OPINION: Reconceptualizing African art by Trevor Getz, 25th February 2005 

In the modern African art market, four worlds intersect:
1) the ‘art’ world that looks at a piece stylistically and aesthetically
2) the ‘antique’ world that evaluates a piece in terms of authenticity and age
3) the ‘craft’ world that assesses craftsmanship.
4) the ‘academic’ world that asks: what is the meaning of this piece, and how was it used?

So, often we look at a piece of African art, perhaps an antiquity, and ask:
Q: Is this a ‘genuine’ artifact?
Q: Was this created to be useful, or just beautiful?
Q: What ethnic group (or tribe) does this come from?
Q: What is the meaning of this piece?

Find the answers: http://users.telenet.be/african-shop/reconceptualisation.htm

EXHIBITION: “Artists & Patrons in Traditional African Cultures: African Sculpture from the Gary Schulze Collection”

New York Queensborough Community College Art Gallery .  .

If you are in New York on May 14, 2005, send me an email to request an invitation for the opening, and lets meet there.

Stolen

Stolen in Netherland end 2004 Eket mask from the Gerbrand Luttik collection.

Uma-collection.htm">  World class African art collection donated to U-M Museum of Art ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Ann Arbor businessman, philanthropist, art collector and devoted University of Michigan Museum of Art supporter Helmut F. Stern has given his extraordinary collection of African art to the Museum of Art.

Muscarelle shows: Animals in African Art from the
Collection of Wallace Gusler

April 2–May 29, 2005

Animals in African Art focuses on works that have stylistic elements derived from animals. The largest group of objects are masks which were used to represent spirits.

 

CONTEMPORARY:

The museum of modern art New York ...the status of non-Western art is beginning to change in mainstream institutions, including sleeping giants in New York like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the recently repackaged Museum of Modern Art, from obscurity to varying degrees of prominence...

Texas Southern University celebrates African art with African Artist Cheri Samba

J'aime Cheri Samba On View at the University Museum January 28, 2005 through May 6, 2005 Houston, TX- As part of the groundbreaking exhibition African Art Now: Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the University Museum at Texas Southern University presents J'aime Cheri Samba, on view January 29 through May 9, 2005. 

The exhibition is one of five presentations in Houston of art from the Contemporary African Art Collection (CAAC) of Swiss collector Jean Pigozzi. J'aime Cheri Samba focuses upon the vibrant art of Congolese painter Cheri Samba whose work is well known throughout Europe and Africa but has not been exhibited widely in the United States.

DECORATION:

African furniture 

Ethiopian African furniture Interiors has beauty, texture. At the moment, African artifacts tend to be on everyone's mind, and not just the more traditional things like masks and textiles. Furniture is a very interesting part of the market, and it tends to be underpriced.
Ethiopian artifacts are gorgeous pieces of furniture that mix well with other kinds of furniture. Even though they seem to be on people's minds at the moment, they're not trendy at all. They've been around since the turn of the last century when having African artifacts was a mark of a sophisticated, well-traveled person.

Inexpensive gift stores have sprouted like mushrooms...The products that you find in many of these stores are international -- justifying store names that suggest far away places, such as "Global Treasures." Their goods are delightful, mostly exotic art and carvings from our Native American reservations, Africa, Eastern Europe and drawings and pictures that originated in the Philippines.(...)The majority of these "tribal" gifts, however, now are made on China's mass-production assembly lines. And, if you listen carefully to importers, there is no real deception....
Read what " Made in China " really means..

Collection of African-American and African art comforts and empowers