Popularly known as the “Krugier-Picasso mask,” a 19th century West African mask that will be part of the Jan Krugier Collection sale at Christie’s on November 4 was an important inspiration to Pablo Picasso, who captured its semi-circular mouth with the pointed tongue in several of his paintings, including his 1937 masterpiece “Guernica.”
African art
Posted inOpinion
Finally, a Mobile Way to Explore Nollywood
Chew on this … the Nigerian film industry, aka “Nollywood,” overtook Hollywood in 2009 in terms of the number of films produced, and it is outdone only by Bollywood.
Posted inArt
Looking Upon African Leaders Through Objects
Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculpture opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City this September with a display of 100 masterpieces borrowed from collections outside of Africa. At face value I thought the exhibition title sounded like an attempt ingratiate African art objects in to a positive and inspirational realm. This, along with the earthy brown color of the exhibition signage, felt clichéd. However I vowed to maintain an open mind as dealing with Africa as a continent loaded with colonial history, really creates a “damned if you do damned if you don’t” scenario for many curators.
Posted inArt
You Said What? A Week of PC Blunders
BERN, SWITZERLAND — This has been a week of blunders. At an art conference in Switzerland a debate began amongst fellow participants about the content of a drawing, which could either be considered bad taste or ironic. The conversation expanded to talk about politics in South Africa, more specifically the demographics of voting, which resulted in the comment “but most of the people who voted for that political party were non-white”. What had been intended from the speaker was to say, “not white.” This may appear as a minor letter error however this discrepancy is critical.
Posted inArt
Projects by Ohad Meromi & Brendan Fernandes Open at Art in General
On Friday, Art in General opened two newly commissioned works by Ohan Meromi and Brendan Fernandes. The former is an evolving “rehearsal”/performance, while the other delves into the origins of African sculpture using some effective audio and fantastic neon signs.