Art department hosts African exhibit
February 27, 2004
Shaumir Acharya
Staff Reporter, The Observer
CLEVELAND—Four masks jut out from a brisk white beam. The Dan Mask, Lega Mask, Guere Mask, and one that remains unnamed and mysterious look out across the myriad of artifacts and paintings, embracing them with their stare. From a continent that spans the likes of Morocco to Somalia, Egypt to South Africa, it is no wonder that such a diversity of artworks can be housed together to represent the collective beauty that is African art.
Case’s own art department is hosting Black History Celebration 2004’s African and American Northeast Ohio Invitational Art Exhibition in the departmental gallery. The exhibition hosts a multiplicity of works that illustrate both indigenous African art and culture as well as American art that embraces black history. Key amongst the pieces is the work of Gary R. Williams, who works to capture “the human face, with all of its beauty, its moods, and nuances.” Williams’s four pieces in the exhibition – “Barbara2.1,” “The Prayer,” “Untitled7.1,” and “Earth Mother” ensnare the visual senses. His work, in pastel, paper, and cloth, features the faces of four women. They range from the serene visages of “Earth Mother” to the more seductive and enticing moods of “The Prayer” and “Untitled7.1.”
Past the various garments such as the “Yoruba Man’s Shoulder Wrap,” the instruments, and the tribal and dance masks, one finds Esquire Banks’ stone lithographs centered against the back wall. The three works entitled “The Damned Don’t Cry,” “Second to None,” and “In the Name of the Father” are striking patchworks of multiplicity where distinct images in each piece create intertextual stories. Done in black and white lithographs, Banks’s work is arresting and honest. In “Second to None” a pair of eyes stares directly at the viewer, enticing him/her into Banks’s own realm of storytelling through art.
Across from Banks’three stone lithographs, a small alcove hosts three paintings by Kevin D. Knuckles. “Family Unity,” “Statue of Liberation,” and “Raise the Flag” are all done as acrylic on canvas. Each, in its own maneuvering, transforms some easily recognizable form in American culture. “Statue of Liberation,” for example, evokes the Statue of Liberty and exudes a sense of power, freedom, and self-assurance. All of Knuckles’s artworks resemble contemporary stain-glass windows, most notably the quality of reverence that is inherit in the colored glass.
Though Williams, Banks, and Knuckles compose some of the contemporary works within the exhibition, other pieces are indigenous to Africa. Instruments, tapestries, and masks drape themselves throughout the exhibit and are worth a second look. Interesting pieces include the carved wood frieze entitled “Oba Receiving Gift of Kola Nuts” from Nigeria and the “Congo Nail Fetish” statue from Zaire which is a small wooden statue of a man pierced by tens of nails. Other pieces to be especially aware of which are the Yoruban “Divination Tray” as well as the “Kuba Tribe African Antique Knife” from Zaire.
Together, both contemporary and ancient sit well together in the exhibition. With such a mixture of masks, instruments, cloths, knives, and modern pieces, the African and American Northeast Ohio Invitational Art Exhibition is sure to please all and is worth a look, though one mask or two may sneak a peek back at you.
Source: The Observer
The Student Newspaper of Case Western Reserve University
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