Power figures, once commonly referred to as fetishes, are among the best-known and most striking examples of religious art in sub-Saharan Africa. Commonly in the shape of humans and animals, these carved wooden objects were used by a large number of people in Central Africa's southern savanna as containers for medicinal substances. They were symbols of status that also acted as mediators between the human and spirit worlds. While scholars of African art have often suggested that religious and political sculpture are two distinct classes of objects, this exhibition demonstrates that such classifications do not hold for power figures. They are at once political and religious.
Organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art, the exhibition “Art and Power in the Central African Savanna,” will feature art from four different African cultures: the Chokwe, the Luluwa, the Songye, and the Luba. In all four cultures, social, political, and economic changes during the nineteenth century brought about stylistic changes in power figures. As these chiefdoms' political structures became more centralized, sculptures acquired new meanings associated with status, authority, and leadership, all while retaining their spiritual or magical values. Comparisons will be made between earlier styles, which were often more abstract and aggressive in their aesthetic, and later ones, which are more refined and show an attention to detail.
This exhibition will feature a selection of approximately sixty works of the highest quality from public and private collections in the United States and Belgium. Curated by Dr. Constantine Petridis, Curator of African Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art, “Art and Power in the Central African Savanna,”will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog that will include color plates, and historical field photographs. The exhibition will travel to the de Young Museum in San Francisco and the Cleveland Museum of Art.
This exhibition is generously supported by Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Gerry III, in honor of Louisa Stude Sarofim, and by the City of Houston.
Chokwe, Angola
Wood, hair, hide
40.6 cm high
Kimbell Art Museum, Forth Worth
Photo: Michael Bodycomb
Songye, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Ex coll.: Paul Osterrieth (field-collected in the town of Lusambo in 1923)
Ethnographic Museum, Antwerp (Bequest of Paul Osterrieth, 1940), AE 1940.1.47. Photo: © Ethnographic Museum, Antwerp (Bart Huysmans)
