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LEFT: Seated nkisi fi gure. Kongo, DR Congo or Angola. Early 20th century. Wood, mirror, beads, glass, fabric, metal, tooth, string. Princeton University Art Museum, inv. L.2014.48.9, promised museum acquisition from the Holly and David Ross Collection. LEFT: Ritual fi gure, kafi geledjo. Senufo, Mali. 20th century. Wood, cloth, mud encrustation, twigs, feathers. Princeton University Art Museum, inv. TC2014.69.14, promised museum acquisition from the Holly and David Ross Collection. RIGHT: Passport mask. Mano, Liberia. 20th century. Wood, encrustation. Private collection. Photo courtesy of the Princeton University Art Museum. WEST MEXICO Tulsa—Better known today as a sunny vacation destination and the home of tequila, West Mexico’s past is a fascinating story that dates back more than 2,000 years, around the time that Teotihuacán (near presentday Mexico City) was emerging as the most important city-state in the Americas. Due to its sizable population, stature as a religious center, and apartment-style dwellings, this city was a cultural center in its day. Meanwhile, another vibrant society, the Teuchitlán (more commonly known as the “Shaft Tomb” culture), was developing between Guadalajara and the west coast of Mexico in what is now Colima, Nayarit, and Jalisco. This land of mild climate offered abundant fresh water, rich soils, mineral wealth, and access to the resources of the ocean and the mountains. Large, expressive ceramic fi gures frequently were part of the ritual items deposited in shaft tombs that form the most identifi able remnants of this culture. Ceramic human fi gures adorned with brightly colored clothing, tattoos, and body paint provide an intimate look at its men and women, along with a variety of animals, birds, fi sh, and reptiles. In the 1940s and ‘50s, Thomas Gilcrease amassed a collection of more than 500 West Mexican ceramic fi gures and vessels. These form the basis for a show opening this summer at the Gilcrease Museum titled West Mexico: Ritual and Identity, in which the museum’s collection will be augmented by examples borrowed from public and private collections. This exhibit will combine the most current research from the fi eld, scientifi c laboratories, and the objects themselves to recreate aspects of life, death, and ritual in West Mexico between 300 BC and AD 500. The show will be on view from June 26, 2016, until November 6, 2016. ABOVE: Female fi gure. San Sebastián, Nayarit/ Jalisco, Mexico. 300 BC–AD 500. Ceramic, negative resist design, modern restoration materials. Gilcrease Museum, inv. 5444.8181. MUSEUM news SURFACES SEEN AND UNSEEN Princeton—Traditional African artists often defi ned the underlying form of a work, but over the course of years a range of users could intervene to alter or renew its surface or form. In some examples, substances such as earth, oils, or grains applied to a sculpture during sacred offerings by ritual experts activated the form for power or healing and, in the process, transformed the object’s patina. Other objects were empowered over time as ritual experts attached additional materials, including feathers, fabrics, nails, and mirrors. Surface colors changed when masks were repainted for later performances. Finally, as the works reached the West, dealers of African art often removed these layers of surface, shaping a different and arguably false understanding of African art. More recently, the complexity of objects’ surface accumulations has come to be appreciated as bearers of cultural and aesthetic value, displaying layers of color, encrustation, or attachments and thus of artistic and cultural intervention. Surfaces Seen and Unseen: African Art at Princeton examines how such ornamental and ritual additions to the evolving surfaces of African sculptures alter an object’s appearance and power over the course of its lifetime. The exhibition also showcases the Princeton University Art Museum’s growing African collection by including newly acquired works from the Holly and David Ross Collection as well as loans from other private collections. The exhibition was curated by Juliana Ochs Dweck and will be on view July 2 through Oct. 9, 2016.


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