Introduction

During the nineteenth century, artists in Central and West Africa sculpted, molded, and smithed exquisite objects. They created wood sculptures of idealized figures that convey beliefs about personhood and beauty, headdresses to be danced in at events, and sculptures for communicating with ancestors. These kinds of historical objects have since become canonical artworks of Africa to global audiences. How might these objects speak to present-day societies and ongoing artistic practices in Africa? To consider relationships between artistic practices from pre-colonial and post-colonial settings, this exhibition addresses four themes: inequality, representations of women, power, and cultural appropriations. Uniting these thematic areas is shared interest in how people have used objects to negotiate interactions and exchanges with other people and places.

The objects on display ask viewers to reconsider understandings of African artistic representations and the place of Africa in a global cultural imagination. Canonical artworks from pre-colonial Central and West Africa are on view alongside works made in the same regions since the mid-twentieth century, including contemporary photography, textiles, and masks. These juxtapositions of different historical moments and media invite viewers to explore connections across time and space: the presence of the past in modern and contemporary art and society.

About

This online exhibition shares the work of Bowdoin students and faculty who have worked with staff at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art to curate an exhibition that will also be on view in the galleries. Together, this project highlights the important role of academic art musuems to foster learning, research, and creativity among students. Students in the course “The Powers of Central African Art,” taught by professor David Gordon in the History department, developed this exhibition as part of a class project. The Museum’s Zuckert Seminar Room provided a space for holding class visits, in which students studied the objects included in this exhibition over the course of the semester.

This online exhibition presents the culmination of these efforts, and is structured to reflect the exhibition’s conceptual development into four thematic and geographic sections—Power Objecs: Central Africa; Representations of Womanhood: West Africa; Projecting Power: Akan Society; and Unpacking African Art: Beyond Africa. Within each section of the online exhibition, we share an introduction to that area and short texts about the included artworks prepared by the students.

This online exhibition was designed by David Francis in Bowdoin Academic Technology, in collaboration with staff at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. It was created using the following technologies: cascade content mangaement system (CMS), HTML5/CSS, JavaScript, jQuery (JavaScript library), and Fancybox

Acknowledgements

The Bowdoin College Museum of Art would like to thank the Wyvern Collection for generously loaning to the Museum objects from West and Central Africa, which has enriched student learning and offers extraordinary insights on artistic practices from these regions. The Museum also extends its gratitute to Professor of History David Gordon and students in his course “The Powers of Central African Art,” taught during the fall term 2019, for making invaluable contributions to this exhibition. Visit the ‘Curriculum Connections’ page for more information about the course involvement in this exhibition. Additionally, the Museum thanks the many individuals who contributed to creating this digital exhibition, especially staff at Bowdoin Academic Technology, including David Francis, as well as Museum staff including Suzanne Bergeron and Allison Martino.