African art exhibition review

Exhibition Review – Miami Lowe Art Museum’s Art of the Egypt and the Near East Your Name Subject and section Professor’s Name November 29, 2024 The "Art of Egypt and the Near East" collection at the Miami Lowe Art Museum offers visitors a profound glimpse into ancient civilizations' cultural, spiritual, and artistic traditions. This exhibition is in Miami, one of the largest and most colorful cities. It reveals that antique African and Near Eastern societies loved art as the main element of rituals and daily life. The objects of the Humanities collection encompass everything from ancient Egyptian funerary art to Pacific Island ceremonial masks and thus work as a bridge between cultures and eras. In essence, the exhibition refers to the aesthetic perception of African and Near Eastern artworks, which is more than a way of developing aesthetic categories. Artifacts such as the Egyptian “Portrait Head Mummy Mask” and the Igbo “Ukara Cloth of Ekpe" are imbued with deep meaning, reflecting their creators' worldviews and the societal roles they fulfilled. Such artifacts demonstrate how art was incorporated into everyday use in terms of its religious, political, and social practices. The exhibition not only shows the fantastic craftsmanship of ancient artisans but also seeks to break the hegemonic and oppressive representations of others, mainly African and Near Eastern art in the liberal West. It is not simply the dispersed locations that make this collection compelling; the issues explored are varied. Examples include the bronze jackal figurine, probably representing Anubis, and the Egyptian cat amulet from the Ptolemaic period, reminding users of the belief in preserving the afterlife. At the same time, the Guro buffalo mask and the Ogoni ram mask from West Africa present the art, power, and spirituality relevant to community gatherings. Each was informative on how art served as an instrument of cultural ego and cosmological comprehension. This review aims to critically analyze the "Art of Egypt and the Near East" collection by examining its presentation, contextualization, and cultural relevance. Instead of surveying the entire range of artifacts from the exhibition, this review concentrates on specific exhibits and the concepts implied by them, acting as a basis to discuss the role of the collection concerning the enhancement of awareness of African and Near Eastern arts. It will also examine how even the Miami Lowe Art Museum handles such artifacts to ensure they are understood and accessible in the modern sense. Thus, the review aims to draw attention to the various issues related to the use of such exhibitions in practical ways of protecting cultural heritage and promoting cultural exchange. Context and Cultural Background African and Near Eastern art is central to the world art and culture story and provides enormous background information on past societies' religious, societal, and utilitarian lives. As Dele Jegede (2009) highlights in "Art," African art, far from being a monolithic category, reflects the profound diversity of the continent, encompassing a wide range of media, purposes, and cultural expressions. Likewise, the Near Eastern art exemplified by the ancient Egyptian arts also exemplifies an exceedingly indifferent between civilized detail and divine significance, again underlining the stylish usefulness of art in the social and cultural development and chronicling of these communities (Riggs, 2017). One crucial idea emphasized in this regard, especially in African and Near Eastern cultures, is the utilitarian function. Contrary to the Western mode of art, non-utilitarian or aesthetic, African art was therefore functional, having relations with the religious vale, the legal system, and Jegede's (2009) 'art for life's sake.' For example, analyzing the artwork depicted in the Guro buffalo mask (Figure 2.a.) represents culture and art as spiritual and social entities that empower a community through mythological associations with the bush. Likewise, the Egyptian jackal amulet (Figure 3) depicting Anubis, the god of the dead, is the wavelength of spiritualism in Near Eastern art, where the soul of the dead was led through the afterworlds during funerals. These findings show that aesthetics and practicality went hand in hand and acted as symbols and representations of the culture's religious inclinations and societal hierarchies. The exhibition at the Miami Lowe Art Museum is indeed an influential way of overcoming the racist cliches that had permanently discredited African art. Western art history has often reduced African art to simplistic categorizations of "primitive" or "tribal" forms, focusing narrowly on wood sculpture and ignoring the vast range of artistic traditions, materials, and techniques that African artists employed (Jegede, 2009). For example, the Igbo "Ukara Cloth of Ekpe" (Figure 1) demonstrates complex symbolic writing systems, such as nsibidi, revealing African art's intellectual and communicative sophistication, including separating Egyptian art from the rest of Africa. Such affiliation asserts that geography is cultural, and Africa is a part of the world whose art cannot be deemed marginal to any art world project (Willett, 1993). The exhibition also reveals extensive techniques and the richness of African and Near Eastern art, moving beyond the focus on classical art and covering as many subjects as bronze, dictionary, weaving, and ceramics. The intricate craftsmanship of the Ogoni ram mask (Figure 2.b.) and the "Cat Amulet" (Figure 4) attests to the advanced skills of ancient artisans. At the same time, their symbolic meanings enrich our understanding of their creators' spiritual and social frameworks (Frankfort, 1978). Consequently, by presenting these works in their cultural and historical contexts, the museum deploys a critique of stereotyping visions and introduces the complexity of African and Near Eastern art. Description and Analysis of Individual Objects Art of Ritual and Power Igbo Ukara Cloth of Ekpe The “Ukara Cloth of Ekpe" from the Igbo people of Nigeria is a striking example of art as a medium of social organization and cultural identity. This is a complex textile comprising of cotton, raffia, and indigo originating from the 20th century representing nsibidi, not common secret writing of the Ekpe men’s secret society from the Cross River region. nsibidi, incised patterns on the body or embroidered in cloth, signify power and knowledge that is unknown to the world outside the king’s court. In Ekpe society, the Ukara cloth is helpful in everyday life and as a ceremonial object. Being part of a secret organization, the cloth reaffirmed status divides within communities and retained controllership over knowledge through depiction. This means that the indigo dyeing process was time-consuming, and so by incorporating it into their cloth, they made it unique and expensive. Fourth, textiles are long-lasting and attractive, and their attributes suggest a socio-material continuity in Igbo cultural practices. Analyzing this cloth through the lens of African art traditions reveals its more profound purpose: to identify the population and the instrument of its unification. This again speaks with what Dele Jegede (2009) described as Art for life's sake, whereby art can encapsulate life and its interactions, making the Ukara cloth define art in terms of functionality that preserves the cultural memory of the society of its users. It counters the preconceived notions of African art as being decorative and unchanging and emphasizes its thinking and the importance of its part as a social regulator. Figure 1. Igbo Ukara Cloth of Ekpe, 20th century, Nigeria. Cotton, raffia, and indigo dye. Guro Buffalo Mask The "Guro buffalo mask" from Côte d'Ivoire exemplifies the use of zoomorphic forms to convey power and spiritual connection. This mask is in the set of three that is celebrated during Goli masquerades, the parts of the face of the mythological male of the Guro pantheon as a composition of features of the buffalo, antelope, and leopard. The monumental scale and angularity of the relief, the more or less high arched nasal area with incised geometrical designs, and the rusty patina to both figures and general design visually highlig...