MUSEUM NEWS
RIGHT: Monochromatic skirt
with appliqué. Kuba;
DR Congo. 20th century.
Palm leaf fi ber (raffi a). L: 7 m.
Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and
Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc.,
inv. 1984.160.McD.
BELOW: Man’s hat, laket.
Kuba; DR Congo. 20th century.
Raffi a, brass.
Collection of Michael and Shelly Dee.
Image courtesy Dallas Museum of Art.
Wearable Raffi a
DALLAS—Drawn mainly from the Dallas Museum
of Fine Art’s acclaimed collection of African art,
Wearable Raffi a showcases garments, accessories,
and textiles made from the woven fi ber of the raffi
a palm and deriving from West and Central Africa
as well as the island of Madagascar. The exhibition
76
features works from several groups across four
African countries, including the Bamileke of Cameroon;
the Dida of Côte d’Ivoire; the Kuba, Suku,
and Teke of the Democratic Republic of the Congo;
and the Merina of Madagascar. The installation
features hats, skirts (some as long as
seven meters), prestige weavings,
and a variety of other textiles from
these widely diverse peoples.
The show will be on view
until July 12, 2020.
San Ildefonso Pottery
SANTA FE—A new exhibition at the Museum of Indian
Arts and Culture, San Ildefonso Pottery: 1600–
1930, addresses a relatively little-known American
art form that deserves recognition and appreciation
alongside the other great world art systems. Before
there was Santa Fe and before the idea of “art colony”
was born, there was San Ildefonso, a small village
of extraordinarily visionary artists whose ceramic legacy,
dating back centuries, is rich and vitally meaningful.
Here, making and painting pottery is creating
life, and the lives that reside within these artworks
are a part of this exhibition. Pottery and painting incorporate
a myriad of ideas from ancient design iconography
to new tools and materials, but at the core
of these artworks sits an accurate presentation of the
values and principles of Pueblo cosmology. The show
incorporates new methodologies of combining Native
ethnogenesis, discussions with descendant community
members, and museum object and archival research,
and together these allow a holistic approach
to the perception of artisans and both their social and
art-producing contexts. On view through August 31,
2020, San Ildefonso Art takes a unique approach to
express new understandings of the history, contexts,
and meanings of these remarkable artworks.
BELOW:
Water jar with images of
fl owers and corn.
San Ildefonso Pueblo, New
Mexico. C. 1780.
Terracotta, pigment.
Museum of Indian Arts and Culture,
Santa Fe, inv. TAC-4195.
BELOW RIGHT:
Water jar with feather
patterns.
San Ildefonso Pueblo, New
Mexico. C. 1910.
Terracotta, pigment.
Museum of Indian Arts and Culture,
Santa Fe, inv. TAC-3687.