Smithsonian to display Disney-Tishman African art collection
By BRETT ZONGKER
AP
WASHINGTON (AP) - Colorful and intricate masks, crowns and figures from sub-Saharan Africa mark the first major exhibition of the Walt Disney -Tishman African Art Collection since it was donated to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art in 2005.
The show opening Thursday features highlights of the 525-piece collection, which has helped define the study of African art history in textbooks and inspired contemporary black artists and even popular culture. Disney animators examined pieces of the collection for the 1994 blockbuster film "The Lion King."
"This is our dream come true," said Bryna Freyer, one of the curators of the new show "African Vision."
"We really did not expect to get this collection," she said. "This is the collection that scholars in the field have literally grown up with."
New York real estate developer Paul Tishman and his wife, Ruth, began collecting pieces in the late 1950s, starting with an ivory female figure and a copper alloy mask - both from the Benin kingdom in Nigeria. Their collection would eventually span five centuries, 75 ethnic groups and 20 countries. Curators said the collection represents most major styles of traditional African art.
The 88-piece show includes some iconic objects and a few that are still a mystery for the museum.
"We could get really lucky," Freyer said. "We could get someone who walks into the museum" who has seen an item before and can provide clues to its origin.
Masks in the collection come in all shapes, colors and sizes.
At the gallery entrance, a mid-20th century mask from Burkina Faso has a wingspan of more than three feet with a pattern of deep red, black, white and brown to depict a butterfly, which signaled the coming of rain for farmers.
Another piece has horns and amber eyes that Smithsonian curators found to be made of spider silk. It comes from the Bamum peoples of Cameroon, and Freyer said the mask was thought to have prophetic powers because the Bamum associate the spider with the supernatural.
Many of the masks relate to water (river rocks are used to highlight the theme in one case), while other objects revolve around themes of the earth and fertility, Freyer said.
"With the female images, there is a link between beauty and morality," Freyer said. "These are not just beautiful women, these are good women."
A centerpiece in one room is a carved ivory and metal hunting horn from Sierra Leone, which dates to the late 15th century. It was likely commissioned by the crown prince of Portugal as a gift for King Ferdinand V of Spain. Freyer said it is probably the rarest piece in the collection.
Museum conservators have worked to improve the building's climate systems to house the collection, and the ivory pieces are displayed in cases with self-contained environments, conservator Steve Mellor said.
The collection has been the focus of four prior major exhibitions in Paris, Jerusalem, Los Angeles and at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Walt Disney Co. purchased the collection from the Tishmans in 1984 and planned to open an African pavilion at Epcot Center in Orlando, Fla. The pavilion was never built, but the company lent out parts of the collection for major African art exhibitions in the United States and Europe.
Some of the art was most recently displayed at Epcot beginning in 2004.
On the Net:
National Museum of African Art: http://africa.si.edu
By BRETT ZONGKER
AP
WASHINGTON (AP) - Colorful and intricate masks, crowns and figures from sub-Saharan Africa mark the first major exhibition of the Walt Disney -Tishman African Art Collection since it was donated to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art in 2005.
The show opening Thursday features highlights of the 525-piece collection, which has helped define the study of African art history in textbooks and inspired contemporary black artists and even popular culture. Disney animators examined pieces of the collection for the 1994 blockbuster film "The Lion King."
"This is our dream come true," said Bryna Freyer, one of the curators of the new show "African Vision."
"We really did not expect to get this collection," she said. "This is the collection that scholars in the field have literally grown up with."
New York real estate developer Paul Tishman and his wife, Ruth, began collecting pieces in the late 1950s, starting with an ivory female figure and a copper alloy mask - both from the Benin kingdom in Nigeria. Their collection would eventually span five centuries, 75 ethnic groups and 20 countries. Curators said the collection represents most major styles of traditional African art.
The 88-piece show includes some iconic objects and a few that are still a mystery for the museum.
"We could get really lucky," Freyer said. "We could get someone who walks into the museum" who has seen an item before and can provide clues to its origin.
Masks in the collection come in all shapes, colors and sizes.
At the gallery entrance, a mid-20th century mask from Burkina Faso has a wingspan of more than three feet with a pattern of deep red, black, white and brown to depict a butterfly, which signaled the coming of rain for farmers.
Another piece has horns and amber eyes that Smithsonian curators found to be made of spider silk. It comes from the Bamum peoples of Cameroon, and Freyer said the mask was thought to have prophetic powers because the Bamum associate the spider with the supernatural.
Many of the masks relate to water (river rocks are used to highlight the theme in one case), while other objects revolve around themes of the earth and fertility, Freyer said.
"With the female images, there is a link between beauty and morality," Freyer said. "These are not just beautiful women, these are good women."
A centerpiece in one room is a carved ivory and metal hunting horn from Sierra Leone, which dates to the late 15th century. It was likely commissioned by the crown prince of Portugal as a gift for King Ferdinand V of Spain. Freyer said it is probably the rarest piece in the collection.
Museum conservators have worked to improve the building's climate systems to house the collection, and the ivory pieces are displayed in cases with self-contained environments, conservator Steve Mellor said.
The collection has been the focus of four prior major exhibitions in Paris, Jerusalem, Los Angeles and at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Walt Disney Co. purchased the collection from the Tishmans in 1984 and planned to open an African pavilion at Epcot Center in Orlando, Fla. The pavilion was never built, but the company lent out parts of the collection for major African art exhibitions in the United States and Europe.
Some of the art was most recently displayed at Epcot beginning in 2004.
On the Net:
National Museum of African Art: http://africa.si.edu