"MUMUYE ART - From Tribe to Style".
3 December - 29 January 2023
While this may seem a radical departure for a gallery so closely associated with contemporary art, the stylistic language of Mumuye figure sculptures provides inspiration to artists today, just as it did to Henry Moore who sketched and described one of the earliest examples collected shortly after it entered a western museum collection in the 1920s, when such figures were attributed to their Chamba neighbours rather than to the Mumuye.
Twelve figures have been selected to display something of the range of Mumuye stylistic expression. These will be illustrated in a book, published by Prearo Editore, together with an introductory essay explaining their background written for the occasion by Richard Fardon.
Until little over a half century ago, the art world remained unaware of the Mumuye origin of these sculptures, yet, within a few years, works attributed to this relatively remote Nigerian people had become among the most avidly celebrated and collected of West African art.
Why did this happen so quickly and so late? How do collectors know an object is in Mumuye style? Did only Mumuye make artworks in Mumuye style? And did all Mumuye sub-groups, or indeed individual artists, create in the same distinctive style? Did that style change over time? And how did a previously unrecognized style so quickly become part of the conversation around classical African art?
Richard Fardon is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at SOAS University of London where he taught for thirty years. His publications in the fields of Anthropology and African Studies include essays and books on the arts of the peoples of the Benue River Valley, including (with Christine Stelzig) Column to Volume: formal innovation and Chamba Statuary (2005); Lela in Bali: History through Ceremony in Cameroon (2006); Fusions: Masquerades and Thought-Style East of the Niger-Benue Confluence (2007), (with Marla C. Berns and Sidney Littlefield Kasfir) Central Nigeria Unmasked: Arts of the Benue River Valley (2011); (with Tim Chappel and Klaus Piepel) Surviving Works: Context in Verre Arts (2021).
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