FLORAL JOURNEY Los Angeles—Art and spirituality converge with trade and commerce in Floral Journey: Native North American Amulets. Kotoko, Nigeria, Chad, or Cameroon. Photo: Francesco Pachi. 54 Beadwork, opening at the Autry National Center of the American West on March 15, 2014. Through 250 unique objects and related personal stories, the exhibition presents moccasins, bags, dresses, hats, jackets, and other exquisite beaded and quilled items, selected from fifteen cultural institutions and multiple private collections, which together explore how beaded floral designs became a significant artistic motif as well as a means of economic and cultural survival for Native North American peoples. The exhibition tells a unique story of convergence— and in some instances collision—of cultures under devastating historical circumstances, but also one of sometimes mutually beneficial exchange of ideas, techniques, and materials. It documents the many centuries of conflict and trade from the earliest Anglo-American contact up until the present day. Throughout the exhibition, Native voices are combined with scholarly research to reveal the “hidden language” within the layers of cultural meanings of floral imagery over the centuries. The exhibition, which is on view at the Autry until April 26, 2015, is accompanied by an illustrated catalog by guest curator Lois Sherr Dubin. A wide range of related programs is planned throughout the exhibition run, including a seminar titled Change and Continuity: The Impact of Intertribal Trade on Material Culture. MUSEUM news KOTOKO EQUESTRIANS Belgrade—The Museum of African Art in Belgrade is hosting Kotoko Equestrians: Guardians of the Soul, an exhibition of Pierluigi Peroni’s collection of small Kotoko equestrian figures, made of bronze, brass, iron, and aluminum—and sometimes, although rarely, of terracotta or ivory. The Kotoko people inhabit the area around Lake Chad, in Nigeria, Chad, and Cameroon. The large number of pieces featured in the exhibition— there are nearly three hundred—allows a unique opportunity to appreciate the richness of detail and nuance that characterizes this art of the miniature, the metal objects of which were gen- Center, left to right: Detail of breechcloth or dance apron. Ojibwa. 1885. Velvet, cloth, glass beads. Gift of Miss Donna Held. Southwest Museum of the American Indian Collection, Autry National Center, 1911.G.3. Pipe bag. Potawatomi. 1860s. Skin, yarn, thread, glass beads. Gift of Mrs. Vera Keppler. Southwest Museum of the American Indian Collection, Autry National Center, 1409.G.154. Pouch. Probably Iroquois. 1850. Skin, cloth, glass beads, porcupine quills, twine. Gift of Mr. Albert V. Sander. Southwest Museum of the American Indian Collection, Autry National Center, 20.X.4. Shoulder pouch. Eastern Sioux. 1850s. Skin, flannel, ribbon, glass beads. Southwest Museum of the American Indian Collection, Autry National Center, 21.X.3. Pouch. Possibly Wasco. 1860s–1870s. Skin, glass beads. Southwest Museum of the American Indian Collection, Autry National Center, 3.C.147. erally produced using lost wax techniques. They were worn as amulets or hung from bracelets or necklaces and served to keep illness, fear, sadness, and other negative forces at bay. The exhibition will be on view until April 30, 2014. E r r a t u m In the Winter 2013 edition of this journal, Christraud Geary’s fine article on the Robert Owen Lehman Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, contained a small but significant typo. The object pictured in fig. 10, an ivory equestrian staff, properly dates from the eighteenth century rather than the sixteenth century as indicated in the caption.
CoverT71_FR.qxd_CoverF Vuvi
To see the actual publication please follow the link above