Titled Shangaa, the art show left many enthused, thrilled, surprised— even dumbfounded.
Sensational. That is how New York Times reviewer Holland Cotter described a traditional Tanzanian art exhibition in New York recently.
Mr Cotter said the art show, which received positive reviews from art lovers and critics, was accompanied by “a stupendous scholarly catalogue.” Titled Shangaa, which is Kiswahili for “be amazed,” it lived up to its title, as it left many enthused, thrilled, surprised — even dumbfounded.
The 150 objects on display are having such an effect partly because of Americans’ unfamiliarity with Tanzanian art. Even US connoisseurs of African art generally know little about work produced in countries along the Indian Ocean coast.
Shangaa is the first show of its kind to be presented in America.
As Mr Cotter noted in his Times review, “As was true of most East African art, Tanzanian material was overlooked by 19th and 20th century collectors, who had their sights on other parts of the continent. And because so little art from Tanzania was in museums, the assumption grew that there was none worth having.”
“One look at the tiny, disc-shaped Makonde mask that opens the show tells you otherwise,” he added.
Tanzanian art is comparatively well known in Germany, a former colonial power, and many of the pieces in Shangaa were loaned by German museums. The historical relationship between the coloniser and the colonised was not a happy one, the show makes clear.
Two of its most striking sculptures depict enslaved Africans. One was made in the 1890s, the other in 1902 — both long after the African slave trade had supposedly been abolished.
The earlier piece, from Manyema, shows a kneeling man whose hands are bound behind his back. Three minimally carved figures walking in a line are joined by chains around their necks in the second of these works, which was made in Bondei, northeastern Tanzania. A fourth figure in this composition, the slaver, appears haughtily indifferent to the condition of those he is leading toward some unseen destination.
Many of the objects in the show, such as beaded gourds given human shapes, were used by waganga (medicine men or women) in their healing and divination practices, visitors are informed. Herbal medicines are hidden in these figures and masks. Other pieces have everyday functions, such as a grouping of elaborately carved pipes, musical instruments and board games. Included as well is a delicate model of a dhow made around 1890 in an unidentified fishing village south of Dar es Salaam.
Makonde masks command special attention — not only through their aesthetic power but because they embody the multicultural composition of Tanzanian society.
A Sikh, a Portuguese colonist, a Maasai warrior and a Chinese man with a hair braid twined down the right side of his face all demonstrate their makers’ ability to create expressive portraits. A few works of Christian iconography — a crucified Christ and a robed Madonna, for example — are present, as well.
Curated by Gary Van Wyk, Shangaa will be shown at the Portland Museum of Art from June 8 to August 25. It was earlier on display for three months at the QCC Art Gallery of the City University of New York, where Dr Van Wyk serves as a member of an advisory council.
