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Thursday, 27 January 2011
Friday, 14 January 2011
Conversation Pieces: African Textiles from Barbara and Bill McCann’s Collection
Yesterday I inadvertently posted the wrong description for this exhibition. Below are the details with the correct text, together with a photo of one of the exhibited cloths, kindly provided by Barbara McCann.
Detail of an Akwete woman’s wrapper cloth, Nigeria, from the collection of Barbara and Bill McCann.
Conversation Pieces: African Textiles from Barbara and Bill McCann’s Collection
Curated by Catherine Hale
Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa, Canada
February 14, 2011 - April 17, 2011
“Conversation Pieces explores the vital role played by conversation and, more broadly, communication, in the acquisition, understanding and exhibition of textiles from the McCanns’ rich and varied collection. The exhibition presents approximately sixty textile works and a wide range of garments acquired by the McCanns since 1970, in countries from Morocco to South Africa, as well as Mr. and Mrs. Andrews without their Heads (1998), a textile-based installation work by contemporary artist Yinka Shonibare, loaned by the National Gallery of Canada.
Whether created as emblems of prestige, to commemorate particular events or individuals, to offer protection, or to identify a rite of passage, textiles and clothing throughout the African continent are actively employed to communicate concepts of identity, history, and community. Highlights of the exhibition include an intricately-appliquéd raffia woman’s skirt from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a cotton hunter’s shirt from Mali adorned with leather amulets and mirrors, a richly-embroidered cotton man’s gown from Nigeria, a Moroccan wool hooded cloak featuring a vivid red “eye” motif, and a three-part bridal outfit (smock, shawl and trousers) from Egypt’s Siwa Oasis region. Conversation Pieces highlights the many ways that textiles initiate dialogue about and between people in Africa and elsewhere. A catalogue is planned.”
Thursday, 13 January 2011
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
African Textile Exhibitions in 2011 by opening date..
Africa Interweave: Textile Diasporas
Samuel P. Harn Museum, University of Florida
February 8, 2011 - May 8, 2011
”Whether worn for work, masquerades, sacred ceremonies, or adorning the home or shrine, textiles are one of the most vibrant art forms on the African continent. Textiles have rich and diverse cultural histories. The exhibition will illustrate the continuity of textile designs and techniques from past to present, highlighting innovations, contemporary fashion and works inspired by traditional practices.
Art on display in the exhibition will be selected from the Harn collection, with many newly acquired works, including those recently commissioned from African textile artists. Loans from private collections and other institutions will also enhance the exhibition.”
Conversation Pieces: African Textiles from Barbara and Bill McCann’s Collection
Curated by Catherine Hale
Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa, Canada
February 8, 2011 - May 8, 2011
”Whether worn for work, masquerades, sacred ceremonies, or adorning the home or shrine, textiles are one of the most vibrant art forms on the African continent. Textiles have rich and diverse cultural histories. The exhibition will illustrate the continuity of textile designs and techniques from past to present, highlighting innovations, contemporary fashion and works inspired by traditional practices.
Art on display in the exhibition will be selected from the Harn collection, with many newly acquired works, including those recently commissioned from African textile artists. Loans from private collections and other institutions will also enhance the exhibition.”
Global Patterns: Dress and Textiles in Africa
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
April 13 2011 – January 8 2012
“This exhibition focuses on the accomplishments of African weavers, dyers, bead embroiderers, and tailors, and highlights continuities, innovation, and the exchange of ideas from within and without that mark dress and textile production in Africa. More than any other artistic expression, dress and textile production in Africa demonstrates the continuous links of the Continent with the outside world. Throughout centuries, African textile artists seamlessly and joyfully integrated into their visual vocabulary new design elements and new materials such as glass beads, buttons, and fabrics that arrived as the result of trade with Europe and places as far away as India and Indonesia. They added to or transformed existing traditions, and at times created new types of textiles and garments. Beadwork among the Ndebele peoples of South Africa and the Yoruba peoples of Nigeria, Kente cloth in Ghana and Togo, and Yoruba indigo-dyed cloths called Adire are among the highlights of the display.
Africans, in particular those living along the coasts, have been in contact with Europeans and other foreigners since the sixteenth century. Therefore, it is not surprising that clothing styles common in Europe also appeared early on among African elites. Certainly by the late nineteenth century, when many African regions had come under colonial rule, salaried employees who worked for colonial administrations, merchants, and increasingly the educated residents of growing urban centers were aware of fashion trends in Europe and began to follow them. They picked and chose inventing new hybrid styles, and always went with the times. Trade cloth and photographs help explore these aspects of African creativity.
The adoption of new ideas was not a one-way street, however: a small section in the exhibition demonstrates the way in which Europeans and Americans were equally intrigued by African dress and adornment. By the 1920s, African forms inspired fashions and design on both continents, part of creative exchanges that continue to this day.”
Weaving Abstraction:
Kuba Textiles and the Woven Art of Central Africa
The Textile Museum, Washington
October 15, 2011 through February 19, 2012
“The textiles of the Kuba kingdom are among the most distinctive and spectacular works of African art. Emerging in the early 17th century, the Kuba kingdom grew into a powerful and wealthy confederation of 18 different ethnic groups located in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. While they have fascinated artists, collectors and designers for over a century, this will be the first major museum exhibition in the U.S. to showcase the artistic inventiveness and graphic power of Kuba ceremonial dance skirts within a wide-ranging survey of Kuba design. More than 50 exceptional 19th- and early 20th-century objects will be on view, including ceremonial skirts, ‘velvet’ tribute cloths, headdresses and basketry from the permanent collection of The Textile Museum, the National Museum of African Art, and several private collections.”
Please do let me know if you are aware of others….
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