Genesis: Ideas of Origin in African Sculpture.

November 19, 2002-April 13, 2003 The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, New York

This was a stunning exhibition of seventy five works of art representing seventeen distinct sculptural traditions in sub-Saharan Africa. Alisa LaGamma, associate curator of African art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, drew upon public and private collections in the United States to create a memorable and important exhibition (see the well-illustrated preview in African Arts, Autumn 2002, p. 54).

For Western viewers, the term "Genesis" is inextricably associated with the first book of Hebrew and Christian scriptures and, hence, with the concept of creation. However, as LaGamma noted, the Pentateuch speaks not only of the creation of the universe and humankind but also of the moral charters and concepts that govern human behavior. Its narratives tell about the origins of lineages and societies, often entailing violence. The subtitle, "Ideas of Origin in African Sculpture," was therefore the key to the exhibition. A citation from Wole Soyinka's Myth, Literature and the African World appeared on the introductory wall text and was crucial for understanding the exhibition of such a diverse body of works of art: "A fortunate blend of myth and history penetrates even deeper into that area of man's cosmogonic hunger, one which leads him to the profounder forms of art as retrieval vehicles for, or assertive links with, a lost sense of origin."

Upon entering "Genesis," one was drawn to an exquisite Ire terracotta head with delicate striations descending down the composed face. Cast by a woman potter at some point in the twelfth to fifteenth century, it is an image of a woman's physical beauty, ewa, and inner strength, iwa. The sculpture was so compelling that one was easily distracted from reading the introductory wall text, especially when one's eye was also caught by a splendid Dogon sculpture of a seated harp-lute player (p. 83, left) a few paces off to the right. It was at this point that one entered the program of the exhibition.

The installation was divided into two parts. The first, "Icons of Origin," comprised a series of curtained areas, each focusing upon a theme: "Genesis of Humanity," "Foundations of Kingdoms," and "Family Origins." The second consisted of a spectacular presentation of thirty-eight Ci Wara figures from various areas of the Bamana peoples of Matt.

The Dogon harp-lute player, as the teller of narratives of human origin, introduced the "Genesis of Humanity" grouping, which included a spectacular pair of Senufo sculptures depicting the primordial couple in the Senufo myth of human creation. Set upon a three-foot platform, they appeared as towering, powerful figures although they are only three and four feet tall. The grouping also included two large sacred masks of the Bobo peoples of Burkina Faso and three small beaded fertility figures created by the woman of the Ntwane, South Sotho, and Ndebele peoples of South Africa.

As one entered the "Foundations of Kingdoms" display, three marvelous Chokwe figure front Angola were on the right: a spear carrier, the portrait of a chief, and a Chibinda Ilunga figure celebrating the mythical princely hunter. All three sculptures are from the late nineteenth or early twentieth century and superbly carved, each with its dramatically undulating head-dress. On the far left, three royal Kuba masks revealed an artistry that employs wood, beads, hair, cowrie shells, and cloth in striking shapes and patterns of surface ornamentation that almost defy the imagination. For the Kuba, to see the masks in ritual performances is to recall myths of creation, ancestry, and the triad of protagonists: Woot, the larger-than-life culture hero; Ngaady aMwash, an idealized female figure; and Bwoom, whose significance in the royal court ranges from princely to subversive.

The "Luba Treasury" held the central space in the "Foundations of Kingdoms" section. Here one saw carvings of glorious artistic skill and imagination. There was a bow stand by the Waru Master; a titleholder's staff, kibango; a memory board, lukasa, used to instruct initiates of the Luba Mbudye association about Luba cultural heroes, clan migrations, and the introduction of sacred rule; a ceremonial adz, kibikii; a wooden ceremonial vessel depicting a female head used in enthronement rites; a seat of leadership, lupona; and a female vessel bearer, mboko. All are artistic treasures, but the female vessel bearer by the Bull Master was one of the most memorable artworks in the exhibition. Her body bends over the sacred calabash, mboko, for she too is a container of power, mboko. With head tilted forward, downward gaze, and pensive face, she possesses an inner power upon which the Luba diviner depends for his insight. Such vessels were always placed to the left of the diviner during rites of divination.

The third section was "Family Origins." Seven masks and headdresses, used in performances celebrating lineage origins, clan identity, and historical contact with neighboring peoples, were selected from peoples of the Western Sudan. The sinuous curves and undulating contours of a Baga headdress, known as a Mantsho-na-Tshol, conveys, among other references, the Baga belief that the rainbow is both the source of rivers and the end of rains. Hence, its appearance is associated with beginnings and conclusions, life and death, and the perpetuation of lineages. Four masks came from the Bwa peoples of Burkina Faso: a buffalo mask, richly painted with its piercing eyes below the weighty horns emerging from its skull; a superb butterfly mask with a wing span of eight feet, hanging high above the viewer; a plank mask, bayiri, with its stacked geometric shapes, each ornamented with red, white, and black patterns and linked by a vertical series of shapes resembling birds' beaks; and an amazing fifteen-foot serpent mask, which revealed not only the carver's skill and use of color patterns conveying a serpentine rippling effect, but his technical skill in creating a headdress that is so carefully balanced in its structure that the dancer can move with rapid, agile movements. An antelope headdress of the Kurumba and a Karanga mask of the Mossi, both peoples of Burkina Faso, completed the extraordinarily diverse array of masks, all of which referred in their performance, as well as in their ownership, to the origin, identity, and well-being of clans.

Five sculptures completed the display of objects associated with "Family Origins." "Ancestral Figures" from the Bwende, Tabwa, Hemba, and Boyo peoples of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are fine and rare examples of the sculptural skills of their creators, each revealing the varying imagery in which the memory of one's past is of singular importance for understanding one's identity as a people (and as a person) in the present. It was a nineteenth-century Fang reliquary figure from the Ngumba peoples of Cameroon that had the commanding presence in this group (p. 83, right). The muscular legs and arms, slender and elongated torso, imposing face, and piercing eyes of a female figure, who carries on her shoulders a child depicted as having similar human maturity ,and strength, would have reminded the members of a Northern Fang patrilineage that their origin is the woman "out of whose womb it was born."

Part Two of the exhibition, "The Invention of Agriculture: Ci Wara's Divine Gift," focused upon a particular people, the Bamana of Mall A large panel extended across the gallery. As one left "Icons of Origin," one saw on the right two very fine complete Ci Wara masquerades carrying male and female headdresses. On the left, an excellent ten-minute film presentation, created from the field research photography of James Imperato, Ard Berge, and others between 1969 and 2002, provided an introduction to what was on the other side of the wall. Each segment was dated, named the photographer and place, and provided clear and brief subtitles. What the film conveyed is the intimate relationship between dance, music, and visual art for African peoples.

Entering the final gallery space was a dazzling experience. There were thirty-eight Ci Wara headdresses, pairs and singles in vitrines in the center, others placed along the walls on shelves six feet above the floor, and at the far end of the gallery fourteen Ci Wara, each in its own vitrine, positioned in a semi-circle. The initial impression of infinite variety on a single subject was fascinating, indeed almost overwhelming, a bit like watching thirty-eight dancers similarly costumed, differentiated by their dances, yet harmonious in total performance. The wall texts were important, but one returned later to read them.

Superb examples abounded; and, in spite of the numbers, one could see individual sculptures with ease. There was a wonderful pair from the Baninko region with their soaring antelope horns, the male with flaring mane and the female carrying a male child on her back. Nine variations of this type, male and female, lined the shelf on the left. On the right, headdresses known as N'gonzon Koun from the Dijitoumou and Baninounitie regions, one with a double-headed image, seemed to dance along the shelf. Less well known were the Sogoni Koun headdresses from the Bougouni region, carved in far more abstract sculptural forms. The stylistic range was truly remarkable.

Through this exhibition and its catalogue, Alisa LaGamma has made a major contribution to our understanding of African art, presenting us with exceptional works of art and encouraging us to see them in a cross cultural manner. The catalogue's superb photographs offer a complete presentation of the exhibition; more important, following an informative introduction, every object is discussed at length with knowledge and insight with respect to its place in a particular culture and its qualities as a work of art. The catalogue should be in every collector's and student's library and will be of great value for teaching courses on African art.

During the run of the exhibition, the Metropolitan held a screening of Eliot Elisofon's film, The Bend in the Niger, as well as three lectures and a symposium. The exhibition catalogue by Alisa LaGamma is published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and distributed by Yale University Press (128 pp., 9 b/w & 75 color illustrations, 2 maps, bibliography; $30.00 softcover).

John Pemberton III, an emeritus professor of religion at Amherst College, has written extensively on Yoruba religion and art.