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The Liren Wei Collection
NEW YORK—A broad and dramatic vision of African
art was presented this fall in Traditional African
Art: The Liren Wei Collection, at the Queensborough
Community College Art Gallery. The objects in the
show were from areas as geographically diverse as the
West African savanna and the forests of the Congo Basin
and included large polychromed Bozo puppets depicting
whimsical antelopes, crocodiles, and humans.
Other sculptures were more delicate and are made
from wood, metal, stone, or ivory, some adorned with
horns, beads, shells, terracotta, cloth, feathers, quills,
fi bers, leaves, or roots. Some objects, such as ancient
Bamana Komo and Kono masks, convey themes
of sacrifi ce central to the rituals of secret initiation
societies for men. All of these objects have been
gathered together over the years by collector Liren
Wei, who also served as curator for the show.
MUSEUM NEWS
emphasis on contemporary artwork. Its broad range
includes popular urban art forms, such as a cement
sculpture by Sunday Jack Akpan, as well as studio portrait
photography by Seydou Keita and Samuel Fosso.
Critically acclaimed artworks by internationally renowned
artists such as El Anatsui, Sam Nhlengethwa,
and Wosene Kosrof are also represented.
The African gallery has been closed as part of the
museum’s ongoing revitalization project. It will reopen
in a new space on the fi rst fl oor on December 8, 2017,
the centenary year of the founding of the collection.
The new installation will emphasize the cultural
breadth and broad time span of the collection while
also connecting it with the world beyond the edges
of the continent. The fi rst catalog of the collection will
accompany the opening.
in society. Footwear refl ects the lives of their makers
and wearers, offering a window into the past and the
present.
Stepping Out: 10,000 Years of Walking the West
features Native American footwear ranging from sandals
that date back thousands of years, found in the
dry caves of New Mexico and nearby regions, to contemporary
shoes with beaded decoration by Native
American artists including Teri Greeves, Lisa Telford,
and Emil Her Many Horses. The centerpiece of the exhibition
is a signifi cant collection of Plains and Southwest
moccasins, many beautifully beaded or quilled,
which is being exhibited for the fi rst time in decades.
Stepping Out can be seen at the Museum of Indian
Arts and Culture until September 3, 2018.
BELOW (from left to right):
Beaded sole moccasins.
Sioux, Northern Plains.
Before 1890.
Hide, cloth, glass beads, tin, horse
hair.
Museum of Indian Arts & Culture,
inv. 26290/12.
Photo: Christopher Durantes.
Quilled and beaded
moccasins. Sioux, Northern
Plains. C. 1910.
Hide, glass beads, porcupine quills,
dye.
Museum of Indian Arts & Culture.
inv. 25712/12.
Heels designed by Steve
Madden and beaded by
Kiowa artist Teri Greeves,
2017.
Museum of Indian Arts & Culture,
The Friends of Indian Art.
Photo: Stephen Lang.
BELOW: Mask.
Toussain, Burkina Faso.
Wood, braided rope, seeds, pigment.
H: 116.8 cm.
Liren Wei Collection.
Stepping Out
SANTA FE—Footwear is evocative. The shoe tells us if
the wearer was a child or an adult, and can often tell
us whether they were an adult man or woman, based
on size and style. Shoes retain signs of the wearer,
showing imprints of toes and heels and repairs made
as much-needed or much-loved footwear became
ragged. Wear patterns can also hint at health issues—
bunions or an uneven gait, for example. The form is
infl uenced by the environment (hot, cold, stony, soft),
the materials available (leather, plants, beads, quills),
and tradition. Style and decoration reveal details
about belonging, love, and social aspiration. Beaded
moccasins, for example, are time-consuming to make,
comfortable to wear, and beautiful to behold. Moccasins
created for a family member will often refl ect
the love and commitment of the maker toward the
wearer. Some styles of moccasins or sandals were reserved
for those with status, wealth, or a special role