High Museum of Art Atlanta, Georgia.

New York art collectors Fred and Rita Richman, who have longstanding business ties to Atlanta and the South, have been giving African art to the High Museum of Art for three decades. Their initial gift, presented in 1973, consisted of 250 works; African art has been on continuous display at the museum ever since. The High's collection now boasts 510 works of art from Africa, and of these 383 were donated by the Richmans.

In 2001 the Richmans endowed the High with funds to create a Department of African Art and to appoint a curator to build the museum's holdings in this area, develop a related exhibition program, and plan the installation of new African art galleries, designed by Renzo Piano, which are slated to open in 2005. I joined the High's curatorial team in that capacity in 2001, and in that same year, the couple made their entire African art collection, comprising 187 works, a promised gift to the museum. Fifty of the most important pieces became year-end gifts in 2002; a selection of these is illustrated here.

As Michael Shapiro, who is the Nancy and Holcombe T. Green, Jr., Director of the High Museum of Art, recognized, "this gift underscores the museum's commitment to significantly upgrade the quality and scope of all of our collections as we work to bring great art of the world to Atlanta and the region." Last year the museum presented "For This World and Beyond: African Art from the Fred and Rita Richman Collection" (December 17, 2002-June 8, 2003), which celebrated the Richmans' generosity and their enduring commitment to enhance the cultural life of Atlanta and the Southeast.

While Fred and Rita Richman established the core of the African collection, gifts from other individuals and museum purchases are also important. The first African work to enter the High's collection was a Baga figure given by Helena Rubinstein in 1953. Since my arrival, twenty-seven pieces aside from the Richman donation have been added through purchase or individual donation. These include an entourage of contemporary Bwa masks from Boni, Burkina Faso, all carved after 1986 by sculptors from the Bonde family. In collaboration with Carrie Przybilla, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, and Thomas Southall, Curator of Photography, respectively, the museum also purchased William Kentridge's 2002 drawing Pond at Deer Acres and three vintage photographs from 1962, 1968, and 1976 by Malick Sidibe. These recent acquisitions are evidence of the High's increasing commitment to represent the rich diversity of the art of the African continent, past and present. Soon the museum will announce its campaign to build an endowment for African art acquisitions.

Carol Thompson

Richman Family Foundation Curator of African Art

Male and female reliquary guardian figures Fang artist, Cameroon

Late 19th/early 20th century

Wood, brass, glass; 51.4cm and 50.8cm (20 1/4" and 20")

Fred and Rita Richman Collection (High Museum of Art, Atlanta), 2002.291.1-2

These Fang sculptures, from the dense equatorial forest region of central Africa, once sat on cylindrical bark boxes. The boxes stored a family's ancestral relics, and the sculptures defended the contents. As sentinels, the figures have an upright, frontal, and symmetrical orientation; they are alert and at attention. Such sculptures were often carved in pairs, but it is unusual to find two figures still united, as here.

Fang artists strove to create a sense of vitality and maturity through a complementary interplay of opposites--vertical and horizontal, solid and void, concave and convex. Stylistic conventions dictated that a sculpture's torso be elongated and legs compressed; the head was disproportionately large to resemble both the forehead of a newborn baby and ancestral skulls. The harmonious, balanced contours of reliquary guardian figures convey a sense of tranquility highly valued in both art and life in Fang culture.

In these sculptures, smooth, sharply delineated full forms interlock along a vertical axis to create a rhythmic repetition of curves. Brass applique ornaments punctuate the body and outline the eyes. The boldly geometric forms of these guardian figures inspired artists of early-twentieth-century Paris such as Henri Matisse, Andre Derain, and Constantin Brancusi.

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Left:

Nkishi

Songye artist, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Late 19th/20th century

Wood, cowrie shells, earth, fiber, metal, horn, shell, seed pods, hide: 31.8cm (12 1/2")

Fred and Rita Richman Collection, 2002.297

This sculpture is a container for bashimba, ritually charged materials. Without bashimba, the sculpture is just a place of wood, without purpose. With bashimba, the sculpture invokes ancestral power to provide for the well-being of living generations. Here the ritually charged materials include cowrie shell eyes for clairvoyance, and, at the navel, a small iron pin or miniature anvil, symbol of the alliance between blacksmithing arts and political kingship in central Africa. Inserted into the top of the head is a horn containing medicine and a miniature metal hoe, a symbol of reliance on farming arts Sculptures like this one were conceived primarily as protective rather than malevolent.

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Right:

Mother and child figure

Kongo artist, Democratic Republic of the Congo/Republic of the Congo

Late 19th/early 20th century

Wood, brass tacks, glass; 324cm (12 3/4")

Fred and Rita Richman Collection. 2002.293

This sculpture may have been used within the context of Mpemba, an organization founded by a famous Kongo midwife and concerned with fertility and the treatment of infertility. The Kikongo word phemba "denotes 'the one who gives children in-potentia.' A phemba child is a magically conceived nkisi child, a fragile emissary of the spirit world" (Janzen 1977:88).

The female figure's studded cap, chiseled teeth and scarification indicate aristocratic status. Both the brass tacks and the glass eyes are imported The light-reflecting glass is associated with an ability to see into invisible spiritual and ancestral realms.

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Top:

Mask

Dan artist, Liberia/Cote d'Ivoire

20th century

Wood; 25.4cm (10")

Fred and Rita Richman Collection, 2002.300

In Dan communities of Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire, masks are performed by men called gle-zo, who are chosen by the mask's spirit and instructed through a dream. In the dream the spirit reveals its name, its capabilities, and its rules Spirits need men to give them physical form. By asking men to assist in the realization of their corporeality, spirits are able to participate in this world in a tangible way.

It is impossible to know the exact function and history of this particular mask. There are many types and subtypes of Dan masks, which change roles over the course of a lifetime. This example may have performed as Deangle, the mask of the initiation school, whose friendly attractive spirit brings joy Deangle means "joking or laughing masquerade." Through graceful movements, it personifies a nurturing female spirit who provides food for boys living away from home in initiation camps.

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Mask

Chokwe artist, Angola/Democratic Republic of the Congo/Zambia

20th century

Paint on wood, fiber, pigment, metal: 30.5cm (12")

Fred and Rite Richman Collection, 2002.294

In Chokwe communities of the southern savannah region of central Africa, ancestral spirits known as makishi return to this world as animate beings to instruct the living. Makishi appear during ceremonies and events of communal importance. During the initiations of young men, they take the form of masks to transmit knowledge from generation to generation. Today ancestral spirit masks perform not only at initiations but also at political rallies, during national elections, and even outside prisons to give hope and spiritual support to inmates (Jordan 1998:67).

The mukanda initiation or boys requires the guidance of a spirit representing an ideal woman. A man enacts this spirit, and the women of the community approve or disapprove of his performance. In the past, a man would symbolically marry a female mask to gain the right to perform it. When he died, the mask was buried with him. This mask's coiffure, entirely coated with red earth, depicts a style worn in the past by Chokwe women.

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Female figure

Senufo artist, Cote d'Ivoire

Late 19th/early 20th century

Wood, oil; 30.5cm (12")

Fred and Rita Richman Collection, 2002.283

This figure's upright posture communicates a sense of dignified authority. Its clearly articulated forms have a commanding presence, and its surface glistens from repeated applications of palm oil. Beautifully textured details include abdomen scarification, bracelets and armlets, and a full, billowing coiffure.

This small sculpture made by a Senufo artist living in a small farming community in northern Cote d'Ivoire probably once belonged to a diviner. As intercessors to the spirit world, diviners use sculptures like this one to secure ancestral blessings, sustain and protect living generations. The beauty of the sculpture reflects the stature and prestige of the diviner who uses it as well as the client who consults it.

Senufo women are considered particularly adept at communicating with the spirit world. While men control Poro, a men's organization in charge of masquerades, women control Sandogo, a divination organization. There is a balance of power between Poro and Sandogo, the chief patrons of the arts in Senufo communities. Poro's spiritual figurehead is a female elder. While these two institutions are interdependent, ultimately all power rests with supernatural authority.

Messages from the spirit world are communicated through sculptures, which speak to the diviner, who interprets messages for clients. This sculpture may have originally been one of a pair; diviners use a pair of male and female figures as essential equipment. Alternatively, it may have been an individual figure commissioned by a client who wanted to have his or her own special oracle figure. If carved for a particular client, the diviner would care for the sculpture, and the client would offer gifts to it and to the diviner after each consultation.

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Standing male and female d'mba figures

Baga artist, Guinea

19th century

Wood; 67.3cm and 68.6cm (26 1/2" and 27")

Fred and Rita Richman Collection, 2002.284.1-2

For the Baga people living on small tropical islands off coastal Guinea, d'mba is an abstract concept encompassing all that is good and beautiful in the world. These two d'mba figures share the same profiles as the famous d'mba feminine headdresses that perform at Baga weddings and on other joyous occasions. The concept of d'mba is shared by both men and women; it is embodied in both male and female figures. As Frederick Lamp states, "D'mba as a cross-gendered, positive character stood for a new state of being and new aspirations" (1996: 181).

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Left:

Male and female figures

Metoko artist, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Late 19th/early 20th century

Wood; 42cm (16 1/2")

Fred and Rita Richman Collection, 2002.308.1-2

Throughout their collecting, the Richmans have made "couples" and paired figures a special focus. Together these pairs present an ingeniously inventive array of representations of the human form. Even the small selection illustrated here shows a wide range of expressions, from the rather naturalistic Yoruba twin figures to this highly abstract Metoko pair.

In Metoko societies such figures, "the male called Ntanda and the female Itea, representing husband and wife, are interpreted during the rites for obtaining the grade of kasimbi" (Biebuyck 1977:52). Kasimbi is one of the highest ranks within the voluntary association called bukota, whose large membership includes both men and women. Its functions are similar to those of the Lega bwami association. Sculptures serve a wide variety of purposes, from providing behavioral models for disobedient children, to encouraging healing, to promoting peace.

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Right:

Janus figure

Igbo artist, Nigeria

Before 1897

Wood, paint: 47cm (18 1/2")

Fred and Rita Richman Collection, 2002.290

In Igbo communities of eastern Nigeria, diviner's eyes are ringed with white on ritual occasions to indicate honesty and clear-sightedness. Similarly this figure's eyes are lined in white. Within Igbo religious cosmology, white has symbolic significance, associated with the purity of the spirit world.

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Pair of twin figures (ere ibeji)

Yoruba artist, Nigeria

Late 19th/early 20th century

Wood, pigment, beads, cowrie shells; 35cm and 375cm (13 3/4" and 14 3/4")

Fred and Rita Richman Collection, 2002.287.1-2

The smooth, worn surfaces of these twin figures show that they have been cared for devotedly. Ere ibeji represent deceased twin children. The Yoruba believe twins share one soul. If a twin dies, a figure is carved to please the spirit of the deceased. If neglected, its spirit might become offended or fool abandoned, and invite the soul of the twin sibling to leave the material world to join it in "the beyond."

The wide-open eyes, calm, serious expressions, and upright postures of these unusually large ere ibeji communicate spiritual alertness. The sculptures' disproportionately large heads reflect Yoruba religious beliefs. As Babatunde Lawal explains, "According to myth, every individual, before being born into the physical world, must proceed to the workshop of Ajalamopin, the heavenly potter, to choose one of several undifferentiated, ready-made Ori Inu, or 'inner heads' on display in Ajalamopin's workshop. Each inner head contains Olodumare's ase (enabling power), and the one chosen by the individual predetermines his/her lot (ipin) in the physical world. Hence the popular Yoruba slogan, Orilonise, "One's success or failure in life depends on the head" (Lawal 2001/02).

In Yoruba communities, twins are much admired and also more common than anywhere else in the world. Twins are considered to have special attributes. The colors of the anklet, necklace, and waist beads indicate devotion to particular Yoruba deities, or orisha. These figures' elaborate coiffures are rubbed with Rickett's bluing, a powdered blue dye used by the British during the colonial period to whiten laundry. As seen here (though more visible from the back), inventive Yoruba artists put this powder to new use.

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Reliquary guardian figure

Kota artist, Gabon

Late 19th/early 20th century

Wood, brass, bone; 36.5cm (14 3/8")

Fred and Rita Richman Collection, 2002.292

With intense, vigilant eyes and a brilliant metallic surface, this sculpture has a startling presence. Its flashing brightness honors ancestors through a display of wealth in the form of brass. Like the pair of Fang figures on page 67, this object was created to protect the relics of important ancestral leaders: it once stood over a bundle of sacred remains--including skulls, bones, and ritually charged medicines--enclosed in a basket. Groups of figures like this one guarded all the relics of a village. Stored in a small house accessible to only a few responsible individuals, reliquary bundles were used to teach youths about the achievements of their ancestors.

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William Kentridge

South African, b. 1955

Pond at Deer Acres, 2002

Charcoal, ink, chalk, china marker on paper; 139.7cm x 167.6cm (55" x 66")

Purchase with funds from the Lawrence and Alfred Fox Foundation for the Ralph K. Uhry Collection and Dr. Harold and Elaine Levin, 2003.4.

This large-scale drawing contrasts sharply with nineteenth-century landscapes of Africa done by European artists as the continent was being mapped and colonized. Instead of presenting a neatly ordered, carefully controlled, and distant view of an exotic land, Pond at Deer Acres, with its rich, densely layered surface, pulls the viewer into its vibrant, almost chaotic composition. It demands close examination. Leah Ollman (1999:71) describes how Kentridge's drawings "... chronicle, on a visceral level, his country's transitions After decades under a cruelly rigid template, South Africa is flow drawing itself, drafting, erasing and reformulating its structures of power, its social relations, its systems of rights, benefits and protections. 'South Africanness now,' as the expatriate poet Breyton Breytenbach puts it, 'is an itinerary (and a topography) of becoming in the making.'"

Through highly abstract means, Kentridge's landscapes consciously reinterpret the European tradition of landscape painting to bring suppressed histories to the surface and into consciousness. They evoke dissonant narratives of colonial history. Surface marks, done in red, call to mind the violent events that took place across seemingly idyllic landscapes throughout South Africa's painful history Kentridge's landscapes present sites charged with historical memory.

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Bottom:

Malick Sidibe

Malian, born 1935

Untitled, 1968

Gelatin silver print

13cm x 10cm (5 1/8" x 3 9/16")

Purchase with funds from the Director's Circle, 2003.26

The bell-bottomed trousers and transistor radios in this intimately scaled portrait of three teenagers, made in Bamako, Mali, in 1968, help ground the work in time and place. The direct gazes, self-assured postures, and stylish dress define clearly individualized personalities Manthia Diawara sees Sidibe's photographs as evidence of "the triumph of the diaspora" (2001:2). He describes how these photographs show exactly how young people in Bamako embraced rock and roll as a liberation movement, adopted the consumer habits of an international youth culture, and developed a rebellious attitude toward all forms of established authority. The black-and-white images reflect how far these teenagers went in their imitation of the world view and fashions of popular music stars, and how Sidibe's photographic art was part of a conversation with the design of popular magazines, album covers, and movie posters of the time. To say that Bamako's youth was on the same page as the youth in London and Paris in the 1960s and 1970s is also to acknowledge Malick Sidibe's role in shaping and expanding that culture.

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Biebuyck, Daniel P. 1977. "Sculpture from the Eastern Zaire Forest Regions: Metoko, Lengola, and Komo," African Arts 10, 2 (Jan.).

Diawara, Manthia. 2001. "The 1960s in Bamako: Malick Sidibe and James Brown." Paper Series on the Arts, Culture, and Society, Paper no. 11. New York: The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Janzen, John M. 1978. "Book Review: Los Phemba du Mayombe," African Arts 11, 2 (Jan.):88.

Jordan, Manuel (ed.). 1998. Chokwe! Art and Initiation Among Chokwe and Related Peoples. Munich, London, New York: Prestel.

Lamp, Frederick. 1996. Art of the Baga: A Drama of Cultural Reinvention. New York: Museum for African Art and Prestel Verlag.

Lawal, Babatunde. 2001/02. "Orilonise: The Hermeneutics of the Head and Hairstyles among the Yoruba," Tribal Arts 7, 2 (Winter 2001/Spring 2002), http://www.tribalarts.com/fea ture.lawal/index.html.

Ollman, Leah. 1999. "William Kentridge: Ghosts and Erasures," Art in America (Jan.).

Carol Thompson is the Richman Family Foundation Curator of African Art at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia. She is also a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Performance Studies at New York University.