The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Heroes of South Africa

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is known as one of the greatest museums of art in the world, some call it the cultural center of New York. Every few months or so The Metropolitan Museum of Art puts together a special exhibit for people to enjoy and learn from. If someone just wanders around in the Greek and Roman section it wont be too difficult to find the room where the special exhibit is being held. The room is usually in a secluded room with many signs pointing towards the entrance; it is kind of hard to miss. A few months ago they presented Roman Mosaics found in Lod, Israel and now they are presenting art from the sub-Saharan part of Africa; it will be on display until January 2012. A supervisor said, “I believe that they brought it here to New York because here in the Western World the art is cherished more.” He also said, “The countries where the art originated from include Ghana, The Republic of South Africa, there is also a video of a play from Cameroon and from other sub-Saharan countries in Africa ” This begs the question if the art originated from these countries it implies they weren’t there now. So this leads to the question where is the art for the exhibit coming from? It turns out that the art is actually coming from different countries including Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Portugal, France, and the United States. (metmuseum.org) This only leads to further inquiries, how is it that these countries came upon the African Art?

So many European countries donated the art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the exhibit, but how did the art get from Africa to Europe? Well to answer this, one has to delve deep into the past over one hundred years ago to the time when Otto Von Bismarck was chancellor of Germany. This time period is sometimes referred to as the “Scramble for Africa”. During this time period Bismarck called for a meeting with the leaders of the European countries. The leaders had a conference about colonizing Africa and they came to a mutual agreement called “The Treaty of Berlin”, which was signed by most leaders. (exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu) This treaty was designed to give the Europeans control of Africa and because of the treaty more than ninety percent of African was under European control. At this point Germany as well as other European countries developed colonies in Africa and the Europeans saw fit to take some of the art back to their home country. It is because of this that African art is so common in many parts of Europe.

They technically didn't want me to take pictures of the exhibit because it is a "special exhibit" but I snuck two pictures so here is one of them.

The United States is not European though. So how did they get their hands on these African works of art? Well there are two answers. The first answer is that the Americans got the art from the slave trade. The slave trade was when native Africans were kidnapped or taken captive and shipped from Africa. For example in the sixteenth through nineteenth century, eleven to twelve million black slaves were forced to go to the colonies in North and South America. (www.let.leidenuniv.nl/) Most of these Africans came from the West Coast of Africa, which is where most of the art in the exhibit is from. Occasionally the African men or women that were captured had art with them. Their art usually consisted of: sculptures that represented their status, sculptures passed down from father to son representing their ancestral line, masks and occasionally dealt with their deity. Their “sellers” or “masters” would usually take the sculptures for themselves, either to sell them or keep them. If there is one thing that these men could be praised for it is that they had good taste in art.

The second way Americans got the African art is by trading with the European Nations or regular buying of the artifacts from the Europeans and donating them to various museums. The latter however did not happen until the nineteenth century when museums were actually “invented” before they were invented monasteries, cathedrals, and palaces that no longer served their purpose were used kind of like museums. (Streetdirectory.com) The former however, was done since before the United States became a country, where the colonists bought and traded materials and other things with the Europeans.

Furthermore, other museums also helped the Metropolitan Museum of Art collect the art for the exhibit. Some American museums that contributed to the exhibit include: The Seattle Art Museum, The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Minneapolis Museum of Art, The Smithsonian Institution, The National Museum of African Art and The Brooklyn Museum of Art. Foreign Museums that helped donate to the cause include: The British Museum, The Welkulturen Museum in Frankfurt, The Volkerkunde Museum in Berlin, The Dapper Museum and Quai Branly in Paris, Museum aan de Stroom in Antwerp, The Afrika Museum in Tervuren, Belgium, Museu Nacional de Arqueologia, and Museu Etnográfico-Sociedade de Geografia in Lisbon. (Metmuseum.org)

This is the second picture that I 'didn't' take

Besides countries that donated African Art to museums there were also donations from anonymous as well as non-anonymous patrons of the arts. Non-anonymous supporters who donated money or actual African art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art include the Rockefeller family and Mr. and Mrs. Klaus Peril. The Rockefellers have given many donations in the past as well. Some of the Rockefeller donations for the African arts to the Metropolitan Museum of Art include where in nineteen fifty-four, Nelson A. Rockefeller gave around three thousand three hundred works of African art. Nelson’s son Michael Rockefeller also gave his fair share of African Art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art; he donated most of the Asmat objects from New Guinea that the Museum has. Michael also donated nine fifteen-foot-high Asmat memorial poles he collected during an expedition to New Guinea in 1961. Due to Michael’s generous donations the part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which has the African art, is called the Michael C. Rockefeller wing. Mr. and Mrs. Klaus Perls also had notable donations to the African art department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. One of which includes over one hundred works from the court of Benin in Nigeria that date anywhere from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth century. These works include: personal and courtly ornaments, staffs, boxes, musical instruments, carved tusks, plaques and brass figures. (Randafricanart.com)

So what’s next for this beautiful African art? Well the Art will be going to go on display at The Museum Rietberg in Zurich, Switzerland where it will be on view February 26 through June 3, 2012. (Metmuseum.org) Come February, how many of the people admiring the art will wonder if it came from places other than Africa?