Arts of Global Africa (review)

Abstract

Upon entering the Newark Museum’s reinstallation of its Arts of Global Africa collection, visitors are immediately greeted with Yinka Shonibare’s spectacular Lady Walking a Tightrope (2006; Fig. 1). The life-size, headless female figure balances precariously on a rope stretching diagonally across a corner space. Lady Walking a Tightrope is positioned high— above eye-level, as any tightrope walker would be—and captures the immediate attention and the upward gaze of visitors as they enter the gallery. Shonibare’s Lady is dressed in the artist’s signature Dutch wax fabric, and the heavy layers of the brightly colored textile surely make her task—walking across the tightrope— even more challenging. Indeed, the figure’s left hand grips a fistful of the dress, pulling it up so as not to trip as she balances with her right arm stretched backwards. Positioned just to the right of Shonibare’s work is a second remarkable sculpture: Man with Bicycle, a Yoruba carving. The man has paused momentarily with his bicycle, while en route to market, carrying and balancing significantly high and heavy load of goods on his head. These paired works open the exhibition with the connected themes of careful balance and purposeful, forward movement. Together they speak to the daunting challenge faced by a curator who is tasked with presenting a vision for the Global Arts of Africa with only fifty-four objects (selected from the vast permanent collection of nearly 6,000 works) and arranging those objects to fit into a mere 1,500 square-foot space (reduced from the originally proposed 8,400 square-foot plan). The installation, curated by Christa Clarke, is conceptually rich and visually compelling, in spite of these constraints. As the museum’s first dedicated curator of the Arts of Global Africa, Clarke’s keen and creative vision has shaped this exhibition. Nearly ten years in the making and the result of fifteen years of dedicated collecting and curatorial work, it also reflects the collective input of an advisory team of distinguished curators, educators, and academics as well as others who worked with Clarke in the department. Several temporary curatorial positions were funded by a multiyear grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, for which Clarke served as project director since 2011. The grant also supported research on the collection and the publication of the first-ever African art collections catalogue. A Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities provided additional funding toward the reinstallation of the galleries in a new and renovated space. Today the Newark Museum holds one of the most diverse and vital collections of contemporary African art in the world. Arts of Global Africa opened on December 8, 2017, the centennial year of the Newark’s African art collection. The reinstallation was a key piece of the Newark Museum’s larger revitalization project, during which its African art collection moved to its new location: a prominent space with greater visibility just off the busy main lobby and on the first floor of the museum. Odili Donald Odita’s magnificent mural Gateway (Fig. 2), a site-specific work commissioned by Clarke for the occasion, surrounds the Museum’s central lobby and visitor center. Odita’s mural is positioned along the upper register of the walls, calling attention to the exhibit and helping to draw visitors into the space. Visually, Odita’s bright, multicolored work elevates the central museum space and underscores the importance of African art at the Newark Museum. The span of exhibited works encompasses historical pieces like an embroidery fragment from eighteenth century Azemmour, Morocco, to more recent photographs by Seydou Keita, Samuel Fosso, and Lalla Essaydi. The exhibition includes a range of media from across the continent and diaspora: a carved wood Bamana headdress from early twentieth century Mali; a painted Ethiopian triptych depicting a Christian Madonna and Child (late sixteenth–early seventeenth century); and a glass flask, shaped like a pomegranate, from ancient Egypt (twelfth century bce). The exhibit uses the Newark collection to tell a story of the extent to which African and African diasporic artists have contributed to world visual culture and creative expression. The exhibition revolves around five organizational themes that effectively guide both the visitor’s thinking and movement through the space: 1 Yinka Shonibare MBE (b. 1962; lives and works in London) Lady Walking a Tightrope (2006) Mannequin, textile, fiber, metal; 1.4 m x 3.1 m x 1.1 m Purchase 2007 Helen McMahon Brady Cutting Fund 2007.5a,b