MUSEUM news
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ABOVE: Staff of authority,
ofo. Igbo, Nigeria. Early to
mid twentieth century.
Wood (Detarium Senegalese), iron.
H: 39.8 cm.
Collection of Mark Clayton.
Image © Fowler Museum at UCLA.
Photo: Don Cole, 2018.
BELOW: Shrine objects for offerings, ofo.
Igbo, Nigeria. Early to mid-twentieth century.
Bronze, brass, iron.
H: 17 cm, 14.5 cm, 18 cm, 18 cm, 18.5 cm.
Collection of Mark Clayton.
Image © Fowler Museum at UCLA. Photo: Don Cole, 2018
ABOVE: Mask. Nyindu, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Second quarter of the 20th century.
Wood, pigment, feathers, rattan. H: 39 cm.
Courtesy of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Photo: Paul Louis.
CONGO MASKS
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA—In the vast and culturally
diverse Congolese region of Central Africa, masks
function as performance objects in rituals, ceremonies,
worship, and entertainment. The Virginia Museum of
Fine Arts will present an exhibition on this wide-ranging
subject titled Congo Masks: Masterpieces from
Central Africa. On view from November 10, 2018,
until February 25, 2019, the more than 140 striking
Congolese masks featured in the show together form
an innovative and visually compelling display that represents
the artisans and performers who brought them
to life, as well as varied communities, belief systems,
and natural resources. Dating from the seventeenth
to the twentieth centuries, the works are drawn from
some of the fi nest and most comprehensive collections
in private hands, and more than a dozen examples
are presented with their complete ceremonial
ensembles. The exhibition also includes original fi eld
photographs, fi eld footage, audio recordings, and a
selection of related musical instruments. Its immersive
multimedia design, presenting eleven distinct regional
styles of masks, evokes the diversity of ecosystems
and cultures of the immense Congo. The exhibition is
curated by Marc Leo Felix, director of the Congo Basin
Art History Research Center in Brussels, Belgium. It
is accompanied by a substantial catalog published by
Yale University Press with contributions by a variety of
notable experts in the fi eld.
SUMMONING THE ANCESTORS
LOS ANGELES—The Fowler Museum at UCLA is
planning an exhibition highlighting Nigerian ritual
metalwork. Titled Summoning the Ancestors: Southern
Nigerian Bronzes, this exhibition features the
promised gift of approximately 150 bronze bells and
ofos amassed by Southern California collector Mark
Clayton. It underscores the power of large-scale collections
to demonstrate variations of technique and
symbolism within a single genre. Grouped by style
rather than geographic area or cultural association,
the bells and ofos have a broad—seemingly infi nite—
range of designs accomplished by Igala, Igbo, and
other regional metalsmiths using the lost-wax casting
technique. The bells include examples large and small,
richly adorned or spare in profi le, and some that even
stretch ideas of what a bell can be. The ofos derive
from wooden staffs of power. As personal and communal
possessions, they are used on ritual
altars and represent the physical connection
between ancestors and their
descendants. Summoning the Ancestors
is guest curated by Nancy Neaher
Maas, independent scholar, and
Philip M. Peek, professor emeritus of
anthropology, Drew University, New
Jersey. It can be seen from September
16, 2018, until March 10, 2019.
ABOVE: Bell.
Igala, Nigeria.
Early 20th century.
Copper alloy. H: 22.5 cm.
Collection of Mark Clayton.
Image © Fowler Museum at UCLA.
Photo: Don Cole, 2010.