The Museum of Fine Arts is taking a big interest in its small but significant collection of African Art. Moreover, the MFA's announcement last week of a curator with a focus on a continent of artists previously much neglected is but their first gambit.
E. Barry Gaither, director of the Museum of the National Center of Afro American Artists, which has had an affiliation with the MFA since the late Sixties, concurs that the stir of interest is exciting.
"And long overdue," he adds.
"The heritage of Africa belongs to the heritage of the world and the MFA is a world class museum," he said.
Over the next year, the MFA is scheduled to redo its African arts gallery, provide a catalogue for the work in it, and participate in a major meeting in Boston in April of "The Triannual Meeting on African Art." The association of 700 or so councils and African studies that comprise its membership has previously met in New Orleans and most recently in St. Thomas, the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2001. Very importantly, the association concerns itself not only with traditional African art but with contemporary African artists, as well, who have long been over-looked.
The timing couldn't be more auspicious for the MFA, as this category of artist has recently gotten a big boost in recognition by the art world because of the prestigious Venice Biennial. The current exhibit ongoing in Italy, "Dreams And Conflicts," has a noticeable addition of work by contemporary African and South American artists, an attempt to rectify the past. The Biennial's report of its 49th exhibit had read, "we found it incomprehensible that huge regions like Africa and South America, in which it is known that there are interesting artists, were so poorly represented."
Named to the newly created African and Oceanic Arts post is former Smithsonian curator Christraud M. Geary, now Curator for African and Oceanic Art. Geary's position is funded by MFA benefactor and overseer William E. Teel, who had already donated some 68 important objects of traditional African Art to the museum.
"These pieces are fine examples of a particular art tradition and of high quality from an artistic point of view," said Geary in a recent interview at the MFA. Previously at Wellesley College, Tufts University, and Boston University's African Studies Center, the German-born Geary was with the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian for 13 years.
She noted that while Teel has never visited Africa himself, he bought the work over the years from reputable dealers in New York, Paris, Brussels, and elsewhere. He sees the MFA as a safe place for his treasures and as a way for the public to enjoy them, she said. The MFA now owns a total of 109 African objects, exclusive of the work in the ancient arts department, such as the Nubian art which has a permanent gallery all its own.
"The triennial meeting of scholars, museum curators, art historians, collectors, and the like will bring thousands of people interested in African art to Boston," said Geary, who is delighted that the MFA is a major sponsor of the event. Geary is chair of the committee organizing the panels for the event. A reception at the MFA's newly refurbished gallery for African art, will take place during the April meeting.
"Some of the hot topics at the meeting will include buying works by contemporary African artists and facilitating the process by which these artists become better known," she said.
Interviewed later, Gaither noted that when it comes to African art, "there is a tendency to think only of traditional art and that denies the African modernists. Africa also belongs to the modern world and is fully engaged in it." He noted that modern day South African artists got an exhibit at Brandeis's Rose Gallery this past year, "but South Africa is a tiny piece of the whole picture."
When the Museum of the National Center of Afro American Artists struck an association with the MFA in 1969, part of the notion was to highlight traditional African art and African artists of today. "Now that intended arena of African art is coming into its own," said Gaither.
"That egg has taken a long time to incubate but a good chick is emerging," he said.
The Museum of the NCAAA has staged many shows over the decades pertaining to traditional African art and contemporary African artists, including two exhibits of Christian art from Ethiopia; two different one-man shows of work by Khalid Kodi and a show of work by Rashid Diab, both from the Sudan; the fabric designs of C.S. Okeke, who was in residency at the museum during his leave from the University of Nigeria; and a survey of contemporary artists of Africa organized by the Studio Museum in Harlem.
Photograph (Christraud M. Geary)
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