at the gateway to U-M's central campus. For more
information, visit: www.umma.umich.edu
March 31, 2005
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.
The collection of 90pieces—regarded by experts as among
the most significant collections of Central African material—is noted for its
outstanding objects from many cultures, with a primary focus on art of the
Congo. Many of the Stern pieces will be highlighted once the expanded
museum—with dramatically enhanced gallery space for African art—opens in
2008.
"Helmut's heartfelt passion and sustained commitment to
UMMA is deeply moving," said James Steward, museum director. "The
collection's particular strength in the art of one region is especially
appropriate to a university museum, where it will serve a profoundly important
research purpose as well as provide much visual pleasure for our visitors."
Originally from Hanover, Germany, Stern attended George
Washington University (1939-1942) in Washington, DC and has made his home in Ann
Arbor since 1942. Stern is president of Arcanum Corp. and from 1946 to 1983 he
was general manager and president of Industrial Tectonics, Inc. He has long been
actively involved with U-M as a strategic adviser and volunteer and supporter of
the arts, humanities, public health, public policy and the sciences. Currently,
he is a member of U-M President Mary Sue Coleman's President's Advisory Group,
the Health System Advisory Group, and the Cardiology National Advisory Board,
and he is campaign chair for the Kellogg Eye Center.
"Helmut Stern has shown his generosity to U-M over many
years and in a myriad of ways," Coleman said. "He has been a wonderful
volunteer, charitable with his time and his support, as well as an astute and
trusted counselor who sees the big picture and takes the long view."
Stern began collecting modern European and American art in
the 1950s, later becoming increasingly interested in Asian and African art.
During the 1980s, under the guidance of then-UMMA director Evan Maurer, a noted
expert on African art, the collection and its focus on the art of the Congo
region took shape as new works were acquired from art dealers across the United
States and Europe. Over the years, Stern gave numerous works of art to UMMA and
provided the museum with funds for key art acquisitions. Previous Stern gifts to
UMMA include a significant collection of Japanese paintings, masterworks by
Swiss artist Paul Klee and English master J. M. W. Turner, and several
individual African works.
The Stern collection of African art given to UMMA has been
broadly studied and published, and was presented in a major exhibition and
accompanying catalogue at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in 1999 entitled
"Spirits Embodied: Art of the Congo—Selections from the Helmut F. Stern
Collection," which was curated by former UMMA director Maurer and Niangi
Batulukisi.
In recent years, UMMA has stepped up its presentation and
acquisition of African art, an especially dynamic and exciting field, and one
with increased scholarly attention at the University due to the appointments of
African art historians Ray Silverman and David Doris to the faculty. The museum
recently presented "Art of the Lega: Meaning and Metaphor in Central
Africa," a stunning exhibition of artwork from the Democratic Republic of
Congo organized by the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History. In consultation
with distinguished guest curator Michael Kan—former curator of African art at
the Detroit Institute of Arts—the museum organized a series of three
installations of African art from private collections in Michigan, the final of
which remains on view through May 8.
In addition to expanded exhibit space for African art, the
museum's new wing will provide a variety of object study classrooms and open
storage galleries, as well as housing the Charles Sawyer Center for Museum
Studies. Collectively, these will allow faculty and student researchers, in
particular, and the public in general, fuller access to all the museum's
outstanding works of art not on gallery display.
UMMA is located at 525 South State St. in Ann Arbor, at the
gateway to U-M's central campus. For more information, visit: www.umma.umich.edu.
Admission is free; a $5 donation is requested.
UMMA
Contact: Stephanie Rieke
Phone: (734) 647-0524
E-mail: srieke*umich.edu
related book:
Spirits Embodied: Art of the Congo
Selections from the Helmut F. Stern Collection
by Evan Maurer and Niangi Batulukisi
Published in English by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1999
Format: 12 x 9 inches, 153 pp, 71 large color photographs of objects and smaller
B&W.
Softcover
Spirits
Embodied: Art of the Congo
Author: Evan M. Maurer; Buy New: $34.95
This exhibition catalogue stands alone as a book, and a very useful one. It
celebrates the presentation at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts of the
collection of one individual, purchased largely from one dealer, built around
the collection of one artist, reflecting the cultures on one part of Africa.
Joseph Henrion, a Belgian artist, first brought these pieces together because
each expressed, as he saw it, "at once the particular and the universal
vision of all aspects of man." Helmut Stern appreciated the objects both
individually and collectively. And Evan Maurer, director of the Minneapolis
Institute, saw the importance of bringing this collection to public view and the
need to give it context with a highly informative essay on collecting and
representing art of the Congo in American museums in the twentieth century.
The overall focus is on the best-known artistic expressions of the Congo. The
catalogue entries are written by Dr. Niangi Batulukisi, who is Yaka by birth and
earned her Ph.D. at the University of Louvain, in Belgium, based on her field
work among the Holo people. She has also contributed an essay on Central African
art today. The objects, most of them figures, are grouped in regional and ethnic
clusters, with a detailed introduction for each section as well as excellent
photographs and notes for each piece. With the passage of time there is an
increase in the distance between the object in its culture of origin and the
number of hands it passes through. This catalogue fortunately also gives the
provenance of each piece once it fell into European hands. In terms of aesthetic
quality and depth of scholarship, this work is exemplary.
From Library Journal
This catalog accompanies a major exhibition, organized by the Minneapolis
Institute of Arts, featuring Central African sculpture from Helmut Stern's
extensive collection. Following an introductory text accompanied by
black-and-white field photos, the book is lavishly illustrated with
excellent color photographs of the objects. Batulukisi, a scholar from
central Africa, wrote both the culture group descriptions and the catalog
entries as well as an essay raising issues regarding varying viewpoints on
traditional and modern Congolese art. The heart of the text is institute
director Maurer's impressive overview of American interest in central Africa
from the late 19th century and the history of American exhibitions of its
art, providing insights into the personalities behind the acquisition and
exhibiting of numerous major collections. Highly recommended for any library
with art or African studies collections.
-Eugene C. Burt, Seattle
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc
buy this book at amazon: Spirits
Embodied: Art of the Congo $34.95
Stern
Collection provenance solved
So
I knew there was a relation to the artist Joseph Henrion. So I looked in the
"Who's
Who " from Guy Van Rijn and found the following:
Henrion, Joseph (Jo) (1936-1983, 10 April) & François
Artist/coll. Brussels-Belgium. Sculptor. Objects in expo: Art d'Afrique dans les collections Belges, MRAC-Tervuren 29 June/30 October, 1963. The collection is acquired by Marc Felix and sold to the collector Helmut Stern.
UMMA Collections
African Art
An area of active growth, the Museum has a collection of more than 1,000
works of African art. Although there is representation of nearly all the diverse
peoples and regions within the continent, the Museum’s holdings are
particularly rich in the works created in Central Africa, particularly of the
Kuba and related groups. The collection includes metalwork (brass weights as
well as articles of personal adornment), sculpture and masks, architectural
elements, textiles, and ceramics. Many of these works are featured in rotating
exhibitions in the James L. and Vivian A. Curtis Gallery of African and
African-American Art on the Museum’s second floor
African,
Congolese (Zairean), Lega
Bwami Society Mask
1900-1985
Carved wood and patination of kaolin
Gift of the Friends of the Museum of Art in memory of Diana B. Fox, 1985/1.151
African, Congolese (Zairean),
Vili Congolese (Zairean),
Maternity Figure 19th century
Polychromed wood, porcelain, glass beads, and cloth
Museum purchase made possible by the Betty J. Lockett Memorial Fund; the Mary
KujawskiMemorial Fund; and the Alfred E. Pernt Memorial Fund, in honor of Dr. of
Technical Services, Max H.J. Pernt and his wife Anna Pernt (nÈe Mueller),
1993/2.66
Human bust
Lega, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Ivory and cowrie shells
Height 17.7 cm
Promised gift of Jay T. Last
UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History
Photo by Don Cole
African,
Cameroonian, Bamoun
Mask
20th century
carved wood, human hair, and traces of camwood
Gift of Dr. James and Vivian Curtis
Read also:
Michigan Museum of Art
Michigan UMMA
Art of the Lega
