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FALL/WINTER 2017 NEWARK MUSEUM NEWARK A MAGAZINE FOR MEMBERS OF THE MEMBERS OF FOR MAGAZINE A newarkmuseum.org | i Fall / Winter 2017 John Cotton Dana Founding Director ISSN 2472-9701 TheDANA Newark Museum, a not-for-profit © Copyright 2017 museum of art and science, receives Newark Museum operating support from the City of Newark, 49 Washington Street the State of New Jersey, the New Jersey TABLE OF CONTENTS: Newark, NJ 07102-3176 State Council on the Arts/Department of State—a partner agency of the National DANA is published by the Newark Endowment for the Arts, the New Jersey Museum Association as a benefit of Cultural Trust, the Prudential Foundation, Museum membership. the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, It can also be viewed at the Victoria Foundation, the Wallace newarkmuseum.org/membership Foundation, the and other corporations, foundations and individuals. Funds for Ulysses G. Dietz acquisitions and activities other than Chief Curator, operations are provided by members 1 Message from the Chief Curator Curator of Decorative Arts & and other contributors. Interim Co-Director 2 Arts of Global Africa Deborah Kasindorf Deputy Director, Gallery Hours Institutional Advancement & Wednesday through Sunday, 4 Repertoire - Molly Hatch's Magnum Opus Interim Co-Director noon–5 pm Closed Monday and Tuesday U. Michael Schumacher 5 A New Home for the Director of Marketing except for (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 1, July 4, Thanksgiving Day, Ancient Mediterranean Collection Design: Alex Dreyfuss and December 25.) Printing: Hanover Printing of NJ. Inc. Barrier-free entrance and on-site 6 Membership Comments can be sent to: parking available for a fee. [email protected] Museum Admission 8 Development To receive the latest information on Museum events and programs, Adults: $15; Children, Seniors, Veterans sign up for our monthly eBlast at and Students with valid ID: $8; 10 Education newarkmuseum.org/email-signup Members and Newark Residents: FREE Newark Museum Association Not yet a member? 973.596.6699 13 Impact Clifford Blanchard, Co-Chair General Information: 973.596.6550 Christine C. Gilfillan, Co-Chair Group Reservations: 973.596.6690 Jacob S. Buurma, Vice President TTY: 711 Robert H. Doherty, Vice President 14 John Cotton Dana Society Stephanie Glickman, Vice President Kathy Grier, Vice President For information about exhibitions, Peter B. Sayre, Treasurer programs and events, as well as for 15 Behind the Scenes directions and parking information, Executive Committee Members visit us at newarkmuseum.org. Shahid Malik 16 Upcoming Exhibition Ronald M. Ollie City of Newark 17 New Aquisitions Ras J. Baraka, Mayor Municipal Council Mildred C. Crump, President Augusto Amador, East Ward John S. James, South Ward Carlos M. Gonzalez, At-Large Anibal Ramos Jr., North Ward Gayle Chaneyfield Jenkins, Central Ward Joseph McCallum, West Ward Eddie Osborne, At-Large Luis A. Quintana, At-Large Cover image: DANA magazine is made possible by a generous grant from Lady Walking a Tightrope, 2006. Yinka Shonibare, MBE. Mixed media, 67 x 122 x 43.25 in. Purchase 2007 Helen McMahon Brady Cutting Fund 2007.5a ii | DANA Fall/Winter 2017 MESSAGE FROM THE CHIEF CURATOR Welcome! A New Year, A New Way In. the bustling main entrance. New permanent first-floor galleries We will celebrate the New Year at the Newark Museum with have been designed, and the the much-anticipated reopening of the historic 1926 Louis main building’s second floor has Bamberger Entrance in early 2018. The dramatically reno- been transformed into a state- vated entrance is more than just a new way to enter the of-the-art exhibition space. The Museum; it represents a new way to see one of America’s Native American collections great cultural institutions. moved to the North Wing last year with the installation of Chicago architect Jarvis Hunt was chosen by Newark Native Artists of North America. In December of this year, department store magnate Louis Bamberger in 1923 to two new galleries will open adjacent to the rechristened design the city’s new museum building. Entirely funded by Dorothy Eweson Gallery: Arts of Global Africa, celebrating the Mr. Bamberger, the Newark Museum’s new home was to centennial of the Museum’s incomparable African collections; be a very different kind of place than America’s other great and Art of the Ancient Mediterranean: Egypt, Greece and urban museums. It was purposely set right on the street, in Rome, which showcases the art of everyday life in the ancient the heart of downtown, rather than isolated from the city western world. center in one of Newark’s great Olmsted-designed parks. It was easily accessible to all of Newark’s citizens on foot or The new Bamberger Entrance has two parts. One is the by public transportation and was open on weekends when restored historic entrance, with the great bronze plaques by Newark’s thousands of factory and office workers had free John Flanagan greeting visitors as they climb the granite time. The Museum was to be filled with interesting things, stairs through the Museum’s massive bronze doors. The and its exhibitions would be both accessible to and useful other focus is the new ADA-compliant ramp that makes a for the city’s diverse population. stately progress up and around the north side of the Museum’s façade, entering the building through a suite of The marble-floored entrance of the 1926 Bamberger spaces devoted to visitor services. To top it all off, the dual building was always both a lobby and an exhibition hall. entrances welcome visitors into the Dorothy Eweson Gallery, By the time of the Michael Graves Master Plan renovation with its dazzling mural Gateway by Odili Donald Odita. of the 1980s, this was no longer an ideal configuration, due to changing realities of climate control and exhibition All of us at the Museum hope you will join us in 2018 to security. Twenty years ago, the Washington Street entrance celebrate a new beginning at New Jersey’s greatest museum. was closed, and all visitors began to arrive through the Museum’s much smaller south wing entrance, originally Ulysses Grant Dietz designed as a lobby for the Billy Johnson Auditorium. Chief Curator and Curator of Decorative Arts The Bamberger Entrance is only one of several important Generous funding for this special capital initiative provided by: physical changes launched recently. The African and Native American collections have been aligned with the rest of the The MCJ Amelior Foundation permanent collection galleries. Also, the Museum has long Sagner Family Foundation needed a major changing exhibition space, separated from newarkmuseum.org | 1 FEATURED INSTALLATION ARTS OF GLOBAL AFRICA GALLERY REOPENS AS ONE OF TWO FLAGSHIP INSTALLATIONS. In 1917, exactly a century ago, the Newark Museum acquired trade and signals his upward mobility. Acquired by the its first object from Africa—a small, elegant Zulu beadwork Museum in 1977, Man with a Bicycle later captured the apron from South Africa. From these modest beginnings, attention of writer James Baldwin, who enthused in 1987: the collection has grown to encompass nearly 6,000 works from across the African continent and its global diaspora. "This is something. This has got to be contemporary! This fall, to mark the collection’s centennial, the Museum He’s really going to town! It’s very jaunty, very unveils a long-awaited reinstallation of the Arts of Global authoritative. His errand might prove impossible, Africa accompanied by the publication of its first-ever whatever it is. He’s one place on his way to another collections catalogue. Together, they offer an expansive and place. He is challenging something—or something dynamic vision of African creative expression that embraces has challenged him. He’s grounded in immediate the continent and acknowledges its global ties, past and present. reality by the bicycle." Our brand new gallery opens in the Museum’s fully For Baldwin, the work is significant because it offers an renovated flagship space on the first floor and presents African perspective on modern life in which a bicycle is not nearly fifty works, both historic and contemporary, from necessarily a symbol of the West, as much as a reflection of throughout Africa and its diaspora. In its new location African culture. It challenges those of us outside the conti- just off the main lobby, the Arts of Global Africa will have nent to rethink our ideas about Africa and African art. greater visibility and will connect more strongly to our other art collections in the North Wing galleries. Those It seems fitting, then, that Man with a Bicycle serves as interested in digging deeper into the collection will enjoy a point of entry to the representation of the arts of global the accompanying catalogue. It highlights one hundred Africa at the Newark Museum as the first work to greet objects from the collections, from the ancient Egyptian visitors entering the new gallery (and as the cover image on coffin lid of Henet-Met (a centerpiece of our new antiquities our catalogue). Like our jaunty man with his bike, the works gallery) to a 2014 video installation by Berlin-based artist presented in our gallery showcase the great diversity of the Theo Eshetu (a highlight in the new African gallery). More Museum’s collection and illustrate the cultural complexity than forty scholars from around the world have contributed of the continent. We think they offer a very different vision to this publication, writing individual entries as well as of “African art” than what is normally considered. The range essays focusing on the collection’s distinctive strengths— North African art, textiles, art of the Yoruba, modern and New installation features classic pieces such as an Epa headdress contemporary art.