Save
Save chapter to my Bookmarks
Cite
Cite this chapter
Print this chapter
Share
Share a link to this chapter
Free
Foreword
James Rondeau
Description: Speaking of Objects: African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago
Speaking of Objects: African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago
Speaking of Objects sheds new light on the Art Institute of Chicago’s collection of the traditional arts of Africa by focusing on works that exemplify significant styles, display a high degree of artistic achievement, and also prompt stories from and about their makers....
Author
James Rondeau
PublisherArt Institute of Chicago
Copyright© 2020 by The Art Institute of Chicago
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22870
View chapters with similar subject tags
Chapter images ()
Loading image navigation...
No image index could be found for this publication.
Close this Panel
Show previous images Show next images
Foreword
Speaking of Objects sheds new light on the Art Institute of Chicago’s collection of the traditional arts of Africa by focusing on works that exemplify significant styles, display a high degree of artistic achievement, and also prompt stories from and about their makers. Indeed, this catalogue seeks to inspire a new generation of scholars by featuring contributions from a select group of art historians and anthropologists—specialists who have gained their expertise in part through personal experience with the communities and artists they discuss. Each of them draws on extensive field research to contextualize museum objects that were extracted from their original sociocultural environments without any firsthand documentation. Their investigations illuminate the types of works that predominate in galleries dedicated to the arts of Africa not just at the Art Institute but in museums throughout the world. It is our hope that such in-depth analyses will reinvigorate the study and appreciation of these historical forms and encourage further research by and among members of the communities that created them.
This book also celebrates the recently refreshed display in our galleries. That reinstallation, like this publication, features the museum’s first acquisitions of African art as well as works from northern Africa and Ethiopia, Tanzania, and elsewhere in eastern Africa that came into our collection more recently. Kathleen Bickford Berzock was the Art Institute’s curator of African art from 1995 to 2013, when many of these objects were acquired; she edited the last survey of our holdings, published in 1997 as a special issue of our scholarly journal, Museum Studies, and we are grateful that she has also contributed to this volume. It dramatically expands upon that earlier endeavor, illustrating the collection’s growing strengths and affirming the museum’s ongoing commitment to studying, preserving, and exhibiting such works.
We eagerly anticipate future developments within this field as the art historical canon grows and evolves. The Art Institute is continuing to enhance the presentation of traditional African arts throughout our museum and to feature them more prominently in our exhibition programming. Our curatorial staff, especially in Modern and Contemporary Art, also strive to represent the inspiring work being undertaken by African artists and creative communities today. Those efforts emerging from the specific context of the studio can be juxtaposed with the traditional arts of the continent in complementary ways. The development of our museum’s collecting mission also brings with it the exciting prospect of more collaboration between departments within the Art Institute as well as with other museums and universities in North America, Europe, and, above all, Africa.
It is my sincere pleasure to thank Constantine Petridis, Chair and Curator, Arts of Africa, for his initiative in supervising this publication, carefully selecting seventy-five highlights of the collection, and securing the richly varied contributions of his esteemed colleagues. I am also grateful to The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which has long championed deep collection research at our institution, for funding both the production of this catalogue and a postdoctoral curatorial fellowship in African art, the latter of which is also supported by the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Foundation. I hope that Speaking of Objects will not only immerse you in pathbreaking scholarship but also inspire you to visit our galleries and return to the museum as we continue to deepen our engagement with the diverse arts of Africa.
James Rondeau
President and Eloise W. Martin Director