MUSEUM NEWS
PAUL ROBESON
PARIS—Through October 13, 2018, and coinciding
with the Madagascar exhibition that is profiled
elsewhere in this issue, the Musée du Quai
Branly – Jacques Chirac is training a spotlight on
a major figure in the English-speaking art scene
of the first half of the twentieth century. Paul
Robeson: Une Homme du Tout-monde (Paul
Robeson: A Man of the World) looks at the life
of a multifaceted man. At various times a slave,
fugitive, sportsman, lawyer, singer, actor, and artist, he
struggled throughout his life for universal liberty and for
the advancement of the Black man in American society
through the force of his many-sided identity, the product
of his heritage, his nationality, and his life encounters. He
has been largely left by the wayside of history, overshadowed
perhaps by figures such as Malcolm X and Martin
Luther King Jr. Nonetheless, Robeson was an archetype of
his century, a committed and passionate fighter that the
museum is seeking to honor and give the long overdue
credit he deserves by emphasizing his rightful place in history
between art, politics, and the African diaspora.
FIRST THINGS
HAMBURG—The Museum für Völkerkunde in Hamburg
is taking a look at its past. Beginning on September 12,
2018, it will present a group of objects that were identified
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on an inventory list that dates to 1867. With increasing
frequency nowadays, museums of non-European art
are reexamining their own beginnings as they endeavor
to reconstruct their history and that of their holdings and
through that determine the legitimacy of their institutions.
In addition to this, the show will also be an opportunity to
retrace the history of the city itself, which is closely linked
to donors, the formation of collections, and inspirations
derived from the international trade that has long been a
hallmark of Hamburg.
RETURN OF ALUTIIQ TREASURES
KODIAK—Last July 9, the Alutiiq Museum celebrated a
special homecoming: Two Kodiak Alutiiq masks collected
by Alphonse Pinart in the nineteenth century were
brought from Boulogne-sur-Mer back to their native land
of Alaska. This event is one element of a partnership of
cultural exchange between France and the United States.
Two similar masks were sent from Kodiak to France on a
five-year loan, another part of a refreshing story of intercultural
recognition and sharing. The masks will be on
display in both museums until April of 2023.
TOP LEFT: Jacob Epstein,
Paul Robeson, 1928.
Bronze. H: 34.2 cm.
MoMA, New York, donated by Fania
Marinoff Van Vechten in memory of Carl
Van Vechten, inv. 288.1965.
© Digital Image 2018/MoMA, New
York/Scala, Florence.
ABOVE: Cache-sexe. Rio
Negro, Brazil. Before 1851.
Museum für Völkerkunde, Hamburg,
Gustav Julius Vollmer Collection, acquired
by the museum in 1850/51.
LEFT: Mask, nakirnalik. Alutiiq,
Kodiak Island.
Before 1872.
Collected in 1872.
Reproduced by permission of the Pinart
Collection, Musée de Boulogne-sur-Mer,
inv. 988.2.171.
Photo: Will Anderson.
FAR LEFT: Receiving the Pinart
masks at the Alutiiq Museum.
Photo courtesy of the Alutiiq Museum,
Kodiak, Alaska.
ABOVE: Paul Robeson in The
Emperor Jones, 1933.
Photo © DocAnciens/Docpix.
RIGHT: Oil dish.
Fiji. Before 1867.
Wood. L: 50 cm. Museum für
Völkerkunde, Hamburg, inv. E 412.