A History Shaped by Futures Past , Artists, and the Dialogic Turn at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art

Karen E. Milbourne all photos by Franko Khoury, courtesy of the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution

he year  marked the ieth anniversary A COLLECTION BEGINS WITH A SINGLE WORK OF ART of the rst work of art by an identied African On June , , when Warren Robbins, a retired US Foreign artist to be accessioned into the collection of Service Ocer, opened the doors of the Museum of African Art, the Smithsonian National Museum of African located in the home of former slave, abolitionist, and statesman Art, an untitled study by Sudanese modern- Frederick Douglass, it was one year aer he had founded the ist Ibrahim El-Salahi (Fig. ). Just two years Center for Cross Cultural Communication of which it was to aer the museum was founded, the accessioning of El-Salahi’s be a part, and the height of the Civil Rights movement. Robbins inkT drawing suggests the diverse and inclusive representation of had returned from service in Germany and Austria—where he Africa’s that would become characteristic of this institution. had been introduced to and fallen in love with African art—to It also gives insight into the increased interest of the times in an America in which Africa’s arts and accomplishments were not more accurate and in depth understanding of African creativ- being represented. Robbins imagined a dierent future, one in ity—as evidenced by the launching of this journal, African Arts, which the history of Frederick Douglass would be represented in within just twelve months—and reveals the erce intellectualism the same building as a print by Wilfredo Lam, and information and creativity in the modernist experiments of El-Salahi and his demonstrating the impact of Africa’s arts on Picasso and other contemporaries during this era of independence movements European modernists would be viewed alongside African art across the continent. In addition, the acquisition foreshadowed objects. He envisioned a building and a collection that would the future of a museum that would be both proactive in collect- grow over time and contribute to the dynamic of change taking ing works of art across time period, medium, and geography, and hold in America. e nature of the collection and its displays forward looking in its approach to exhibitions, programs, schol- have evolved as the center Robbins created became part of the arship, and artist and audience engagement. Understanding the Smithsonian Institution in  by an act of Congress, but its arrival of such works of art into the National Museum of African responsibility towards countering negative racial and geographic Art’s collections and exhibitions allows us to understand and stereotypes and its endeavors to create meaningful engagements imagine not only the stories this museum has told, but has yet with African diversity and creativity has not. What has been to tell. For as theorist Reinhart Koselleck reminds us ( ), we underrecognized in this history, however, is the role of artists and must understand “futures past” to understand historical time— the museum’s collection practices in reimagining representations and in the case of this essay, look to the past to understand the of Africa and African art moving forward. futures to come. Ibrahim El Salahi’s Untitled ( ) joined the museum’s then small collection as the gi of Mr. and Mrs. Bjorn Ahlander of Washington, DC. Leslie Judd Ahlander was an art critic with a particular passion for Latin American arts who wrote for the K  E. M has been Curator at the Smithsonian National Washington Post for thirteen years of her illustrious career. On Museum of African Art since May 2008. Previously, she was Associate April , , Ahlander published in her regular column, “Art Curator of African Art and Department Head for of Africa, in Washington,” a review of multiple exhibitions—including a Asia, the Pacic, and the Americas at the Baltimore Museum of Art, solo showing of works by Ibrahim El Salahi at the Middle East and Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Kentucky. She House. She wrote: is the recipient of numerous awards, including the ACASA Award for Curatorial Excellence and a Smithsonian Secretary’s Research Award. At Middle East House, a young artist from Sudan, Ibrahim El Salahi [email protected] is showing work of real interest … His work is highly knowledgeable,

 african arts WINTER 2017 VOL. 50, NO. 4 Downloaded from| http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00375 by guest on 28 September 2021 1 Ibrahim El Salahi (b. 1930, Sudan) Untitled (1962) Ink on paper; 69.3 cm x 120.1 cm Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Bjorn Ahlander, 66-25-1 sophisticated and clever. He uses line magnicently, combines images with the fertility of a surrealist, draws on African art and 2 Malangatana (1936–2011, Mozambique) Islamic calligraphy with equal ease to create his personal idiom. e Nude with Flowers (1962) Oil on canvas; 94 cm x 58.8 cm paintings recall Wilfredo Lam in their use of totemic fetish gures, Gift of Volkmar Wentzel, 80-8-7 but the color is rich and subtle, with dark shadowy areas from which looming gures emerge. Short descriptions of the subjects by the art- ist reveal his intimate point of departure. e image is transferred directly, without apparent rationalization of its subconscious mean- ing, but the technique is well controlled. ere is nothing naïve here. Not all of the work is of equal interest; the artist is young enough to be eclectic and uneven. But in his mastery of line and telling image, to understand the “bones,” or structures of calligraphy, as he was Salahi is an artist of real value. (Ahlander ). trying to create a new imagery—the visual language that would become associated with the Khartoum School and would charac- It is likely, though not certain, that Ahlander collected the work terize his future works. Upon seeing the sketch again more than from this exhibition—the artist’s rst in the United States. ere y years later, he said, are no records conrming this origin, and the artist remembers the drawing as a study, one among many he gave away but did not  I wanted, when I was working with the form, instead of consider as material for an exhibition. having the muscles and the surface and so on, I wanted to get to  El Salahi recalls that the drawing was a “research work.” It the structure and have that give the rhythm. I [was] using a lin- dates to the time when the artist’s international travels brought ear treatment, which gives almost a boundary and a void. I came him in contact with such literary giants as Chinua Achebe and to this point when I was working on calligraphy and trying to get Wole Soyinka, and reveals his investigations of anatomy in order to the meaning and move away from the meaning and to think of

VOL. 50, NO. 4 WINTER 2017 african arts  Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00375 by guest on 28 September 2021 | where it’s going to take me to. at’s why I had to break the for of 3 Tayo Tekovu Quaye (b. 1954, Nigeria) the letter… when I did that, I felt like Pandora’s box opening up. Dancing Masquerade (1979) Deep etching on paper; 53.3 cm x 74.8 cm And shapes shied which I had seen as animal, plant, as sound, as Museum purchase, 90-9-1 ghosts. is I found quite exciting. I used to work day and night like a madman. I never meant to keep it all. Most of it I gave away.

Although not one of El Salahi’s acclaimed oil paintings or for- mal ink drawings, as a study Untitled provides valuable insights into the artist’s process during a formative period for Sudanese modern art. Its process-based, experimental nature also serves as a poetic metaphor for the nature of collecting itself, as curators inuence. He describes a eld of cultural production with a search for the “bones” that will structure the new imagery of their “shared language” in which subject moving forward. As indicated by the letter Warren M. Robbins wrote the Ahlanders to accept their gi, “this excellent the “subject” of the production of the art-work—of its value but work of art will make an important addition to our collection of also of its meaning—is not the producer who actually creates the contemporary African art.” Indeed it did. Today, the Smithsonian object in its materiality, but rather the entire set of agents engaged National Museum of African Art houses the largest public collec- in the eld. Among these are the producers of the works, classied as artists (great or minor, famous or unknown), critics of all per- tion of African modern and contemporary arts in the Americas,  suasions (who are themselves established in the eld), collectors, consisting of approximately , of its  , works of art. middlemen, curators, etc., in short, all those who have ties with the art, who live for the art and, to varying degrees, from it, and who DEVELOPING A SHARED LANGUAGE confront each other in struggles where the imposition of not only Pierre Bourdieu has argued that the perception of the art world a world view but also a vision of the art world is at stake, and who extends beyond the relationship of the object to its through these struggles, participate in the production of the value to include concepts of value, classication, and sociopolitical of the artist and of art (: ).

 african arts WINTER 2017 VOL. 50, NO. 4 Downloaded from| http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00375 by guest on 28 September 2021 Museums can, and do, shape “the production of the art-work,” oering multiple interpretations and presentations of singular objects and building a collective view when objects are joined together in a collection. rough their selection of artworks and voices, art museums shape the language—and vision—by which a subject (or region), like Africa (when arts from Sudan to South Africa are united) might be shared. Geographically designated museums, like the Smithsonian NMAfA, collect or exhibit works of art that institutionalize visions of the complex cultural, spatial, political, racial, and temporal constructs associated with Africa, as well as its artists. Even though Martin Lewis and Karen Wigen have so shrewdly noted that continents are a “myth” because, “when it comes to mapping global patterns, whether physical or human phenomena, continents are most oen simply irrelevant” (:), artists, collectors, curators, directors, governments, and others continue to invoke concepts of Africa. And, for better or worse, institutions promote or undermine existing gendered, racial, ethnic, class, and generational power dierentials through the “shared language” they promote via their interactions with works of art. NMAfA’s vision has changed over the decades, and this evolution points to new directions for its future “shared language.” roughout its rst ten years, the Museum of African Art con- tinued to acquire modernist and contemporary art by African American artists as well as African, both named and not—as was sometimes the case with “Makonde” wood carvings. e vision was more closely attuned to the principles of black pride than a continent-focused narrative. Its exhibitions also reveal how even the shared language of these earliest days included attention to modern art and named artists.  marked the opening of “Ethiopian Paintings”; a Ladi Kwali exhibition enti- tled “Contemporary Nigerian Pottery” appeared in  ; it was followed by “e Nigerian Sculpture of Lamidi Fakeye” in ; “Contemporary African Art (e Wolford Collection)” in ;

4 Magdalene Odundo (b. 1950, Kenya) Reduced Angled Spouted Black Piece (1990) Ceramic; 44.5 cm x 28.6 cm x 28.6 cm Museum purchase, 91-4-1

5 William Kentridge (b. 1955, South Africa) Johannesburg, 2nd Greatest City after Paris (1989) Animated film recorded on videotape; duration: 8 minutes 2 seconds Museum purchase, 96-34-1

VOL. 50, NO. 4 WINTER 2017 african arts  Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00375 by guest on 28 September 2021 | arts movements of the day—to a focus on artists linked geo- graphically to the African continent. roughout , the year the museum was integrated into the Smithsonian, Warren Robbins and his team continued to accept gis of contemporary art, including twenty-three enamel on berboard paintings by Tanzanian artist Tinga Tinga and other artists working in his style, and a vibrantly haunting canvas by Malangatana of Mozambique joined the collection in  (Fig. ). Until the arrival of Sylvia Williams as director in  and Philip Ravenhill as chief curator in , however, works of mod- ern and contemporary art came in exclusively as gis and thus it was largely chance or opportunity that determined what was accessioned. Nevertheless, it is clear that is that these gis were accepted as part of concerted eorts to represent the diversity of expression from across the African continent. It was in  that the museum purchased its rst work of modernist art, a print entitled Dancing Masquerade () by Tayo Tekovi Quaye (Fig. ) and began to invest money in shaping the shared language of its future—a task that remains challenging in the face of budget constraints. e following year, twenty-ve years aer the acces- sion of Ibrahim El Salahi’s ink study, the museum acquired its rst work by an internationally recognized woman artist, with the elegant Reduced Angled Spouted Black Piece by Magdalene and “Contemporary Senegalese Tapestries” in —the opening Odundo (Fig. ), marking the beginning of more strategic acqui- of which Leopold Senghor attended. It was not until the later sitions that would allow for a shared language more sensitive to s, as the museum transitioned to the Smithsonian, that it the nuances gained through collections that are inclusive in rela-  narrowed its collections policy from welcoming global artists tion to gender, media, and nationality. whose work revealed the inuence of Africa’s arts in European By the time Elizabeth Harney was hired in  as the rst and American modernism—with limited attention to the black curator dedicated to Africa’s contemporary arts, the collection

6 Helga Kohl (b. 1943, Poland, lives in Namibia) Family Accommodation/Portfolio Kolmanskop (1994) Digital photograph; 50 cm x 50 cm Museum purchase, 2014-30-1

7 Nandipha Mntambo (b. 1982, Swaziland) Contact (2010) Cowhide, cows’ hooves, resin, polyester mesh; wall mounted: 190 cm x 195 cm x 70 cm Museum purchase, 2010-18-1

african arts WINTER 2017 VOL. 50, NO. 4 Downloaded from| http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00375 by guest on 28 September 2021 8 Mary Sibande (b. 1982, South Africa) brought in six of William Kentridge’s Drawings for Projection, Sophie-Merica (2009)  Mixed media installation; life size along with two of the drawings used in their creation (Fig. ). Museum purchase, 2015-10-1 And exhibitions like Simon Ottenberg’s “e Poetics of Line: Seven Artists of the Nsukka Group” ushered in strengths in schools like the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. It was not until Harney’s tenure with the museum, however, that its rst collec- tions strategy document for modern and contemporary art was draed. In it, she pointed to the need to develop cohesive repre- sentation of major university programs and movements. e arrival of the new millennium at NMAfA brought with already consisted of nearly  works on paper, paintings, sculp- it a re-entrenching of classication systems within the museum, tures, and time-based media by artists of diverse training and dividing what gets called “traditional” arts from ideas of the racial and economic backgrounds. e works she encountered “modern” and “contemporary” in ways that are likely to be ques- had come in through the passion with which Warren Robbins tioned as we move toward the future. For instance, photography cultivated donors, as well as through the taste of his successor, is a medium oen associated with the contemporary and yet it has Sylvia Williams, and chief curator Philip Ravenhill. For instance, ourished on the continent since , the year the daguerreotype Williams had so fallen in love with the prints of Mohammad and calotype were invented. As António Ribeiro has so pithily Omer Khalil that she bought twelve for the museum and cor- noted, “Jacques Daguerre’s discovery took just eleven weeks—the responded directly with the artist. Ravenhill’s discerning eye length of the voyage—to reach South Africa” ( :), which

VOL. 50, NO. 4 WINTER 2017 african arts  Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00375 by guest on 28 September 2021 | VISIONARY: VIEWPOINTS ON AFRICA’S ARTS

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN ART SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

CURATED BY KEVIN D. DUMOUCHELLE, CHRISTINE MULLEN KREAMER, AND KAREN E. MILBOURNE

OPENS NOV. 4, 2017

Building on a series of recent, award-winning thematic exhibi- tions, “Visionary: Viewpoints on Africa’s Arts” marks a turning point in the National Museum of African Art’s interpretation and exhibition of its collection. is reimagining of the National Museum’s permanent collection is its largest long-term presen- tation to date, and the rst to oer broad thematic connections between works across the full spectrum of times, places, and media represented in the museum’s holdings. “Visionary” occupies the entirety of the museum’s multistory 9 Lynette Yiadom-Boakye (b. 1977, England) second-oor gallery, covering nearly , square feet and Womanology 12 (2014) Oil on canvas; image: 180.3 cm × 160 cm; featuring over  works of art—re-anchoring the permanent framed: 184.8 cm × 164.3 cm × 5.7 cm collection at the heart of the museum’s programs and visitor Museum purchase, 2015-5-1 experience. With dedicated space for periodic rotations featuring new acquisitions, “Visionary” will oer a new and evolving stage on which to see Africa’s past and imagine its future. e exhibition takes as its central premise the primary museum activity of looking—looking closely at issues of technique and Putter, Sakadiba, Tchif, Iké Udé, Osman Waqialla, Susanne creative expression, looking historically at the varied lives these Wenger, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. assembled objects have lived, and looking critically at how new Womanology  ( ), a stunning new work by Lynette contexts shi how we see art works. Built around the multiple Yiadom-Boakye, a globally celebrated British painter of Ghanaian lives of African objects, “Visionary” is organized through seven descent, stands as the show’s signature image (Fig. ). A con- viewpoints, each of which serves to frame and aect the man- dent woman in a scarlet dress and matching hat emerges from ner of experiencing Africa’s arts. With one room devoted to each a swirling backdrop of blue and black. She holds in her hands perspective, the installation presents the museum’s collection a pair of binoculars as she looks purposefully o into the dis- through the eyes of collectors, scholars, artists, sponsors, visitors, tance—unaware or unconcerned that someone may be looking performers—and the museum itself. A range of interactive expe- at her. Yiadom-Boakye’s large-scale images are not portraits. riences within the gallery connects visitors to the role such angles Instead, they represent ctional characters within an emerg- play in shaping our understanding of an object. ing world developed and shared by the artist. Her titles seem to rough the full range of media represented in the museum’s heighten the tension between the reality and ction of her char- collection—assemblage, ceramics, costumes, drawing, jewelry, acters. Womanology  suggests there might be earlier works in metalwork, sculpture, painting, performance, photography, a series we have yet to encounter. e artist has dropped us into printmaking, and video—visitors are encouraged to nd visual the middle of a story for which we must envision the image’s pro- and conceptual links between works by twenty-rst and twen- logue and proceedings. tieth-century African artists and those made by earlier artistic While planned as a long-term installation, “Visionary” will predecessors. Over thirty named artists are initially featured, evolve over the coming years, with new acquisitions, and new including: Mo Abarro, Solomon O. Alonge, El Anatsui, Chike artists’ voices, featured over time. An article in a future edition of C. Aniakor, Osi Audu, Bamgboshe, Bright Bimpong, Sokari African Arts will explore the curatorial logic and processes that Douglas Camp, Etim Bassey Ekpenyong, Ajere Elewe, Ali Omar led to the exhibition’s fall  opening. In the meantime, readers Ermes, Takim Eyuk, Romuald Hazoumè, Gavin Jantjes, Stephen are invited to join with the museum, in the spirit, perhaps, of Kappata, Mohamed Omer Khalil, Sizwe Khoza, Frank Marshall, Yiadom-Boakye’s visionary protagonist, in seeing Africa’s artistic Julie Mehretu, Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi, Magdalene past and imagining its future. Odundo, Ọlwè́ of Ise, Ouattara, Owusu-Ankomah, Andrew —Kevin Dumouchelle

 african arts WINTER 2017 VOL. 50, NO. 4 Downloaded from| http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00375 by guest on 28 September 2021 would make the earliest photographic images on the continent Recent years have seen additional eorts to identify and rectify a good deal older than much of what gets labeled “traditional.” weaknesses within the collection that could impede the muse- Indeed, masquerades are among the most “contemporary” per- um’s future ability to conserve and display Africa’s arts across formance arts ourishing on parts of the continent to this day, time periods, geography, and media. As a result, the museum has including in urban areas such as the city of Calabar in Nigeria launched a photography initiative and become home to works by (Fenton :). us, it might make more sense to discuss the Sammy Baloji, Gary Schneider, Helga Kohl (Fig. ), Lalla Essaydi, diverse creative practices of Africa with attention to the time and and Bakari Emmanuel Daou, among others. In addition, in con- space in which they are created, rather than the misleadingly tinuation of a Ford-funded project to expand the representation temporalizing classication systems by which they have been of women artists across media, the museum has sought out and framed. What gets called “the traditional” did not necessarily acquired work by both formative modernist women artists and precede “the contemporary” in Africa; they have operated side visionary artists working today. Nandipha Mntambo’s play upon by side, and obvious though this may sound, all Africa’s arts have isolation, stereotype, and exchange, Contact, now greets visitors been contemporary at the time that they were made. NMAfA’s at the entrance to the permanent collection (Fig. ), and will soon collections increasingly reect this turn in curatorial thinking, be joined by Mary Sibande’s iconic tribute to generations of South with  seeing the museum commission two Ekpe masquerade African domestic workers and her own grandmother, Sophie- costumes for the collection. Merica (Fig. ). Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s luminous Womanology  became the rst oil painting by a woman artist to enter the collection (Fig. ), followed shortly thereaer by a rare canvas by Mozambican modernist Bertina Lopes (Fig. ).  saw the museum’s rst acquisition of haute couture—an evening gown created by Nigerian designer Patience Torlowei in response to the exhibition “Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa” (Fig. ). Such eorts reveal the profound signif- icance of collections assessments in identifying blind spots that might be le out of the future’s past—to return to that insightful 10 Bertina Lopes (1924–1986, Mozambique) turn of phrase by German theorist, Reinhart Kosallek—and limit Sto Sognando? La Città è questa? (1958) Oil on canvas; framed: 81.5 cm x 111.5 cm x 4.5 cm the language to be shared moving forward. ey also point to Museum purchase and gift of Franco Confaloni the new turn in museum practice as artists become increasingly and the Lopes Archives, 2014-27-1 entangled in—or instrumental to—curatorial initiatives.

VOL. 50, NO. 4 WINTER 2017 african arts  Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00375 by guest on 28 September 2021 | 11 Patience Torlowei (b. 1964, Nigeria) A DIALOGIC TURN Esther (2013) Dress: natural fibers, silk, silk taffeta lining, During his keynote speech at the  African Studies cotton interfacings, adhesive; Petticoat: net poly- Association conference in Washington, DC, Achille Mbembe ester, metal, lace trimmings; bust: 84 cm; waist: elicited more than a few chuckles from the crowd by poking a bit 64 cm; petticoat: 100 cm Gift of the artist, Patience Torlowei, 2014-28-1 of fun at all the “turns” now taking place across the disciplines of African Studies. Within African art history, Mary Nooter Roberts (  ) has most prominently evoked the curatorial “turn” in her poetic First Word on shis within the eld in relation to concepts of “tradition” and contemporaneity. ough not an Africanist, Paul O’Neill has also tackled the idea of the curatorial turn, particularly in relation to group exhibitions. As he writes, “by bringing a greater mix of people into an exhibition, it also created a space for dening multifarious ways of engaging with disparate interests, oen within a more trans-cultural context” ( :). He goes on to describe artists and curators as cultural agents producing “expressions of persuasion, whose strategies aim to produce a prescribed set of values and social relations the National Museum of African Art turns toward the future, its for their audiences” (O’Neill :–). But there is more to curatorial turn relies increasingly on collaborative projects with it than this. As Mikhail Bakhtin () has taught us, novels, and between artists. e interpretations and processes we present words, thoughts—and by extension things—exist not in isolation are more frequently conceived and implemented with artists than but are connected to what came before and what is still to come. about artists. e curatorial turn to which O’Neill refers is dialogic in nature In , the NMAfA launched its series Artists in Dialogue, and generated by the creative framings of artists in dialogue with in which two artists are invited to create new works of art in a curators as the divide between artists and curators as separate, call and response with one another to foreground the dynam- or successive, narrators of artworks becomes ever narrower. As ics of the creative process (Fig.  ). e goal was to peel back

 african arts WINTER 2017 VOL. 50, NO. 4 Downloaded from| http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00375 by guest on 28 September 2021 the layers separating audiences from artistic production and to museum created its rst mobile app, and an exhibition-specic highlight the fact that Africa’s artists, like artists everywhere, are Twitter feed was installed in the gallery to allow the public to diverse living, breathing, thinking individuals engaged in global ask questions of museum and artists alike, in addition to the art- currents. Ideally, this engages visitors in an experience of hap- works in the gallery and the more traditional print publications tic visuality akin to that espoused by Laura Marks in relation to to commemorate the process. intercultural cinema that draws “us into a deep connection with While such interactivity is part of what makes “museums matter,” all things, absent and present” ( :). To accomplish this, as Stephen Weil would say (  ), it also forecasts the increasing the museum oered behind-the-scenes blogs leading up to the transparency of museums, in general, as we move into the next opening of the exhibitions and videos of the artists in their stu- y years. It is also important to note that such open engagement dios, artists participated in extensive public programming, the with artists can have its perils—beyond the clichés of sensitive

12 Artists in Dialogue 2 Henrique Oliveira (b. 1973, Brazil) Bololo (2011) Wood, hardware, pigment; site specific in- stallation, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution

13 Ghada Amer (b. 1963, Egypt) Artist Ghada Amer stands in front of her work Hunger, as part of the exhibition “Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa” (2013) Site specific installation, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution

VOL. 50, NO. 4 WINTER 2017 african arts  Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00375 by guest on 28 September 2021 | personalities—in that it becomes increasingly important to clarify institution learn to ask new questions. e dialogic turn allows whose voices combine to present the work of art and how. For the museum sta—from curators to educators, designers, adminis-  exhibition and linked projects “Earth Matters”—which sur- trators, and the director—to engage with creators to understand veyed the Earth as a material that has been mapped, interpreted, what questions the artists are asking while they are asking them, protected, and manipulated—two strategies of artistic collabora- a step beyond critiquing or presenting a review of what concerns tion were employed. Within the interior gallery spaces, works of artists might have been considering in the past. Museums, like art were chosen that had been created before the curatorial selec- NMAfA, now work with artists from the time an accession is tion process began, so that the exhibition brought together voices proposed, interviewing the artist and understanding optimal and that had already been speaking rather than presenting responses minimal conditions for the object’s presentation. Museum also to a curatorial idea. In fact, the themes by which the objects were frequently commission and make possible new works, as can grouped derived from conversations with artists, like Wangechi be seen most recently at NMAfA with Emeka Ogboh’s Market Mutu and Clive van den Berg, as to important subjects to con- Symphony—a sound art installation (Cover). Exhibition concepts sider. Outside the museum’s walls, however, four artists—Ghada are conceived, and projects developed, in concert with extensive Amer, El Anatsui, Ledelle Moe, and Strijdom van der Merwe— conversations with artists and other scholars.  Artists like Renée were invited to respond to the themes of the exhibition and create Stout now routinely serve on the NMAfA’s governing board and new earthworks, which allowed these spaces to be transformed as the museum searches for a new director, an artist sits on the in ways not previously imagined by the museum or Smithsonian selection committee. For the past ten years, NMAfA has proac- Gardens sta (Fig. ). tively assisted artists like Kader Attia with their research as they e ability of artists to transform and reinvigorate museum develop future projects (in Attia’s case, analyzing repair tech- spaces is not new, but it is still very much a part of the future. niques), as part of the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship For NMAfA, artists have been approached to create new works program.  And in , NMAfA launched its annual African of art throughout all the museum’s nongallery spaces. Windows, Art Awards dinner in which two artists will be honored each stairwells, a bulkhead opening in the ceiling, all of these are year for their groundbreaking intellectual pursuits, actions and anticipated to become sites of interpretation for artists and new artworks. New technologies, as well as the dialogic turn in arenas of engagement for audiences. methodology, allow museums to create and carry out projects in collaboration with artists and communities. As a result, our CODA: shared language becomes increasingly polyvalent. CHARTING THE SHARED LANGUAGE FOR NEW FUTURES PAST As we move forward, the dialogic turn will ideally result in While much of this essay has focused on the past, it is because museums like NMAfA becoming increasingly inclusive spaces for we turn to the future with what we have learned from the past. If artists and communities in all their diversity. Currently, NMAfA Warren Robbins had not seen the benet in accepting the gi of a is working on initiatives to increase the visibility of women in pen and ink study by a young artist, the museum today would not Africa’s arts and to create safe space(s) in which LGBTQ artists have the ability to build to strengths in the arts of the Khartoum and other voices of change can speak. Working alongside artists school, in particular, and contemporary African art, in general. like Milumbe Haimbe and Jim Chuchu, our future will be pop- As the collection grows and new scholars, artists, and commu- ulated with black, female super heroes and a fusion of music, nities come in contact with it, the individuals who make up the image, style and attitude.

Notes and the National Museum of African American His- works are cartoon drawings by Victor Ekpuk, as the tory and Culture to organize a public program entitled museum is now home to this archive of this body 1 Ibrahim El Salahi’s Untitled ink drawing was not “From Tarzan to Tonto: Stereotypes as Obstacles to of the artist’s work, as well as three of his “ne arts” the rst work by a named artist to enter the museum’s Progress Toward a More Perfect Union,” as part of its drawings. collection. Earlier in 1966, Robbins had accessioned ongoing eorts to use its platform to address negative 9 Lydia Puccinelli, Warren Robbins’s widow and a a painting by Uruguayan artist Jorge Dumas and a stereotypes. https://africa.si.edu/education/from-tar- former curator at NMAfA, recalls the 1974 Oshog bo- woodcut print by Cuban artist Wilfredo Lam, as the zan-to-tonto/. Accessed February 12, 2017. focused show as the museum’s rst “contemporary” museum had not yet focused its accessions to exclu- 5 In a note at the bottom of a museum form sent show, as she considered the Ethiopian religious sively the arts of the African continent. All were part of to Leslie Judd Ahlander on October 2, 1985 (the only paintings, Ladi Kwali, and Lamidi Fakeye exhibitions Robbins’s eorts to show the far-reaching inuence of correspondence in the le to include a statement by “traditional.” Interestingly, Lamidi Fakeye came to Africa’s arts worldwide. Each came in through dierent the donor, who passed away in 2013), Mrs. Ahlander the museum during the run of his show and oered donors. wrote: “e work was purchased from an exhibit of demonstrations. A door he produced is now part of the 2 In 1963, Robbins incorporated the Center for contemporary African art held in Washington on New collection of the John F. Kennedy Center for perform- Cross Cultural Communication. Its original advisory Hampshire Ave. by an African American Good- ing arts in Washington, DC. Conversation with Brad board included Margaret Mead, Joseph Campbell, will Group, around 1960, I think.” e Middle East Simpson, former assistant to Warren Robbins and Buckminster Fuller, S.I. Hayakawa, Saul Bellow, Ralph Institute, formerly the Middle East House, is located currently digital imaging specialist, NMAfA. Ellison, and Mike Wallace. e Center acquired Fred- on 18th Street, right by its intersection with New 10 In 1969, Warren Robbins accepted the donation, erick Douglass’s residence on A Street in 1964 for use Hampshire. It is possible the study was made available from Mr. and Mrs. Allan Kulakaw, of an acrylic on as the Museum of African Art. Its rst exhibition was for sale or gied in relation to the exhibition, even if paper painting by Pauline Rae Boswell. She was 14 entitled “Introduction to African Art.” Robbins then the artist did not exhibit it. at the time she made the painting—a semi-abstract founded the Frederick Douglas Institute of Negro Arts 6 is and the following quotes come from an explosion of owers. A letter from Roberta M. Fonville and History in 1966 and connected it to the museum. interview with the author at the artist’s home in of the New Stanley Art Gallery in Nairobi describes Email communication with Brad Simpson, who Oxford, England, October 8, 2015. that, “Pauline Rae Boswell was born in Nairobi, Kenya, archived Warren Robbins’s papers, April 25, 2017. 7 Unpublished letter in the registration les in 1953. She began her early instruction in with the 3 For more on the history of the National Museum for 66-25-1, the only gi the Ahlanders made to the Kenya Arts Society. In 1964, she had a professional of African Art, see Binkley et al. 2010. museum. Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. teacher in England before returning to Kenya in 1965. 4 On February 9, 2017, the NMAfA partnered 8 It should be noted, however, that 416 of these Some early work was included in the junior exhibitions with the National Museum of the American Indian

 african arts WINTER 2017 VOL. 50, NO. 4 Downloaded from| http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00375 by guest on 28 September 2021 with her rst notable success in the Commonwealth 17 e 2012 exhibition “African Cosmos: Stellar Michael Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press. Arts Festival, 1965, when the picture was chosen Arts” (Kreamer 2012) was also realized in close conver- Binkley, David, Bryna Freyer, Christine Mullen by the selection committee at the Royal College of sation with such artists as Karel Nel, Marcus Neustetter, Kreamer, Andrea Nicolls, and Allyson Purpura, . Arts in London.” Warren Robbins wrote a letter of and Willem Bosho. For “Earth Matters,” both Mutu “Building a National Collection of African Art: e acceptance for the painting on February 24, 1969: and van den Berg contributed to the catalogue, along Life History of a Museum.” In Representing Africa “On behalf of the Board of Trustees of the Museum with artists Allan de Souza and George Osodi. in American Art Museums: A Century of Collecting, of African Art, I would like to thank you for the East 18 Tremendous thanks are due to Barbara Faust and eds. Christa Clark and Kathleen Bickford Berzok, pp. African tempera painting by Rae. We appreciate your all the sta of the Smithsonian Gardens who worked –. : University of Washington Press. continued interest in the museum’s programs and for with NMAfA colleagues for two years to realize these helping our permanent collection of paintings grow.” complex garden installations. For more on the “Earth Bourdieu, Pierre. . e Field of Cultural Produc- Neither Rae nor Flori’s works have been exhibited to Matters” projects, see Milbourne (2013) and https:// tion. New York: Columbia University Press. date. Curator Bryna Freyer also recalls that in the early africa.si.edu/exhibits/earthmatters/index.html. In Fenton, Jordan. . Masquerade and Local Knowledge days of the museum, Robbins was keen to increase the addition, Anawana Haloba created a site-specic work in Urban Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria. Research collection numbers in the belief that this growth would inside the museum but outside the gallery, and Jeremy Report no. . University of Florida, Gainesville: Cen- strengthen his applications for funding or inspire Wafer was commissioned to create a new work at the ter for African Studies. additional gis. is last comment is not based on an National Air and Space Museum as part of the aliate interview or archive, but consistent with statements exhibition, “Views of Africa.” Grabski, Joanna, and Carol Magee. . African Art, she has made to the author over eight-and-a-half years 19 Eight artists have been approached and Interviews, Narratives: Bodies of Knowledge at Work. working together as colleagues at the museum. expressed interest in transforming museum spaces. As Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 11 Ravenhill’s successor, David Binkley, was also a funds are raised, it is hoped that this might become Haney, Erin. . Photography and Africa. London: champion for contemporary arts, purchasing import- an ongoing juried project, allowing new ideas to be Reaktion Books. ant works by artists like Ezrom Legae of South Africa. tapped and museum spaces to be dynamic and chang- 12 Harney is also responsible for multiple import- ing. Ideally, each installation will be acquired by the Kosellek, Reinhart. . Futures Past: On the Seman- ant exhibitions at NMAfA that testify to the museum’s museum. tics of Historical Time. New York: Columbia University continued commitment to oering its diverse publics 20 is paper has focused on artists and contem- Press. a broad range of representations of Africa’s arts— porary art in the museum, but the dialogic approach Kreamer, Christine Mullen, ed. 2012. African Cosmos: including a new sensitivity to issues of diaspora. ese described here is also true for projects that address Stellar Arts. New York: Monacelli Press and Washington, include an exhibition in 2000 of collages by Egyptian communities more broadly. Dr. Amy Staples, Chief DC: Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. artist Chant Avedissian that had been accessioned in Archivist of the Eliot Elisofon Archives, curated 1996; the installation of the museum’s rst permanent “Chief S.O. Alonge: Photographer to the Royal Court Lewis, Martin, and Karen Wigen. . e Myth of collection display of contemporary art, “Encounters of Benin, Nigeria” (2014–2016). She has worked very the Continents: A Critique of Metageography. Berkeley: with the Contemporary” (2001); and the more the- closely with the court of Benin, the Alonge family, and University of California Press. matically conceived or conceptual shows, “Ethiopian the families photographed by Alonge. In 2017, the Marks, Laura. . e Skin of the Film: Intercultural Passages: Dialogues in the Diaspora” (2003) and “TEX- exhibition will travel back to the museum in Benin. Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses. Durham, NC: Tures: Word and Symbol in Contempoary Art” (2005). e accompanying book was developed collaboratively Duke University Press. 13 Erin Haney’s book Photography and Africa with partners in Nigeria. Such a project showcases how (2010) provides important insights into the interplay scholarly projects that include books and exhibi- Milbourne, Karen E. . Artists in Dialogue: António between photography and textiles and the role of tions are now seen as partnerships with artists and Ole and Aimé Mpane. Washington, DC: Smithsonian photography in the display systems of the Mende communities rather representations of these artists or National Museum of African. Sande society. As additional studies emerge that look at communities. ______. . Artists in Dialogue : Sandile Zulu and the cross over between the misleadingly named “tradi- 21 2017 marks the ten-year anniversary of the Henrique Oliveira. Washington, DC: Smithsonian tional” and “modern” approaches across time, we will Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, a program National Museum of African Art. gain greater insight into how these spheres overlapped open to emerging, as well as established, artists from and coexisted. around the world to carry out research with Smithso- ______. . Earth Matters: Land as Material and 14 Keynote address. December 3, 2016. 59th annual nian collections, archives, and scholars as they create Metaphor in the Arts of Africa. New York: Monacelli African Studies Association conference. Marriott and develop future projects. Past and current fellows Press and Washington, DC: Smithsonian National Wardman Hotel, Washington, DC. connected to Africa have included: Ghada Amer, Sue Museum of African Art. 15 Joanna Grabski and Carol Magee’s insightful Williamson, Marcia Kuré, Kader Attia, Mary Evans, O’Neill, Paul. . “e Curatorial Turn: From Prac- anthology (Grabski and Magee 2013) examines the Clive van den Berg, Christine Dixie, Mary Sibande, tice to Discourse.” In Issues in Curating Contemporary production of knowledge and change that occurs Hervé Youmbi, Aimé Mpane, Evaristus Ogbodo, Peju Art and Performance, ed. Judith Rugg and Michèle between artists and scholars of their work through Alatise, Ian Garrett, Ato Malinda, Milumbe Haimbe, Sedgwick, pp. – . : Intellect. the process of interviews and foreshadows the role of Anawana Haloba, Marcus Neustetter, Sammy Baloji, artists in the dialogic turn within curatorial practice. Victor Mutelekesha, Kiluanji Kia Henda (who was Ribeiro, António. . “Exhibition as Representa- 16 Of the two completed Artists in Dialogue, the unfortunately unable to come), Dimitri Fagbohoun, tion.” In Réplica e Rebeldia: Artistas de Angola, Brasil, exhibitions were accompanied by websites (see https:// Syowia Kyambi, and Sam Hopkins. Cabo Verde e Moçambique, p. . Portugal: Instituto africa.si.edu/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/#present), as 22 In 2016, Yinka Shonibare and Ato Malinda Camões. well as publications. Artists in Dialogue 2 also featured received the African Art Awards, designed by artist Vic- Roberts, Mary Nooter.  . “Tradition is Always Now: the museum’s rst mobile app (in both English and tor Ekpuk. e focus of 2017 is on the underrecognized African Arts and the Curatorial Turn,” African Arts  Brazilian Portuguese)—which can still be downloaded contributions of women to the arts and , and the ():–. for free from the Apple store—in an eort to extend honorees will be Ghada Amer and Mary Sbande. Staples, Amy J., and Flora S. Kaplan. . Fragile the exhibition’s reach beyond the physical walls of Legacies: e Photographs of Solomon Osagie Alonge. the museum. A third Artists in Dialogue is planned References cited London: Giles. with Zimbabwean dancer Nora Chipaumire that will rethink the lingering presence of performance in the Ahlander, Leslie Judd. . “Art in Washington” [col- Weil, Stephen.  . Making Museums Matter. Wash- gallery aer the performer has moved on and the umn]. Washington Post, April . ington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. interactivity of audiences within museum spaces (see Bakhtin, Mikhail. . e Dialogic Imagination: Four Milbourne 2009, 2011). Essays, ed. Michael Holquist, trans. Caryl Emerson and

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