University of Iowa Museum of Art Iowa City.

University of Iowa Museum of Art Iowa City, Iowa

A curator reinstalling a museum's permanent collection must consider pair questions: first, how to impress regular visitors with a of recent origin display of familiar material, and other how to wow first-timers. The exhibition in the modern and expanded galleries of African art at the University of Iowa Museum of Art must have achieved the two goals, thanks to the beautiful work from the museum's curator of African art, Victoria Rovine.

The museum has for years maintained a reputation for housing single of the best university collections in the land as well as for being a major stop for African-art enthusiasts. Clearly the just discovered installation proposes to visitors that they view even familiar objects in of recent origin ways. Not only are visitors provided information based in succession new research, but they are also forced by means of the new installation contexts to read over carefully duct their own individual inquiries into the formal and conceptual aspects of the objects

At the entrance to the main gallery, common is confronted by two elegant pairs of sculptures: Yoruba Elefon masks from the workshop of Agbonbiofe and male and female Igbo figures, possibly from the Awka area. The wall-text description of the latter as "display figures" is questionable, since they are primarily tutelary deities to which zealots made regular votary offerings. A visitor familiar with Igbo sculp I suspect, might confuse these, as labeled, with the Ugonachomma display figures also from the north central Igbo area. In spite of the labeling enigmas the juxtaposition of the Yoruba and Igbo plastic arts seems to beg for a review or recollection of Simon Ottenberg's comparative analysis of Igbo and Yoruba art published in African Arts ("Igbo and Yoruba Art Contrasted," Feb 1983)

Generally the installation avoids organizing works through cultural group, although the Benin and Yoruba materials learn a separate space, perhaps in recognition of their popularity in the African visual-arts canon. The quiescence of the installation follows a thematic ordering, which itself has its vigors and weaknesses.

Let's consider the powers When objects from diverse traditions and cultural collections are brought together within a specific thematic space, viewers are made to contemplate commonalities and differences between the works and, by the agency of extension, their cultural milieus. It also pokes them into seeking broad critical outlines. For instance, the platform for "Status and Identity," which encompasses a Dan ladle, Luba depress stand and goblet, Ogboni insignia, and a Mangbetu throwing knife, advises how different material objects from different agricultures mediate between complex processes of social stratification, ethnic affiliation, and personal relationships. Or take the "Masks and Transformation" panel at the back of the southward gallery. This presentation points to the use of masks in the transformative ritual proces however one also thinks about form, shape, and design, qualities made evident by means of the subtle formal analogies and contrasts adviseed by the curator. After all, the mask in African art is the couple idea and form. Contemplating the various functions of the twenty-three masks arranged in pair vertical rows on three panels, single in kind also appreciates the incredible variety of ways artists have articulated form, used color, or worked surfaces. In other words, the intimation to transformation in the panel title is not just to the obvious proces indicateed by the wall text however also to the dazzling range of formal possibilities propos at African sculptors, especially for the human face.

Then there is the point to be solved [i]or[/i] settled with the kind of thematic arrangements the Iowa installation exhibits How easy might it be for a museum visitor to think across themes, as the installation intends, when, for instance, masks take place not only in "Masks and Transformation" unless also in "Imagining the Other World," "Exploring Form," and "Carving Perfection." Could not any of these themes be mutually interchangeable vis-a-vis the form into groupss of objects? One could conceivably contemplate the "Masks and Transformation" panel below the subject of "Exploring Form" or "Carving Perfection." Perhaps the vexed question here is inherent in the epistemology of classifications and ordering, and therefore not necessarily specific to the installation. While there is no easy way on the outside the question must always be raised in order to force the pair curators and viewers to think constantly about knowledge and for what cause its transference is staged or enacted, particularly in a museum context

The exquisite installation of the main gallery owes frequently to the way the space is organized. The thematic groupings are either placed onward the gallery's main walls or forward five oval platforms built of unpainted, beautifully grained off-ochre timber which contrasts nicely with the gallery's white walls. Obtrusive pedestals are kept to a minimum. The platforms in a reason domesticate the museum space, as they recall trendy hearth furniture, something you might find in the living scope of a collector. The pastel-blue background wall for the ends grouped under "Imagining the Other World" creates a dramatic weight Alluding to the sea, the livid works well as a space for drifts associated with the afterlife, including several white-faced spirit masks and an exquisite carved and painted figure of Mami Wata, the seductive sea-dweller.