Genesis: Ideas of Origin in African Sculpture

LaGamma, Alisa (2002)

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Description

Since earliest human history, peoples around the globe have pondered their origins: Where do we come from? How did the world begin? In grappling with these fundamental questions, we developed a myriad of theories concerning our beginnings. "Every community in the world," according to historian Jan Vansina, "has a representation of the origin of the world, the creation of mankind, and the appearance of its own particular society and community." In many African cultures, these exalted ideas of "genesis" have been made tangible through rich expressive traditions interweaving oral history, poetry, and sculpture. This volume, which accompanies an exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, examines the staggering variety of ways in which African sculptors have given expression to social ideas of origin, from the genesis of humanity to the historical sources of families, kingdoms, agriculture, and other essential institutions. The seventy-five masterpieces presented here, drawn from public and private American collections, are among the most celebrated icons of African art, works that are superb artistic creations as well as expressions of a society's most profound conceptions about its beginnings. All are reproduced in color and are accompanied by entries that illuminate the distinctive cultural contexts that inspired their creation and informed their appreciation.

Part I surveys a broad spectrum of African sculpture from across the continent and in a range of media. The Senufo peoples of Côte d'lvoire and Mali, for example, commemorate divine creation with large-scale carved wood figural pairs representing the primordial couple, the first man and woman. Among the Yoruba of Nigeria, the notion that humanity was modeled from clay at the beginning of time is evoked by sublime, antique terracotta busts. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a triptych of lavishly appointed, beaded masquerades reenacts a story of original sin and the source of Kuba kingship. The common desire to memorialize and exalt founding ancestors is reflected in numerous works, from boldly abstract zoomorphic masks from Burkina Faso to idealized figurative forms made across central Africa.

Part II focuses on Africa's best-known sculptural genre, the ci wara headdresses of the Bamana peoples of Mali. The headdresses take their name from the mythological hero Ci Wara, who introduced the art of agriculture and an understanding of the earth, plants, and animals to the Bamana. To commemorate this vital contribution to human sustenance, the Bamana instituted a tradition of ceremonial dances in which Ci Wara was represented by costumes crowned with intricately carved wood headdresses. These sculptural elements have long been admired in the West for their elegant refinement and inventive abstraction. They often integrate the features of symbolic animals—possibly the antelope, aardvark, and pangolin—into graceful, endlessly dynamic designs. In her introductory essay, Alisa LaGamma considers the ci wara tradition in all its nuanced complexity and reveals some of the less well known regional and individual interpretations of the genre. She also provides an art historical overview of the theme of "genesis" and suggests ways of understanding African artistry from this perspective.

Table of contents

Director's Foreword
Philippe de Montebello

Acknowledgments

Genesis: Ideas of Origin in African Sculpture
Alisa LaGamma

Catalogue

Part I: Icons of Origin

Part II: The Invention of Agriculture: Ci Wara's Divine Gift

Selected Bibliography

About the authors

Alisa LaGamma is Associate Curator; Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; New York.

Press reviews

African Arts

"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 catalogs 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 ... The catalogue should be in every collectors and students library and will be of great value for teaching courses on African art."

Choice Reviews Online

"... includes a thorough, readable essay ... Each object is a masterpiece ... Excellent selected bibliography."

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African Art (General)

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Alisa LaGamma

Related Content

Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History (20)

Essays (11)

Senufo Sculpture from West Africa: an influential exhibition at The Museum of Primitive Art, New York, 1963

African Influences in Modern Art

Arts of Power Associations in West Africa

The Bamana Ségou State

Divination and Senufo Sculpture in West Africa

The Empires of the Western Sudan: Mali Empire

Kingdoms of the Savanna: The Kuba Kingdom

Kingdoms of the Savanna: The Luba and Lunda Empires

Senufo Arts and Poro Initiation in Northern Côte d'Ivoire

Trade Relations among European and African Nations

Ways of Recording African History

Timelines (9)

Central Africa, 1800–1900 A.D.

Central Africa, 1900 A.D.–present

Guinea Coast, 1000–1400 A.D.

Guinea Coast, 1800–1900 A.D.

Guinea Coast, 1900 A.D.–present

Southern Africa, 1900 A.D.–present

Western and Central Sudan, 1600–1800 A.D.

Western and Central Sudan, 1800–1900 A.D.

Western and Central Sudan, 1900 A.D.–present

Exhibition

Genesis: Ideas of Origin in African Sculpture

How did the world begin? What is our ancestry? What is the source of agriculture and of kingship, and other societal institutions? African cultures seek to provide answers to these questions through elaborate interwoven traditions of oral history, poetry, and art. Genesis: Ideas of Origin in African Sculpture explores how artists in seventeen distinct African cultures have interpreted these ideas and sought to answer these questions. Within that framework, the exhibition explores in depth the nuanced complexity of one noteworthy classical sculptural form, the ci wara antelope headdress of the Bamana people. The exhibition includes forty exceptional ci wara headdresses, as well as thirty-five noted masterpieces from across sub-Saharan Africa inspired by distinctive myths of origin ranging from the Dogon of Mali, the Senufo of Côte dIvoire, and the Yoruba of Nigeria to the Luba and Kuba of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Chokwe of Angola, and the Ntwane of South Africa.

Genesis: Ideas of Origin in African Sculpture seeks to shed light on the act of human creation as a broad and recurrent theme of African art. While the works of African art included relate to a panoply of social perspectives and traditions, they all reflect a desire to give tangible form to the abstract forces that have shaped the course of human experience. The works of art chosen constitute points of reference that allow individuals to conceive of their place within an expansive history. The artists who executed them have responded to their society's most exalted challenge and in doing so provide insight into their distinctive worldview.

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