MUSEUM News 63 SHAPING POWER Los Angeles—An upcoming exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art titled Shaping Power: Luba Masterworks from the Royal Museum for Central Africa features Luba masterworks from the Democratic Republic of the Congo on loan from the Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale in Tervuren, just outside Brussels. Rarely seen outside Belgium, these figurative thrones, elegant scepters, and ancestral figures actively contributed to the formation and expansion of the highly influential Luba state from the eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries. Shaping Power presents the richness and complexity of Luba art and lends insight into a world-renowned African aesthetic and cultural legacy. The exhibition can be seen from July 7, 2013–January 5, 2014. The Tervuren material is augmented by other objects. A bead-laden Luba memory device from a private collection suggests how the past is continually reimagined through the eyes of the present. A contemporary installation titled Congo: Shadow of the Shadow (2005) by Aimé Mpane, on loan from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art, presents a gripping commentary on reshaping power during the colonial period using the play of light and shadow, substance, and ethereality. Shaping Power also marks the inauguration of a gallery and educational program dedicated to the arts of Africa at LACMA. It was curated by UCLA professor Mary (Polly) Nooter Roberts, who was appointed consulting curator of African art at LACMA in late 2011 to develop the museum’s African gallery and collection. Caryatid stool. Luba, Democratic Republic of the Congo. 19th century. Wood, glass beads. Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale, RG 22725. Photo: R. Asselberghs. © RMCA Tervuren. Royal bowl. Luba, Democratic Republic of the Congo. 19th century. Wood (Ricinodendron rautanenii). Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale, RG 3861. Registered in 1911. Photo: R. Asselberghs. © RMCA Tervuren. RIGHT: Buffalo mask. Tabwa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. 19th century. Wood (Erythina spp.), cowries. Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale, RG 80.23.1 (registered in 1980). Photo: R. Asselberghs. © RMCA Tervuren. BELOW: Mask. Luba, Democratic Republic of the Congo. 19th century. Wood (Schinziophyton rautanenii). Collected by O. Michaux in 1896. Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale, RG 23470. Photo: R. Asselberghs. © RMCA Tervuren.
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