MUSÉE à la Une 56 AFRICAN MASTERPIECES Paris—Along with the Barbier-Mueller Museum in Geneva, the Musée Dapper, which opened in 1986, is one of the world’s most important private museums specializing in African art. Chefs d’oeuvres d’Afrique (African Masterpieces), on view there from September 30, 2015, through July 17, 2016, represents an important event for the institution because it will present an opportunity to see some 130 treasures from Central and Western Africa, many of which are hitherto unseen because they have been in storage. The show also honors Michel Leveau, the museum’s founder. Leveau, who passed away in 2012, was a tireless and lifelong champion of the traditional arts of Africa and sought to share his taste, knowledge, and exceptional eye with as wide an audience as possible. His wife, Christiane Falgayrettes-Leveau, who has been the director of the museum since its creation, continues to keep the institution’s passionate spirit alive. Michel Leveau would have been happy to see so many emblematic works displayed together. These include the famous Bangwa Queen, which was photographed by Man Ray in 1937; the notable Fang fi gure known as the “Black Venus,” formerly in the Georges de Miré Collection; and many other well-known works that were once the property of the most important collectors of their time (Charles Ratton, Tristan Tzara, and Paul Guillaume, to name just a few). As is always the case with this museum, a superb catalog will be published in conjunction with the exhibition, in which the most knowledgeable specialists will analyze the works’ sculptural qualities, as well as the roles they played in initiation, ancestor veneration, fertility rites, and any number of other uses that their original ritual contexts demanded of them. MUSIC: CELEBRATION AND HEALING London—The British Museum is offering its visitors the opportunity to learn about an extraordinary musical instrument, a nineteenth-century North Sudanese lyre, know as a kissar. On display through August 16 in Room 3, this instrument was a major component of a musical ensemble that played on important occasions and thus was a vital part of the rich Nubian culture that spread across parts of Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt. Its melodies were intended to induce a trance state that allowed possession by zär spirits. Today such instruments still play a central part in ceremonies, which are now held in secret, since they have been outlawed in many places. ABOVE: Female fi gure. Bangwa, Cameroon. Musée Dapper, Paris. © Archives Musée Dapper, Hughes Dubois. TOP LEFT: Reliquary guardian fi gure. Fang, Gabon. Musée Dapper, Paris. © Archives Musée Dapper, Hughes Dubois. LEFT AND BELOW: Lyre, kissar. Northern Sudan. 19th century. © The Trustees of the British Museum.
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