Metropolitan Museum Of Art African Art

What Artifacts Are In The Metropolitan Museum Of Art

African Origin Shows Shortfalls At Metropolitan Museum: Facile Face

December 26, 2021 by CultureGrrl

The chief raison dètre for The African Origin of Civilization, the Metropolitan Museums homage to cultural diversity , is that it provides display space for some of the museums outstanding works of African art that have been displaced by the Rockefeller Wings temporary status as a construction zone. Opening in conjunction with the launch of a sweeping renovation of the museums massive space for Sub-Saharan African Art, Ancient American Art, and Oceanic Art, this compact temporary installation from the permanent collection consists of 21 pairings of works from different African cultures and eras, as described in the Mets announcement.

The entrance to this dossier exhibition is easy to missa small opening into a dark gallery off the long Egyptian art hallway that leads to the ex-Sackler Wing.

Heres a closer look at the contrasting couples who stare you down as you walk in:

L: The Kings Acquaintances Memi and Sabu, Egypt, Old Kingdom, Dynasty 4, ca. 25752465 B.C. R: Seated Couple, Dogon artist, Mali, 18thearly 19th centurym

As with the other pairings in this agglomeration, the label text does an excellent, scholarly job of elucidating the individual objects, but fails to explain how the Egypt/Mali connection reveals unexpected parallels and contrasts, as promised in the Mets description of the show. What we do see is similar posesthe arm of a man draped over a womans shoulder, with his hand touching her breast.

Culture And Contemporary Life

New York City has been described as the cultural capital of the world by New York’s . A book containing a series of essays titled New York, Culture Capital of the World, 19401965 has also been published as showcased by the . In describing New York, author said, “Culture just seems to be in the air, like part of the weather.”

Numerous major American cultural movements began in the city, such as the , which established the African-American literary canon in the United States. The city became the center of in the early 20th century, in the 1940s, in the 1950s, and the birthplace of in the 1970s. The city’s and scenes were influential in the 1970s and 1980s. New York has long had a flourishing scene for .

The city is the birthplace of many cultural movements, including the in literature and visual art ” rel=”nofollow”> New York School) in painting and ,, , , , certain forms of , and in music. New York City has been considered the dance capital of the world. The city is also frequently the setting for novels, movies , and television programs. is one of the world’s preeminent fashion events and is afforded extensive coverage by the media. New York has also frequently been ranked the top of the world on the annual list compiled by the .

You May Like: Who Designed The African American Museum

The Galleries Housed In The Michael C Rockefeller Wing Of The Museum Will Be Modernised To Better Contextualise The Collection And Illustrate The Complex Story Of Cultural Development Over The Last 5000 Years

Rendering of the new wing Courtesy wHY Architects and the Metropolitan Museum of Art

This week, the Metropolitan Museum of Art celebrated the beginning of a $70m project to reinvigorate its African, ancient American and Oceanic art galleries, housed in the Michael C. Rockefeller wing of the museum. The 40,000 sq. ft galleries, which were inaugurated in 1982, will be reworked to better contextualise and exhibit the collection, and will aim to address the complex story of cultural development over the last 5,000 years, as well as general issues regarding trade, governance, ideology and relationships, says Max Hollein, the museum’s director.

The Met has developed the project with the New York-based architect Kulapat Yantrasast of the firm wHY. Part of the overhaul involves the installation of a glass wall to better illuminate the galleries and the addition of new fixtures to increase the display of artworks across the space. When the wing reopens in 2024, it will span nearly 3,000 works and include new audio, text and video features devised in collaboration between curators and several consultants, such as the archaeologist Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos, a professor of anthropology at Yale University, who will advise on pre-Columbian objects.

Rendering of the renovated wing Courtesy wHY Architects and the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rendering of the renovated gallery Courtesy wHY Architects and the Metropolitan Museum of Art

A Virtual Tour Of The Metropolitan Museum Of Art Met

The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City is the largest art museum in the United States. Its permanent collection has over two million works consists of works of art from the ancient world to modern art.

The METs extensive collection covers Egyptian, Greek, African, Asian, Oceanian, Byzantine, and Islmic art.

The museum is home to encyclopedic collections of musical instruments, costumes, and accessories, as well as antique weapons and armor from around the world.

Several historical interiors, ranging from first-century Rome through modern American design, are installed in the museums vast galleries.

Also Check: Native American Museum In Oklahoma City

What Is The Metropolitan Museum Of Art Most Famous Pieces

Water Purity And Availability

New York City is supplied with drinking water by the protected . As a result of the watershed’s integrity and undisturbed natural system, New York is one of only four major cities in the United States the majority of whose drinking water is pure enough not to require purification by plants. The city’s municipal water system is the largest in the United States, moving over one billion gallons of water per day. The north of the city is undergoing construction of a $3.2 billion water purification plant to augment New York City’s water supply by an estimated 290 million gallons daily, representing a greater than 20% addition to the city’s current availability of water. The ongoing expansion of , an integral part of the New York City water supply system, is the largest capital construction project in the city’s history, with segments serving Manhattan and the Bronx completed, and with segments serving Brooklyn and Queens planned for construction in 2020. In 2018, New York City announced a $1 billion investment to protect the integrity of its water system and to maintain the purity of its unfiltered water supply.

You May Like: Ann Arbor African American Museum

Naming Rights Anonymity And Attribution In African Art

Mudimbe emphasises African artsamazingly diverse, complex, and conflicting regional styles and the need to consider these as we do literary texts.

Of the hundreds of thousands of artefacts valorised for the creative ingenuity of their makers across sub-Saharan Africa, and now in museums and private collections around the world, few are identified by name.

From societies in which history and praise were relayed orally we are left with no literal signatures. This is not a reflection of enormous temporal divides, as it is with ancient archaeological artefacts. Instead it reflects a paradoxical legacy of Western collecting: on the one hand, the material aspect of complex traditions was historically privileged over all else on the other, different standards were applied to the recognition of African makers achievements than those of their Western contemporaries.

Ise Palace door , Olowe of Ise, Yoruba peoples, Nigeria. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Headrest , Master of the Cascade Coiffure, Luba or Shankadi peoples, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Seat of leadership , Buli Master, possibly Ngongo ya Chintu, Luba or Hemba peoples, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Prestige stool , Master of the Warua or the Kunda, Luba peoples, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Metropolitan Museum Of Art Given Major Gift Of African

NEW YORK – The Metropolitan Museum of Art has received a major gift of 57 works by contemporary African-American artists from the South.

The museum says it contains 10 pieces by Thornton Dial. There also are paintings, drawings and mixed media works by Lonnie Holley, Nellie Mae Rowe and other artists.

The donation includes 20 works by female quilters in Gee’s Bend, a remote community in Alabama.

The gift comes from the Atlanta-based Souls Grown Deep Foundation. The nonprofit was started in 2010 by art historian and collector William Arnett to bring attention to self-taught African-American artists.

Arnett said in a statement that the collection documents a little-known tradition that began in the Deep South, likely during the earliest days of slavery.

An exhibition of the works is planned for 2016.

You Might Also Be Interested In:

First published on November 25, 2014 / 4:15 PM

Recommended Reading: Museum Of International Folk Art

Metropolitan Museum Of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially “the Met“, is the largest art museum in the Western Hemisphere. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 Fifth Avenue, along the Museum Mile on the eastern edge of Central Park on Manhattan‘s Upper East Side, is by area one of the world’s largest art museums. A much smaller second location, The Cloisters at Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan, contains an extensive collection of art, architecture, and artifacts from medieval Europe.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870 to bring art and art education to the American people. The museum’s permanent collection consists of works of art from classical antiquity and ancient Egypt, paintings, and sculptures from nearly all the European masters, and an extensive collection of American and modern art. The Met maintains extensive holdings of African, Asian, Oceanian, , and Islamic art. The museum is home to encyclopedic collections of musical instruments, costumes, and accessories, as well as antique weapons and armor from around the world. Several notable interiors, ranging from 1st-century Rome through modern American design, are installed in its galleries.

Conservation Of An Urhobo Maternity Figure

Almost seven feet tall and carved from a single piece of hardwood, a newly treated Urhobo figure of a nursing mother stands imposingly at the entrance to the reinstalled African art galleries.

The Urhobo people of southern Nigeria have a long tradition of wood carving, extending back as far as the 13th century. The maternity figure in the Gallerys collection, which dates from the late 19th or early 20th century, is decorated with scarifications on the face, arms, and breasts and with ikoro, ivory bracelets and anklets worn by women from wealthy families. The figure would have formed part of a group of monumental statues representing ancestral spirits, called edjo re akare or spirits in carved form. The sculpture had originally been allocated a relatively short stint in the conservation lab, but the Gallerys closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic presented an opportunity to devote more time to its repair.

Read Also: Mn Science Museum Gift Card

What Can You See At The Metropolitan Museum Of Art

Higher Education And Research

More than 600,000 students are enrolled in New York City’s more than 120 higher education institutions, the highest number of any city in the world, with more than half a million in the system alone as of 2020, including both degree and professional programs. According to , New York City has, on average, the best higher education institutions of any .

Much of the in the city is done in medicine and the . New York City has the most postgraduate life sciences degrees awarded annually in the United States, with 127 having roots in local institutions as of 2005 while in 2012, 43,523 licensed physicians were practicing in New York City. Major biomedical research institutions include , Rockefeller University, , , , and , being joined by the / venture on . The graduates of in the Bronx earned the highest average annual salary of any university graduates in the United States, $144,000 as of 2017.

Read Also: Hotels Near The Field Museum In Chicago Il

Wealth And Income Disparity

New York City, like other large cities, has a high degree of , as indicated by its of 0.55 as of 2017. In the first quarter of 2014, the average weekly wage in New York County was $2,749, representing the highest total among large counties in the United States. As of 2017, New York City was home to the highest number of of any city in the world at 103, including former . New York also had the highest density of millionaires per capita among major U.S. cities in 2014, at 4.6% of residents. New York City is one of the relatively few American cities levying an on its residents. As of 2018, there were 78,676 in New York City.

Egypt & Africa At The Met

On The African Origin of Civilization at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

At the end of last year, nearly four decades after its inauguration, the Metropolitan Museums Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, dedicated to the art of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, closed for a much-needed renovation and upgrade. To compensate for the absence of these important collections for the next two years, the Met created The African Origin of Civilization, a tightly focused exhibition with some outliers .1 Organized by Alisa LaGamma, the curator in charge of the department of the arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, and Diana Craig Patch, the curator in charge of the department of Egyptian art, and drawn entirely from the museums holdings, it combines superb works from sub-Saharan Africa with equally significant works from…

Read Also: Hall Of Fame Museum Atlanta

Digital Representation Of Collections

Beginning in 2013, the Met organized the Digital Media Department for the purpose of increasing access of the museum’s collections and resources using digital media and expanded website services. The first Chief Digital Officer Sree Sreenivasan from 2013 departed in 2016 and was replaced by Loic Tallon at the time that the department became known by its simplified designation as the Digital Department. At the start of 2017, the department began its Open Access initiative summarized on the Met’s website titled “Digital Underground” stating: “It’s been six months since The Met launched its Open Access initiative, which made available all 375,000+ images of public-domain works in The Met collection under Creative Commons Zero . During what is just the dawn of this new initiative, the responses so far have been incredible.” At that time, more than 375,000 photographic images from the museum’s archival collection were released for public domain reproduction and use both by the general public and by large public access websites such as those available at Google BigQuery.

Met Exhibit Examines Origins Of Civilization In Africa

“The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality”exhibit, shown in a press preview Monday, includes artifacts from Egypt dating back to 3650 and 350 B.C., paired with 21 works from sub-Saharan Africa, ranging in date from the 16th to the mid-20th century and representing more than a dozen distinct artistic traditions.

“Despite the chronological and geographical distance between the works in these two distinct collections, visitors will discern unexpected parallels and contrasts that will deepen their understanding of the breadth and depth of Africa as a source of civilization with unparalleled complexity and longevity,” the museum said in a statement.

The artifacts have been discovered in tombs and other archaeological contexts that reflect well-established trade networks between ancient Egypt and Europe and Western Asia. The museum said the interconnections of the civilizations of ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt can be seen by shared motifs and artistic forms.

“The exhibition serves as a springboard for a series of installations of important sculptures from West and Central Africa in permanent collection galleries across the museum,” the museum said. “These’ guest appearances’ introduce unexpected cross-cultural connections between works of art from different places and times.”

Don’t Miss: Movado Museum Classic Gold Women’s

Learn More About The Metropolitan Museum Of Art

• A Guide to the Met: From the must-see galleries to the lesser-known treasures, heres how to make the most of your visit.

Under the label Primary Pairing are two sculptures of roughly the same size, around three feet tall, separated by millenniums. In a high-relief Egyptian limestone carving, dated between 2575-2465 B.C., a man and woman named Memi and Sabu stiffly face forward, as if freezing for a photo. Theyre youngish, buff and alert, and the man is dominant. A head taller than his mate, his left arm is around her shoulder his hand covers her breast.

The other sculpture, free-standing, was cut from a single block of wood by a Dogon artist in Mali in the 18th or early 19th century. Here gender-based hierarchies of size are balanced out. The figures are almost equal in height and their features matched with delicate, near-mathematical precision, right down to the attributes that define their roles in life: the quiver of arrows strapped to the mans back and the bundled baby the woman carries on hers are also of equal size.

The Mets early standards of sculptural beauty were set by a Western classical tradition, in which the art of Ancient Egypt was awarded honorable mention. My standards are shaped by a lifetimes exposure to other, different traditions, some still packaged as primitive. But in the case of these two African objects, more beautiful, as a comparative category, just doesnt apply.

The African Origin of Civilization