The final installment of a three-part series, Meditations on African Art is now on display at the Baltimore Museum of Art. The series is framed around general artistic conventions, rather than geography or chronology.
The first two exhibitions concentrated on light and color respectively in traditional and contemporary African art. This final show is focused on its subtitle, "Pattern," and contains a wide range of styles and mediums from across the continent.
Karen Milbourne, the University's curator of African art, has organized a spectacular exhibition that succeeds in both focusing on the theory of patter, while also showcasing a broad array of creations from Africa over the last two centuries.
This array includes approximately 70 works from 12 nations in sub-Saharan Africa. The exhibit features a variety of objects including textiles, shields, masks, figurines, cups and swords.
The exhibition welcomes visitors by inviting them to consider the cultural and social functions of patterns. The works featured, the introduction states, "address how artists create visually arresting forms and designs that please the eye, adorn the bodies of neb and women and identify cultural groups."
Many of the older works, like all products from traditional cultures, reflect the societies in which they were produced. For example, the Kuba textiles produced in Congo reveal the gender roles of this culture. The palm fibers are originally gathered by men. After this, men and women together render the fibers usable. Men then weave them into tapestries and women finish with the embroidery.
The collection of shields featured in this exhibition also tell much about the society's cultural assumptions including the character of ceremonial life and the conceptions of masculinity. The shields are large and vibrantly colored. The size and varied shapes are meant to communicate both the power and identity of the possessor from a distance.
Though most of the exhibition focuses on traditional forms, the show's highlight is contemporary. Mary Evans, a Nigerian-born, London-based artist, produced a site-specific multimedia exhibition. There are four components to this installation. The room is covered with a wallpaper-like mural with several human shaped silhouettes produced in repetition.
The patterns seem innocuous at first, yet the work has a more sinister subtext. The figures stacked upon each other are meant to recall the cargo-like treatment of African captives on slave ships.
Evans's installation also includes a kaleidoscope with a digital video montage of slave ports in England and West Africa, and a plantation in the American South. Also included in this installation are framed works of paper and a series of rosettes on display above the visitor entrance.
The most interesting aspect of the exhibition is the diversity of materials that went into the works. Take for example a traditional Central African mask from the early 20th century that is on display. This one mask alone is composed of wood, metal, fiber, beads, shells and paint.
Meditations on African Art: Pattern will be on display at the Baltimore Museum of Art through Aug. 17.
