Celebrating African Art
The Frank H. McClung Museum at the University of Tennessee is pleased to announce an exhibition entitled "The World Moves - We Follow: Celebrating African Art." It is slated to run from January 11, 2003 until May 18, 2003. The exhibition is a centerpiece in the semester-long celebration of the culture, history and the visual and performing arts of Africa at the University of Tennessee, "Africa Semester, Spring 2003".
Approximately 100 objects, from premier museums across the nation -The Art Institute of Chicago, The Chicago Field Museum; The New Orleans Museum of Art; The Indianapolis Museum of Art; UCLA's Fowler Museum of Cultural History; the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art; the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and four private collectors will be included in this important exhibition. The exhibition, curated by William Dewey, University of Tennessee, School of Art, Assistant Professor, will use objects to focus on the artistic and cultural richness of the African heritage. Dr. Jefferson Chapman, Director of McClung states: "We are most pleased to offer this excellent exhibit. Dr. Dewey has managed to collect extremely important pieces from top museums and put them together in a meaningful, educational and beautiful manner." The title, "The World Moves - We Follow," taken from a Yoruba proverb, speaks to the inevitability of change, in this instance regarding African art.
A catalogue by curator William Dewey is being published by the Museum with many of the objects illustrated in full color. Rosalind Hackett, University of Tennessee Professor of African Religion, contributed a chapter on art and religion, and dele jegede, Professor of African Art History at Indiana State University, contributed one on the relationships between "traditional" and "contemporary" African art forms.
A number of events, musical and dance performances, lectures, a play, a conference, film series, are planned to coincide with the exhibition to make a community and campus-wide event - "Africa Semester,
Spring 2003".
The Exhibition
The exhibition will be organized into the following themes:
- Leadership and Status, which will show artifacts used to declare status and leadership positions through visual means.
- Utility and the Art of Living which will show the subtle visual beauty of African utilitarian objects such as pottery, furniture, containers, combs, ceremonial weapons and currency tokens.
- Transitions, showing items such as masks and figures that are used to guide and educate.
- Death and the Ancestors which will feature masks, figures, burial shrouds and memorial posts.
- Connecting with the World which will feature the work of contemporary African artists.
Objects to be included cover a variety of forms (masks, figures, textiles, paintings, weapons, furniture); time periods (ranging from a bronze head and plaque from the ancient kingdom of Benin up to contemporary times with factory-printed cloth and art about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings in South Africa); and geographic areas (ranging from Madagascar to eastern and southern Africa, through central and western Africa, to northern and northeastern Africa).
CURATOR
Dr. William Dewey, Curator - The World Moves- We Follow: Celebrating African Art
The curator of this exhibition, Dr. William Dewey, Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Tennessee is an accomplished African Art Scholar. His most recent curated exhibition was in 1998, Legacies of Stone, Zimbabwe: Past and Present, at the Musee Royal de L"Afrique Centrale in Tervuren, Belgium. He has received recognition from the Ford Foundation and the International Partnerships among Museum. Dr. Dewey served as President and Past President of the Arts Council of the African Studies Association of American and was Co-Director of The Project for Advanced Study of Art and Life in Africa, The University of Iowa.
His publications include The Power of Form; In the Presence of Spirits: African Art from the National Museum of Ethnology, Lisbon; Legacies of Stone, Zimbabwe: Past and Present; and Sleeping Beauties: The Jerome L. Joss Collection of Headrests.