From Deseret News archives:
African art
The Utah Museum of Fine Arts offers a stuning primitive-art exhibition
For the next few months, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) is offering "Africa: Arts of a Continent," an insightful exhibit of African art culled from the museum's own collection, in storage for the past few years, along with several new acquisitions never before seen by the public.
The tastefully installed exhibition focuses on four cultures in sub-Saharan Africa: the Dogon (doh'-gahn) of Mali, the Baule (ba ou le' or BOW-lay) of the Ivory Coast, the Yoruba (your'-a-bah or yoh-roo'-bah) of Nigeria and the Kuba Kingdom of the Congo. There are also several ancient Egyptian burial objects from various dynasties.
Exhibition curator Bernadette Brown has selected diverse and noteworthy pieces of immense interest, some of which cannot help but remind viewers of the African art influence on early modern-art movements in Europe and America. (According to art historian Lori Verderame, Picasso incorporated the ceremonial masks of the Dogon tribe into his groundbreaking cubist work, "Les Desmoiselles d'Avignon," 1907-09.)
Wood sculpture is generally considered Africa's greatest visual-art achievement, but objects are also made in metal, stone, terra cotta, ivory, mud and beadwork. Some pieces from these media can be seen in the exhibit.
Created as a visual language, the art reflected social and religious beliefs. "Art objects served to give shape, form and content to the invisible and abstract concepts of African philosophy and religion," said Brown.
Traditional art forms consist of masks, figures, decorative objects used for personal adornment and objects made to show a person's rank or status.
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