Figure from a Reliquary Ensemble: Seated Female, (The Pahouin or Black Venus)
Fang peoples, Betsi group; on 19th century, Wood, raffia, H. 22 1/16 in. (56 cm.). Musée Dapper, Paris. 2891

NEW YORK.- The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present a special exhibition of acclaimed sculptural masterpieces from the heart of Africa’s equatorial rainforest, beginning October 2, 2007. The exhibition explores not only the significance of the works presented in their countries of origin but also how their reception in the West led them to enter the mainstream of universal art. Organized thematically, Eternal Ancestors: The Art of the Central African Reliquary explains the sources of cultural and spiritual inspiration that led to their creation in equatorial Africa. Drawn from the most important collections of African art in Europe and the United States, the more than 130 works featured in the exhibition relate to 12 distinct traditions in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Republic of Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They were created to celebrate the lives of an extended family’s most notable ancestors and to give expression to their ongoing role as advocates with the divine. Lire la suite http://www.artdaily.com/section/news/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=21197