on the University of Utah campus.
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and UMFA-Arts of a Continent
free public Juneteenth celebrated African art in Utah
By Christy Karras The
Salt Lake Tribune
About as far from Africa as it's possible to get, Utah might seem an odd place for a large collection of African art.
But Utah's lack of ties with Africa and relative shortage of cultural diversity are among the primary reasons David Mort decided to donate 2,500 works of art from Africa to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts.
The museum took its African art off exhibition while touring shows used the space but is now showing it again, along with many of Mort's pieces, just in time for
Juneteenth 2005, an annual holiday season celebrated by many African Americans.
Mort, now retired and living on the Arizona-California border, traveled the world working on engineering projects for the U.S. government, including a power plant in Zaire. He says he liked getting to know new cultures.
He knew of the UMFA through a friend whose father was a professor at the University of Utah and had lived in Utah while working on projects in the Glen Canyon and Flaming Gorge areas. A "natural collector," he wanted a place to safely house his extensive collection and was impressed by the care the museum showed with the first group of pieces he gave to the museum.
He also knew Utah didn't have many people of color, nor did it have a reputation for being particularly multicultural. "It seemed like a good place to put it so people could learn more about other cultures," he said.
The donation is a boon to the museum, which now has a collection that rivals those of the few other museums in the country with large African collections. "It's thanks to his generosity that we have this collection. It's just serendipity," said Bernadette Brown, who curated the African exhibition. "It's the only place probably within a five-state radius where you can see African art. The art that we see is equal to any of the art in [other] museums."
Divination
Basket
Wood with animal and plan materials
Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), Chokwe people
Education Collection
Museum # 1985.052.173
The pieces are diverse and come from a variety of places -- Mali, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and the Congo -- but many of them are unified with a central theme common throughout African art.
"It's a way of looking at nature, that human
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beings should look at living within nature, that we are all created by a creator god and that we should be living in symbiosis with nature, not in opposition to it," Brown said.
Some of the works on display show spiritual themes and are full of symbolism, making them more like modern art in some ways than traditional, representational art. One object represents a "Spirit Spouse" from the Baulé culture of the Ivory Coast. The Baulé believe every person has a companion before birth who comes along in mortal life to give protection and help -- but the spirit spouse can turn nasty if not cared for properly.
The art also shows traditional African ideas of the human body, with large heads representing the importance of intellect and bellies symbolizing the seat of emotion. "And then hands and feet are treated cursorily, because they're not important," Brown said.
Out of Africa
* "Africa: Arts of a Continent" is on display at The Utah Museum of Fine Arts, 410 Campus Center Drive on the University of Utah campus.
* General admission (which includes the African art exhibition) is $4; $2 for seniors and children.
Call 801-581-7332 or visit http://
www.umfa.utah.edu for information.
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