Ife art wows the United States
After successful
showings in Spain and Britain, the touring exhibition, ‘Dynasty and
Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria’, has berthed in the US.
Co-organised by the
Museum for African Art in New York and the Fundación Marcelino Botín in
Santander, Spain, in collaboration with Nigeria’s National Commission
for Museums and Monuments, the exhibition debuted in 2009.
The about 100
copper, terracotta, and stone sculptures that form the exhibition were
first showcased at the Fundación Marcelino Botín, Santander, Spain, in
2009, before they moved on to a celebrated exhibition at the British
Museum, London, in March of this year.
‘Dynasty and
Divinity’ opened at its first US venue, the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA)
Houston, on September 19, and will be on display there till January 9,
2011. Its opening at the MFA coincided with the opening of the newly
reinstalled African art galleries in the institution.
“This is the first
exhibition of Ife art to reach the United States, and Houston is proud
to be the venue for its debut,” said Peter C. Marzio, director of MFAH.
Rarely seen outside
Nigeria, the exhibition, comprising sculptures made between the ninth
and 15th centuries in Ile Ife, present day Osun State, has received
wide acclaim in the West. The London Times declared it a
“once-in-a-lifetime, revolutionary event”, while The Guardian (UK)
noted that it stands “with the Terracotta Army, the Parthenon or the
mask of Tutankhamen as treasures of the human spirit.”
Regarded as the
ancestral home of the Yoruba of South West Nigeria, Ife flourished as a
powerful city-state from the 12th to 15th centuries. Artists in the
city developed a refined and naturalistic sculptural tradition in
stone, terracotta, brass, and copper alloy, a feat that has confounded
art connoisseurs since the Ife excavations that unearthed the treasures.
A number of works
in the exhibition were excavated in the 1910s and 1930s in different
sites in the town. Archaeologists had a field day at the Ore Grove,
where stone monoliths, human and animal figures were excavated, and the
Iwinrin Grove, associated with terracotta heads and fragments from
life-size figures. The only known complete king figure and an exquisite
terra cotta head were found at Ita Yemoo, while a terra cotta elephant
and a hippopotamus’ head adorned with beaded regalia came from
Lafogido, a royal burial site.
Objects on display
include regal portrait heads of rulers, figurative terra cotta
sculptures, and life-size copper-alloy heads.
‘Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria’ will also be at
the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and
the Museum for African Art, New York, before it ends its tour of the US.
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