MUSEUM NEWS
46
RITUAL FIGURES IN CONGO
CHONGQING—African art is set to conquer China, and
Congolese ritual art leads the charge. The Ritual Figures
in Congo exhibition, which has already been produced
as a catalog, will be shown for the fi rst time at
the Three Gorges Museum from June 8 until September
9, 2018. This is just the fi rst stop of a tour that will take
it to the Hubei Provincial Museum in Wuhan, the
Guilin Museum in Guangxi Province, the Guangzhou
Museum in Canton, and fi nally the Tsinghua
University Museum in Beijing. This will be the fi rst
exhibition in China devoted entirely to the ritual
statuary of the Congo, and it will feature nearly
120 wooden sculptures, some well known and
others not, dating from between the eighteenth
and twentieth centuries.
BOTTOM: Snuff box.
Easter Island.
Wood. H: 7.1 cm.
Ex Musée de l’Homme (Oceania).
Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques
Chirac, inv. 71.1962.47.5.
© Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques
Chirac, dist. RMN Grand Palais/Michel
Urtado/Thierry Ollivier.
LEFT: Standing male fi gure,
moai tangata. Easter Island.
Early or mid 19th century.
Driftwood, bone, obsidian, barkcloth,
hair. H: 32 cm.
Ex Musée de l’Homme (Oceanic),
donated by Roland Bonaparte.
Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques
Chirac, inv. 71.1887.31.66.
© Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques
Chirac, dist. RMN Grand Palais/Michel
Urtado/Thierry Ollivier.
EASTER ISLAND
OCCITANIE—Easter Island will be in the Occitanie region
of France for three thematic exhibitions, at the Muséum
de Toulouse, the Musée Champollion in Figeac, and the
Musée Fenaille in Rodez. A tiny and remote dot of land in
the Pacifi c, the enigmas of Easter Island have long been
a source of fascination for many, but its mysteries are
gradually revealing themselves to the researchers they
have long tormented.
The three-venue event examines the latest discoveries
as well as the questions that remain unanswered, and it
separates the myth from reality. Les Bois Parlants (The
Talking Wood) at the Musée Champollion presents the
advances that have been made in deciphering
Easter Island rongorongo script. In Toulouse, the
Muséum deals with the mysteries surrounding
the people of Rapa Nui: how they got there,
how their culture developed, and details of
their lifeways both past and present. Lastly, the
Musée de Fenaille focuses on the sculpture. It
draws parallels between the island’s monumental
statuary and the stone menhirs of Northern
Europe. It also features a representative group
of wooden moai tangata fi gures. Together the
three shows constitute a comprehensive overview
of many subjects. They include works from
both private and public collections, some of
which are rarely seen, and will be on view June
30–November 4, 2018 (but through June 30,
2019, in Toulouse).
RIGHT: Ancestor fi gure.
Tabwa, DR Congo.
19th century.
Wood, pigment, fi ber, leather, glass
beads. H: 66 cm.
Private collection.
Photo: Paul Louis, © Tribal Arts, SPRL.
RIGHT: Figure of a standing
dwarf. Hemba, DR Congo.
19th century.
Wood, pigments. H: 45 cm.
Private collection.
Photo: Paul Louis, © Tribal Arts, SPRL.