Mbembe au MET 101 Despite the erasure of such culturally specific details by the elements, the surviving underlying sculptural cores of the earlier Mbembe works retain fundamental qualities that resonate powerfully on a universal level. At the same time, enough of the essential defining features remain to allow one to make formal connections among different figures that may constitute the carving styles of several distinct ateliers. It is striking how deeply embedded within the wood the sensibility of individual Mbembe masters penetrated their creations that have been so ravaged by time and weather. Although their erosion led to the elimination of the finishing touches applied at the moment of completion, this may be seen as a process that has ultimately revealed the underlying artistic vision as originally conceived by their authors hundreds of years ago. Warriors and Mothers: Epic Mbembe Art December 9, 2014–September 7, 2015 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York www.metmuseum.org NOTES 1. I thank Hélène Leloup for sharing with me the history of her pioneering efforts that led to the identification and recognition of this corpus. Her recollections and records have inspired and served as the point of departure for this examination of what are among the most exceptional creations in the history of art. I am also grateful to the many individuals who have allowed us to reassemble these stunning works in New York—especially Yves Le Fur and Stéphane Martin for the loan of the work that is a centerpiece of the Pavillon des Sessions. The content I have prepared has benefited from the generous review of Herbert Cole, and its presentation in our galleries has been overseen by Yaëlle Biro. 2. Original: “Depuis vingt ans que je me consacre à l’art nègre j’ai vu évoluer le goût et l’intérêt des collectionneurs. Dans cet art que l’on appelait “sauvage” ils s’attachaient avec prédilection à des formes déjà parvenues á une perfection classique: statues Fang, masques Baoulé, bronzes royaux du Bénin. Les critères de qualité étaient finesse de sculpture, harmonie des volumes, brillance des patines, en somme, les mêmes que ceux utilisés dès la Renaissance pour juger des oeuvres d’art.” 3. According to Harris, in 1965 the Mbembe-speaking peoples consisted of four main subgroups: Adun (12,100), Osopong (10,700), Okum (10,000), and Ofunbonga (3,200). There is, in addition, a further subgroup, Okpodon that numbers about 2,000 people and is divided into two groups of villages. The smaller group is found within the areas known administratively as the Ofunbonga “clan” and the Atam “clan,” the latter being eastern neighbors of the Mbembe, who speak a different language. 4. Neither of these works will be on view in New York given that the Berlin Museum für Völkerkunde currently has a moratorium on loans. REFERENCES Cole, Herbert M. and Chika C. Aniakor. Igbo Arts: Community and Cosmos. Los Angeles: Museum of Cultural History, University of California, 1984. Eyo, Ekpo. Two Thousand Years of Nigerian Art. Lagos: Federal Department of Antiquities, Nigeria, 1977. Harris, Rosemary. The Political Organization of the Mbembe, Nigeria. London: H. M. Stationery Office, 1965. ———. “Mbembe Men’s Associations,” African Arts, vol. 18, no. 1 (1984): 61–63, 96. Kamer, Hélène. Ancêtres M’bembé. Paris: 1974. Koloss, Hans-Joachim, ed. Africa: Art and Culture: Masterpieces of African Art, Ethnological Museum, Berlin. Munich: Prestel, 1999. Krieger, Kurt. Westafrikanische Plastik. Herausgegeben vom Museum für Völkerkunde Berlin, 1969. LaGamma, Alisa. “Silenced Mbembe Muses,” The Metropolitan Museum Journal, v. 48, 2013. Partridge, Charles. Cross River Natives, being some notes on the primitive pagans of Obubura Hill District, Southern Nigeria. London: Hutchinson and Co., 1905. FIG. 20: Seated female figure. Mbembe, Ewayon River region, Cross River Province, Nigeria. 17th–18th century. Provenance: O. Traoré, Lomé, Togo; Hélène Kamer, Paris, 1973– 1974; purchased by the lenders in 1974. Wood. H: 71 cm. Private collection, Paris.
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