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92 FIG. 15 (left): Seven-headed shrine fi gure likely representing Tebesonoma. Ijo, Cross River, Nigeria. Late 19th–20th century. Wood, glass eyes, paint. H: 172.7 cm. Collected by Barry Kitnick in early 1972. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, museum purchase, gift of Phyllis C. Wattis and the Phyllis C. Wattis Fund for Major Accessions, inv. 2004.93. Photo © Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco . FIG. 16 (right): Female fi gure. Luba, DR Congo. 18th–19th century. Wood, textile, metal beads, fi ber cord, pigment. H: 31 cm. Fowler Museum at UCLA, gift of the Wellcome Trust, inv. X65.7488. Photo © Fowler Museum at UCLA. FIG. 17 (far right, top): Reliquary guardian fi gure. Kota, Gabon. C. 1860–1880. Copper, brass, iron, wood. H: 66 cm. Private collection. FIG. 18 (far right, bottom): Mask. Woyo, DR Congo. Early 20th century. Wood, pigment. H: 62.2 cm. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of Lee and Rada Bronson, inv. AC1998.60.1. Photo courtesy of LACMA. in the 2011 exhibition Geometry of the Kuba, and fourteen are featured currently in The Inner Eye. Then in 2013, a major Bamana mother and child fi gure from the Gwan Association (fi g. 9) was purchased by the Collectors Committee and is featured for the fi rst time in the current exhibition. In 2015, on the occasion of LACMA’s fi ftieth anniversary, several major works and one large collection were added to the museum’s African holdings. The gifts included a group of fi ve rare Ethiopian crosses dating from the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries, a double-faced reliquary guardian fi gure from the Kota peoples of Gabon, and a magnifi cent serpent headdress from the Republic of Guinea, formerly in the Pierre Matisse Collection. LACMA also acquired the Marcel and Zaira Mis Collection, including 300 brilliant examples of African textiles representing more than fi fty cultures in sub-Saharan Africa. Contemporary works by artists of African heritage also enrich LACMA’s collection, including El Anatsui’s landmark Fading Scroll, a monumental work that LACMA shares with the Fowler Museum at UCLA. The museum experience is predicated upon looking. There is an assumption that when we see art in most Western museum settings, objects are meant to be scrutinized, beheld, and, in a sense, consumed by visitors’ eyes. Yet, as we have discussed, “looking” is a culturally determined activity. However, there is far more to looking than meets the eye. Herbert M. Cole has written of “art as a verb,” that is, of art being an action. The works in The Inner Eye have guided their owners, users, and performers from human to spirit realms, from this world to the next, and to the highest levels of esoteric wisdom. Hopefully, in this museum setting, these works can likewise lead visitors to question acts of seeing and looking, help them understand visuality from African perspectives, and challenge them to extend their own perception beyond the visible. The Inner Eye: Vision and Transcendence in African Arts Through July 9, 2017 Los Angeles County Museum of Art lacma.org


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