
Oil on canvas
Hale Woodruff
23 x 21 inches
DIA no. 2004.14
Object Label Text
• This is a study for a mural in the library of Clark Atlanta University.
o It is a study for one of the six panels that comprise a mural known as The Art
of the Negro.
o The Art of the Negro mural consists of individual panels, each conveying a
particular statement about the evolution of the Black aesthetic.
o The DIA’s oil on canvas study is related to the panel on artists, although it
differs from the final version.
• This study depicts seventeen famous African Americans active during the eighteenth,
nineteenth, and twentieth centuries.
o The majority of these individuals are situated on different levels of a
landscape or a mound, while single figures on the left and right side of the
lower front of the renaissance-like composition lean or sit on a suggested
architectural element.
• For its subject, the artist chose to focus on the contributions of Black people to the
history of art.
o He wanted to create images that would instill pride in the African American
students at the school and the African American public regarding their own
cultural heritage.
• Hale Woodruff is mainly known as a painter who was adept in exploiting abstract art
to convey an image and aesthetic derived from black culture.
o Eager to learn about modern art, between 1927 and 1931 Woodruff studied in
Paris, where he was especially inspired by the art of Picasso and Cézanne, as
well as African art.
o The mural project was conceived by Woodruff when he was teaching at
Atlanta University.
o He temporarily abandoned his interest in modernist approaches for his art,
because he wanted to depict the reality of the lives of southern Blacks, who at
that time were living in poverty and fear of racial violence.
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o In 1936, Woodruff traveled to Mexico City to study with Diego Rivera for a
few months.
o Through his observations of the work of the Mexican muralist, Woodruff
came to admire how these artists used public mural art to educate the
indigenous population about neglected aspects of their Mexican history.
o Woodruff applied this lesson to his subsequent mural commissions.
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Figures in the Painting
1. Henry Ossawa Tanner, artist
2. Frederick Douglass, abolitionist
3. Booker T. Washington, political activist, educator
4. John Hope, Educator
5. Langston Hughes, poet, novelist, playwright
6. Denmark Vesey, leader of slave insurrection
7. Sojourner Truth, abolitionist
8. W.E.B. DuBois, civil rights activist
9. Henry Bibb, writer
10. Phillis Wheatley, poet
11. Countee Cullen, poet
12. Marian Anderson, singer
13. Reverend Richard Allen, preacher
14. Adam Clayton Powell, politician
15. George Washington Carver, scientist
16. Benjamin Banneker, scientist
17. Joshua, Johnson, artist
Above, muses of Asian, European, and African art.
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Gallery Text: Political and Social Consciousness
Expressing a Political and Social Consciousness
Empowered by the civil rights movement of the 1960s, some African American artists
began to portray the effects that poverty, racism, and segregation had upon their people.
This gallery includes art reflecting a concern for these issues, which continues into the
present. In addition, it includes art that references the oppression of people throughout the
world as well as hope for the resolution of human conflicts.
Although many American artists were exploring techniques related to abstraction by the
middle of the 20th century, African American artists who were interested in asserting
political and social issues through their art often favored using the human form to
communicate their messages. Today, artists use these and a wide variety of styles and
techniques to express their ideas about the times in which they live.
• Art in this gallery reveals that sense of turbulence of the 1960s and 1970s due to the
struggle for civil rights and the Vietnam War.
• Some African American artists have created art expressing their political and social
concerns.
• The gallery begins with the works of art created during the civil rights movement but
continues with contemporary pieces demonstrating that interest in these issues is
ongoing and evolving.
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Object Data
Change Your Luck, 1988
Acrylic on canvas
Robert Colescott
American, born 1925
84 x 72 inches
DIA no. 2002.126
Object Label Text
• In the painting, abbreviated images of men and women with symbols of good and bad
luck appear to float around the central figure of a blacksmith.
• The abbreviated images:
o A woman holding a black cat
o A figure cringing with a Voodoo-type doll representing him
o A horseshoe
o Dice
o A man wearing a shirt with a four-leaf clover on it
• Colescott was fascinated with the subject of this obsession about luck, because there
is an extensive amount of American folklore about luck, some of which refers to
interracial relationships.
o The title of the painting alludes to this idea, because the expression
“change your luck” is a coded phrase that refers to interracial romantic
relationships between men and women.
o To emphasize the point, an interracial couple is featured in the upper right
corner of painting.
o Colescott is equally intrigued by the myths and symbols associated with
the work of the blacksmith and his profession—which is derived from
their work with the horseshoe, a symbol of luck—and African folklore
about blacksmiths’ supernatural powers.
o Ultimately, Colescott finds irony about the history of Black men in
America’s south working as blacksmiths and the emptiness of their
fortune.
• In response to the social and political upheaval of the sixties, Colescott offered social
commentary on issues of race and discrimination, confronted sexual stereotypes and
taboos, and challenged artistic hierarchies.
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•
o By 1975, he was parodying artistic masterpieces of the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries by replacing white characters with caricatures of
African Americans and Africans.
Since 1975, Robert Colescott has been critiquing, in his art, accepted notions about
race, from an African American perspective.
o Change Your Luck reveals that Colescott style continued to combine
satire, narrative configuration, and expressionist tendencies.
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Object Data
Autobiography: Air–CS560, 1988
Mixed media
Howardena Pindell
American, born 1943
87 x 84 inches
DIA no. 2000.44
Object Label Text
Howardena Pindell combines different materials and phrases to create a commentary on
man’s inhumanity to man. Using outlines of her body, words describing torture and
abuse, and a reference to the tear gas Air CS560, she draws our attention to oppression of
people throughout the world.
•
•
This work combines a number of media including acrylic, tempera, oilstick, and
vinyl tape.
o These media are placed on an irregularly shaped cut and sewn canvas.
In the work, four silhouettes containing police demarcations of corpses—colored
in various skin-tones—spring from the center of the composition.
o These silhouettes resulted from Pindell making four cutouts of the contour of
her body in various poses and stitching them within a somewhat circular
canvas.
o The ragged areas around these bodies suggest tearing and fragmentation as
well as barbed wire.
o In the work’s center, a newspaper photograph taken from the New York
Times depicts a beaten man whose head is wrapped in a bandage.
o A myriad of word messages, such as “PLASTIC-COATED BULLETS,”
“IRON FISTS,” “DEPORTATION,” “SPIRIT OF COOPERATION WITH
SOUTH AFRICA” “CENSORSHIP,” etc. are combined with the delicately
painted demarcations to indict the western press for white-washing certain
facts relating to current events.
o She sews strips of canvas to form large amorphous organic-looking shapes.
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•
•
•
o These, Pindell painted with cross-hatchings of small parallel paint strokes that
created something like the texture of an allover weave.
o For Pindell, the strips of sewn canvas (which she calls weavings) allude to the
narrow-strip weavings of West Africa, to women’s handiwork, with the
impasto of paint creating a corrugated surface that suggests physical and
psychological wounds and healings.
o She included images and texts in these paintings that responded to
documentary evidence of world-wide geopolitical atrocities—torture, famine,
apartheid, displacement—that emotionally overwhelmed her.
The title is taken from a tear gas that is manufactured in Pindell’s home state of
Pennsylvania.
o The teargas CS560 was used in the Gulf War and Viet Nam, and, for Pindell,
is an example of American complicity in, and profit from, war.
o She has explained that although the painting originally directly expressed her
feelings about the oppression of the Palestinians (because what was going on
at the time she created the painting), it also relates to all struggles throughout
the world by people who do not wish for their land, resources, homes, labor,
culture, or lives to be stolen or destroyed.
Howardena Pindell is committed to a discourse about discrimination and sexism,
colonialism and post-colonialism.
o Here, she addresses how western societies have tried and still try to sustain
their privileges as paradigms of civilization, culture, and intellectualism world
wide.
This painting is a moving example of the artist’s commitment to social protest. It
is about international genocide, war, and human rights violations.
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Object Data
Portrait of Christopher D. Fisher,
Fourth Reich Skinhead, 1995
Oil on canvas
Peter Williams
American, born 1952
60 x 48 inches
DIA no. 1996.4
Object Label Text
White supremacist Christopher D. Fisher was convicted of conspiring to bomb an African
American church in 1993.
In this portrait, Peter Williams seems to peel away the skin from Fisher’s smiling face to
reveal his disturbing, underlying character. “Race war” is written across his forehead, and
small racist images of wide-eyed black faces surround him.
• This is a close-up portrait of how the artist Peter Williams envisions the true face of
the white supremacist Fisher.
o Fisher was the leader of the Fourth Reich Skinheads and was convicted in Los
Angeles in 1993 of conspiring to ignite a race war by bombing the popular
First African Methodist Episcopal Church and killing prominent African
Americans.
o In the middle of his forehead, are the words “RACE WAR.” There’s also a
sign with the words “PatRIOT BAR,” which possibly refers to the location
where Fisher and his cohorts developed their plot.
• The only thing traditional about the painting is Williams’ depiction of his subject
looking out at the viewer with a smile on his face.
o Otherwise, he presents Fisher like a monster from a nightmare, with his skin
seemingly peeled away, with additional eyes located in different parts of his
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•
head, and small images of wide-eyed children surrounding the periphery of his
face.
Williams has presented his subject as a monster to convey the ugliness of the whitesupremacist psychology, or inner self.
o This painting belongs to a series by the artist focused on perpetrators of hate
crimes.
o The effect of this type of portraiture is to bring the reality of unperceived
racial hatred and violence into the calm and safety of the art gallery.
o Williams confronts the cultural myth of equality with the reality of bigotry
and racism that is all too real in most of our culture.
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Gallery Text: Examining Identities
How do you define yourself? By your gender? Religion? Perhaps by your profession. As
someone’s parent or child?
Do you accept some of your identities and question others?
As individuals, we are always more than one thing at any time. In this gallery, African
American artists examine issues related to being black in contemporary American
society. Some consider how identity is shaped by history, including the influences of
racism, enslavement, resistance, and self-empowerment. Others examine the complex
meanings personal traits like hair or skin color can have for the individual and as symbols
of identity. Artists also comment on attitudes and habits that are not limited to individuals
of any one race, but that contribute to how one experiences the world.
All of these artists, however, bring issues to their art that invite us to question what
informs who we are, how we are perceived, and what undermines and transforms us.
• The art in this smaller gallery demonstrates how some contemporary African
American artists break with the past and, with traditional concepts of African
American identity, and create works based on their own understanding of the African
American experience in a complex and diverse contemporary society.
o This gallery includes works on paper by contemporary African American
artists, dealing with the notion and complexity of identity in contemporary
society.
• In early twentieth-century art, especially art of the Harlem Renaissance, African
American artists dealt with identity issues in their art, representing recognizable
images of their people in order to counteract racist stereotypical imagery of them.
o At the time, artists stayed away from direct references to their people’s
problems related to identity, such as slavery and African Americans’ complex
relationship with certain issues such as skin color, because they believed that
their task was to develop positive imagery of African Americans that would
build up their self esteem.
o Today, African American artists use a range of contemporary styles, media,
and artistic approaches to express the contemporary African American
experience that involves an ongoing grappling with certain related issues.
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Object Data
To Disembark: Billie Holiday, 1993
Wood
Glenn Ligon
American, born 1960
37 x 24 ¾ x 31 ½ inches.
DIA no. 1996.58.A-B
Object Label Text
• The artwork consists of a wooden packing crate with a tape player concealed inside
playing a tape of Billie Holiday singing Strange Fruit.
• The wooden packing crates created by Ligon recall the experience of Henry “Box”
Brown, who in 1849 had himself shipped from Virginia to freedom in Philadelphia.
Brown was born into slavery in 1815 in Virginia. In 1830, he was sent to Richmond
to work in a tobacco-processing factory.
o There, he married another slave, Nancy, and the couple had three children.
o Brown used his wages to pay Nancy’s master for the time she spent caring for
her family.
o In 1848, his wife and children were sold to a plantation owner in North
Carolina.
o Brown found himself helpless to prevent this. He decided then to escape to
freedom.
o He obtained the sympathetic help of a white shoemaker named Samuel Smith,
who agreed to ship him to a free state, in a box, disguised as dry goods.
o Brown paid about eighty-four dollars to have himself nailed into a small box,
and he was shipped from Richmond to Philadelphia, a distance of about 275
miles.
o The box is believed to have been only about two feet, eight inches deep, two
feet wide, and three feet long. Brown was actually five feet, eight inches and
two hundred pounds.
o During the trip—which began on March 23, 1849—several cargo workers
placed the box upside down or handled it haphazardly with no indication that
Brown was inside the box.
o Amazingly, Brown survived the twenty-six hour long journey by overland
express stage wagon.
o Upon arrival in Philadelphia, the box containing Brown was received by a
member of the Underground Railroad.
o Brown became a well-known speaker for the anti-slavery society.
o He apparently willingly accepted the nickname Henry “Box” Brown. He
wrote his autobiography titled Narrative of the Life of Henry “Box” Brown.
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•
•
The crate is the same size as the one actually used by Brown and is marked with
international symbols that emphasize fragility.
o It emits a barely audible recording of Strange Fruit, a song made famous by
Billie Holiday.
The song was written in the 1930s by a Jewish school teacher named
Abel Meerapol, who wrote the lyrics after seeing a disturbing
photograph of a lynching.
Holiday’s haunting rendition quickly became the anthem for the antilynching movement.
With this work of art, Ligon wanted to participate in a national dialogue about issues
of identity.
o He said, “I see the subject matter as crucial, crucial to my own life, certainly,
but also important to a national debate that needs to go on…. Rather than to
say that ‘art is art’ and ‘life is life,’ I’d like to say that they’re joined and
inextricable.”
o In Disembark: Billie Holiday, Ligon recreates a significant event in a slave’s
tormented life in order to convey the impact of such an experience of African
Americans who endured slavery so that he and the public can identify with it.
o As a contemporary African American, Ligon positions himself against the
historical experience of American slavery to try to find connections between
the past and the present.
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Object Data
Beyond Midnight (Magie Noire), 2002
Mixed media assemblage on wood
Betye Saar
American, born 1926
26 x 18 x 2 ¼ inches
DIA no. 2003.68
Object Label Text
Here, Betye Saar questions the attitude held by some African Americans that light skin is
favorable. Saar celebrates darkness by placing the image of a woman, who is a ritual
healer, against a brilliant blue night sky. “Black magic” in the title reinforces the healer’s
profession but is also a play on words emphasizing the beauty of darkness.
• In the center of the artwork, we see a black woman with a head wrap, who looks out
from a nighttime environment.
o There is a mesh-like fabric over her face, which gives the image a sense of
mystery.
This has to do with an old wife’s tale that when a baby is born with “a
caul” (as they say) it’s an indication of some sort of spiritual talent of
the child.
Saar is steeped in knowledge about spirituality; she has an interest in
phrenology, voodoo, and the occult.
o Around the head of the woman are sticks that represent divining sticks, which
frame her portrait.
o There’s a lace-like sky filled with stars and crescent moons. Saar is an artist
who works with found objects; this may be a handkerchief.
o In the center of this frame is a metal hand in an upraised position, a sign
generally associated with ritual healing, an act of summoning protection, or a
blessing.
o To the right are a series of keys that have been interpreted as a metaphor for a
woman’s spiritual knowledge.
• The figure of the woman symbolizes the role of black women involved in Black
sacred culture, aspects of which descended from African rituals.
o Saar values the roles and contributions of women with this culture, and in
Beyond Midnight (Magie Noire) she pays tribute to them.
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•
This is an assemblage that belongs to a series of works that she produced expressing
her concern about a persistent problem related to the psychic damage of slavery. This
is the habit of some African Americans to call each other names based upon skin
color.
o The slang terms used for this so-called naming inspired the titles and subjects
of this recent body of work. While the phrase “beyond midnight” (“magie
noire”) has been used to insult dark-skinned people, Saar overturns its cruel
implications through her dignified, yet mysterious, portrayal of her subject.
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Gallery Text: African American Art After World War II
Contemporary African American Art
Like all artists working today, contemporary African American artists embrace the
challenging ideas that characterize art of our times. The work you see here is diverse,
reflecting the different subjects, styles, and techniques these artists choose to explore.
Contemporary African American artists might select from a broad array of subjects
including, but not limited to, black culture. Their styles range from representational to
abstract. Like other contemporary art, art by contemporary black artists frequently leaves
the door open for us to consider a work’s possible meanings and to forge our own
interpretations.
• This gallery presents some of the trends in art adopted by African American artists
after World War II.
o During and after the Harlem Renaissance, African American artists were
compelled to define a modern African American image in visual arts and to
focus on the African American experience as meaningful subject matter for
their art.
o In order to realize these aims, most African American artists utilized a
representational approach so that the message behind their art could be easily
understood by the public.
• Following World War II, more African American artists were exposed to a wide
range of influences as they gained entry to more American art schools, and in some
instances were able to study abroad, especially in Paris.
o Consequently, their work increasingly reflected the diversity of artistic
approaches and styles that interested American artists, such as abstraction, the
use of non-traditional materials to create fine art, and the expression of a wide
range of interest through their choice of subject matter that was not always
about race.
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Object Data
Terracotta Head, circa 1960
Terracotta
Elizabeth Catlett
American, b. 1915
7 x 9 x 11 inches
DIA no. 2006.63
Object Label Text
Elizabeth Catlett’s sculptures often reference the African diaspora, the intermixing of
peoples, and shifting identities. The facial features and hair of this terracotta head suggest
a person of African descent. Its round form that sits solidly on its base recalls colossal
sculpted stone heads created by the Olmec people who thrived in Mexico more than 2400
years ago.
• Throughout her career, Catlett has concentrated on the female image and conveys the
principals of social realism in her sculpture and works on paper.
o Her themes often refer to the conditions of the poor and the struggles of the
oppressed as well as identity and pride of women of color.
o Over the years, her sculpture has demonstrated her knowledge of African,
European, and Olmec art and her eventual combining of these influences into
individual works of art.
• This terracotta head exemplifies an important aspect of Catlett’s life’s work, which is
her depiction of the head often to emphasize and celebrate ethnicity and to
experiment with form.
o She has done a number of heads influenced by African art; some reflect more
her knowledge of European modernism.
o This sculpture displays features and textured hair to suggest a person of
African descent, while the round form of the head, sitting solidly on its base,
is reminiscent of the colossal stone heads made by the Olmec people, whose
sculpture thrived between 1200 and 400 BCE in southern Mexico near the
gulf coast.
• Catlett marks ethnicity as a way to signify meaning.
o It speaks of diaspora, movement, the intermixing of peoples, identity,
positioning and repositioning.
o It is also a means of making a statement about the power of political
solidarity, when people come together across ethnic and national divides.
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•
•
•
Catlett is highly respected as a figurative sculptor and a graphic artist.
o Among women artists of the modern era, Catlett is regarded as a pioneer
figure.
o She received her B.A. in painting, and was introduced to modernism and
African art.
o Catlett subsequently studied with sculptors who influenced her in important
ways.
Like many American artists of her generation, Catlett’s ideas about art’s function
were influenced by social realist concerns for overturning social and economic
injustice and ending race and class exploitation.
o She admired the art of the Mexican muralists because they addressed similar
issues in their work. Catlett soon developed friendships with David Alfaro
Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, and Frieda Kahlo in Mexico.
o By 1947, Catlett had established permanent residence in Mexico and married
Francisco Mora, the painter and graphic artist. In time, she became aware of
pre-Hispanic and Mexican stone carving and ceramic sculpture.
In 1959, Catlett became the first woman to teach sculpture in the National School of
Fine Arts in Mexico and was subsequently appointed head of the sculpture
department there.
o She is now around 92 years old and continues to work in Cuernavaca today.
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Object Data
The Arc Maker I & II, 1981
Acrylic on canvas with collage
Sam Gilliam
American, born 1933
60 in. x 17 feet 9 inches
DIA no. 1983.31.1-4
Object Label Text
Sam Gilliam considered color a material that can be layered to achieve certain effects.
Here, he painted strips of canvas with thick layers of color, allowing shades of red and
green to show through black paint and inscribed arcs.
Some observers see a telescopic view of the stars and constellations in the small masses
of color breaking through the black expanse.
• Some of the modernist issues Gilliam has investigated are the physicality of paint,
monumentality, composition, controlled improvisation, design, expressiveness of
color, etc.
o These explorations and investigations have generally led to demonstrations of
his inventiveness through distinct series of paintings that immerge from his
recent experience with techniques and issues of interest to him.
• In The Arc Maker I & II, Sam Gilliam combines and expands on artistic issues that
have been important to him throughout his career, such as his exploration of the
tensions that exist between colors.
o He sees color, not only as hue, but as substance or material that can be layered
to achieve certain effects. The Arc Maker I & II comes from a series known
simply as “the red and black paintings” in which he explores a dialectic
between the colors red and black.
o The unprimed linen canvas and shades of red and green in the under painting
penetrate the top layer of black paint. Much of Gilliam’s work also
emphasizes various elements in the discipline of painting sculpture and
architecture.
o These elements are apparent in collaging of strips of canvas. The carefully
circumscribed arcs that overlap the panels allude to architectural drawing. The
heavily encrusted surfaces of paint on each of the panels are layered to give
the effect of bas relief. These elements are synthesized through his use of a
monumental-shaped canvas that is divided into four panels, but hung as one.
• Gilliam challenges of the distinctions between sculpture and painting by eliminating
the wood stretcher supports to create suspended paintings.
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o In subsequent years, he added sculptural elements to his suspended paintings,
thereby producing unique monumental forms and dramatic site-specific
installations of his art.
o His accomplishments as a young artist were daring because his integration of
painting with sculpture and architecture changed the way the viewer related to
painting.
o He proved that despite the rumors to the contrary, painting was still a viable
medium for artistic expression and inventiveness.
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Object Data
Untitled, 1986
Painted glass
Therman Statom
American, born 1953
45 ½ x 21 x 19 inches
DIA no. F1987.10
Object Label Text
• Statom’s primary medium is sheet glass; he cuts it, shapes it, and assembles it into
basic forms such as chairs, ladders, or houses.
o The plate glass is treated as a transparent canvas and as a surface for
decorative embellishment.
o Sometimes he adds found objects or blown-glass pieces of his design to create
compelling sculptures.
o Constructing chairs, ladders, and houses out of sheets of painted glass, Statom
plays with our domestic associations, introducing notes of danger and fragile
beauty to common objects that normally bring to mind shelter, safety, and
support.
o Statom is as much a painter as a sculptor, as here, where he uses glass for the
surfaces of ladders and chairs as a “canvas.”
o There’s nothing merely decorative about his use of paint.
o His architectural forms are washed with color, scribbled texts, and a rich
vocabulary of images.
o They’re three-dimensional paintings, but Statom doesn’t stop there. As if to
draw the idea back towards form and glass, he affixes vessels, shards, small
houses, pairs of dice, and spheres filled with water to the painted surfaces,
creating worlds beyond the limits of a single medium.
• Statom is also known for creating large installations and public commissions.
o He has irreverence towards glass as a precious or pure medium.
o His works evoke multi-level metaphors: glass as structure, glass as detritus,
glass as found object, and glass as visual pun.
o Another aspect of his work is the transparency of glass, what it means, what
inhabit a glass space, and to pass through glass.
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•
o He is an artist who uses glass, which is often considered a craft medium, but
he uses it to create fine art, and he does function more as a fine artist.
Therman Statom is an artist that specializes in working with glass.
o He is a major figure in the contemporary studio glass movement.
o He was born in 1953, and was one of the first students to attend the Pilchuck
Glass School in Stanwood, Washington, when it opened in 1971.
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STUDY GUIDE North Wing—ADULT/Modern/Crossroads
117
STUDY GUIDE
MODERN/CONTEMPORARY FOR NORTH WING—
ADULT TOURS
1.
This study guide uses the same format throughout. There is an entry
for each object from Spring Training 2007. In the future when new objects
are added, new entries will be written and distributed.
Note: Description of the entries
• Object Data, Object Label Text, Group Label Text and Gallery
Group Label Text: texts that will be placed in the galleries. The
Study Guide has not edited these texts.
• Additional information: these texts do not appear in the gallery.
Information from your training and other sources appear here.
• Pronunciation: if needed.
2.
Gallery text may refer to two or more objects where only one is
included in your object list. REMEMBER TO ONLY SPEAK ABOUT
THE OBJECT USED IN TRAINING.
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The galleries of Modern Art are organized by themes:
Influence of Other Cultures
The Chinese Man (Le Chinois), Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
Pair of Plates, Joseph-Théodore Deck and François-Émile Ehrmann
"Egyptian" Pedestal, Kilian Brothers
Famous Artists of the 19th Century
Self Portrait, Vincent Willem van Gogh
Mont Sainte-Victoire, Paul Cézanne
Dancers in the Green Room, Edgar Degas
What Makes Them So Great
Nocturne in Black and Gold, the Falling Rocket, James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Bather Sleeping by a Brook, Gustave Courbet
Eve, Auguste Rodin
Breaking with Tradition
Gladioli, Claude Monet
Jewish Boy (Bambino Ebreo), Medardo Rosso
View of Le Crotoy from Upstream, Georges Pierre Seurat
Studio Pottery
Rozane "Della Robbia" Vase, Frederick Hurten Rhead
Indian Vase, Adelaide Alsop Robineau
European and American Collections Segment
Genius of the Dance, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
Georg Brandes at the University in Copenhagen, Harald Slott-Moller
Woman with Macaws, George Benjamin Luks
Picasso and Cubism
Melancholy Woman, Pablo Picasso
Bottle of Anis del Mono, Pablo Picasso
Still Life, Juan Gris
Matisse and His Circle In Paris
The Window, Henri Matisse
Coffee, Henri Matisse
Young Man with a Cap, Amedeo Modigliani
Beauty—Industry
Decanter, Christopher Dresser
Sugar Bowl with Hinged Lid, Dagobert Peche
Side Chair, Josef Hoffmann
Beauty for All—Objects for Interiors
Hallstand, Hector Guimard
Dining Table from the Robert R. Blacker House, Greene & Greene
Modern Art Spine Collections Segment
Naked over New York, Reginald Marsh
Love Flight of a Pink Candy Heart, Florine Stettheimer
Reclining Figure, Henry Moore
Cattle, Candido Portinari
Log Jam, Penobscot Bay, Marsden Hartley
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Expressing the Spiritual
Study for Painting with White Form, Wassily Kandinsky
Winter Landscape in Moonlight, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Assunta, Georg Kolbe
German Expressionism
Self Portrait, Otto Dix
Still Life with Fallen Candles, Max Beckmann
Evening by the Sea, Karl Schmidt–Rottluff
Seeing the Unseen
Self Portrait II, Joan Miró
Shadow Country, Yves Tanguy
Night Songs, Joseph Cornell
What is Modern Art About?
Rotorelief, Marcel Duchamp
The Environs of Paris, Henri Rousseau
Still Life, Ben Nicholson
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Gallery Text: Influence of Other Cultures
Inspirations from afar
The 1800s saw many European and American artists seeking inspiration far beyond their
native shores.
In Europe, artists embraced certain styles and techniques they saw in decorative goods
arriving through trade with Africa, India and China. Here in America, the influence was
largely Japanese—triggered by a series of trade agreements in the 1850s that opened
Japan’s borders after 200 years of isolation. And as long-distance travel became easier, a
growing number of European and American artists took trips to far-off lands to
experience the cultures first hand.
By the second half of the century, many artists and craftsmen adopted cross-cultural
influences, which resulted in works that were a combination of East and West. Look
among the objects in this gallery for designs and motifs—perhaps cranes from Japan or
elephants from India—that give clues to the source of their inspiration.
• Art in this gallery looks at the stylistic eclecticism at the end of the nineteenth century
in European art.
• It looks at how artists were influenced by the great deal of contact that they had with
objects and art works from other countries.
• Artists were dissatisfied with the direction of European design
• Japan opened its borders during this time, from where a lot of new things were
coming.
• In general, there was expanding travel, expanding trade, and a growing empire,
particularly in England.
• In this gallery, you’ll find decorative arts objects (in ceramic and metal), furniture,
sculpture and paintings by British and American artists.
• In some cases, European and American art is shown together, to show the crossfertilization among artists during this period.
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Object Data
The Chinese Man (Le Chinois), 1872
Bronze
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
French, 1827-1875
27 ½ x 20 1/8 x 13 5/8 inches
DIA no. 2000.158
Object Label Text
• This is one of a number of sculptures that Carpeaux did to show his English,
American, and French audience what other races looked like.
• He did a series of sculptures of different types; this is the Chinese example.
• It was intended for a sculpture grouping of “The Four Corners of the World.”
o It was meant for the Luxemborg Garden in Paris.
Pronunciations:
Carpeaux: car-POH
Le Chinois: Leh shee-NWAH
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Object Data
Pair of Plates, 1867
Tin-glazed earthenware (faience) with
enamel decoration
Manufactured by Joseph-Théodore Deck
French, 1823-91
Painted by François-Émile Ehrmann
French, 1833-1910
1 ½ x 11 ¾ (diameter) inches
DIA no. 1994.28.1-2
Object Label Text
• Here, we see male (with a sword) and female figures in non-European garb.
o They are surrounded by very colorful two-dimensional, stylized, flattened-out
flowers, which fill out the field of the plates.
• The male and female figures are derived from A Thousand and One Nights, which
were popular Arabic stories derived from Indian, Persian, and Arabic sources.
o These stories were originally written from the 700s through the 1500s, and
translated into English in the late 1700s. They were a source of inspiration for
artists to develop particularly rich imagery.
• These plates were inspired by middle-eastern artistic traditions and styles, which had
been popularized centuries before, but started to come into Europe when trade routes
opened and international trade flourished.
• Deck, who was a French potter, was influenced by the pottery of Turkey called
Isnick, which was imported to Europe.
o Deck developed the very deep turquoise color in the background, based on
Iznik examples.
o He found Iznik pottery to have a very rich tradition, on which he put his own
mark by developing his own characters and his own approach to stylization.
o Such colors were not at all characteristic of French ceramics of this period.
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Object Data
"Egyptian" Pedestal, about 1870
Ebonized walnut with gilt and painted
decoration, brass
Kilian Brothers,
New York, New York
39 ½ x 13 inches
DIA no. 1990.12
Object Label Text
Although this pedestal features Egyptian-inspired motifs, it bears little resemblance to
any piece of furniture used in ancient Egypt. Instead, it combines Egyptian-style
decorations—goose heads and abstract geometric designs—with a distinctly Western
form. Pedestals like this made popular plant stands in Victorian-era parlors.
• In the 1860s, pedestals were something important to have in your house to display a
vase, a sculpture, or a plant.
o It may have been intended for an interior that showed the influences of faraway places.
• Note:
o the stylized goose heads
o a lot of geometric ornament covering the object
o the base is a stylized, upside-down lotus blossom
o details picked out in gold, which was thought to be very “Egyptian”
• The ownership of works such as this was a way of having something luxurious and
exotic in one’s home.
• Killian Brothers used economical manufacturing techniques (this is not handmade,
but made in the factory), creating works for retail sale at a low price, which people
could afford, to decorate their homes.
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Gallery Text: Famous Artists of the 19th Century
These artists shaped our view of modern art
The paintings and sculptures in this room are the work of five groundbreaking artists:
Paul Cézanne
Edgar Degas
August Renoir
Auguste Rodin
Vincent van Gogh
Today we recognize these innovators as great masters, but in their own time they were
regarded as controversial rebels.
They’re hardly alike but have much in common
Although these five artists worked at about the same time in the late 1800s, their styles
differ greatly. They were motivated by a shared view that the established art of their time
was hopelessly out of step with the modern world. Consequently, each developed a
distinctly personal style that changed the way we think about art. Together, their
questioning of conventional subject matter and technique set the stage for the modern art
movements of the 20th century.
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Object Data
Self Portrait, 1887
Oil on board, mounted to wood panel
Vincent Willem van Gogh
Dutch, 1853-90
13 ¾ x 10 ½ inches
DIA no. 22.13
Object Label Text: This object has no label in the gallery.
Group Theme Text: Vincent Van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh—creating light from within
Using brilliant colors and slashing brushstrokes, van Gogh forged a link between art and
emotion that was transcendent. His fervent religious beliefs and recurrent mental crises
informed his intense paintings, which express everything from joy to despair.
Van Gogh was born in the Netherlands, the youngest son of a minister. He began
his career as a preacher, but turned to art at age 28. After a brief stay in Paris, when
exposure to the Impressionists transformed his approach to art, he moved to southern
France.
In all his paintings, van Gogh captures a sense of the real and immediate. With
heightened color, distorted form, and brilliant colors applied in short, linear strokes, he
gives direct expression to his own turbulent emotions.
• Van Gogh took his subjects from the world around him.
• He did many portraits.
o This one was done fairly early in his career.
o It is one of most famous paintings in the DIA.
• Van Gogh was interested in using color to the most expressive effect.
o He used very strong contrasts of color, lots of lights and darks.
• The features are clearly delineated.
• Note the brushstroke; you can see every mark of his brush.
• He admired and tried to put together a friendship with Paul Gauguin.
Pronunciation
Van Gogh: van GO
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