#virtual programming

Join us for a virtual tour of “When Fire is Applied to a Stone it Cracks,” an exhibition organized by artist Jeffrey Gibson which makes the case that Native American art, including his own, has always been modern, innovative and global – a living culture reflected in vibrant communities across the continent.

Created by Eugenie Tsai, John and Barbara Vogelstein Senior Curator, Contemporary Art, and Erika Umali, Assistant Curator, Collections.

For centuries, museums have collected art and recounted the stories of communities and cultures without their direct input. In a break with this practice, the Brooklyn Museum invited Gibson to tell his own story as an artist of Native American descent, through his work and investigation of the museum’s holdings.  

In keeping with his multidisciplinary practice, Gibson selected works from the museum’s holdings of Native American Art, American art, and photography, as well as from the Brooklyn Museum Library Special Collections and Archives.

In the entrance gallery, set against a vibrant wall mural of his own design, Gibson highlights Charles Cary Rumsey’s bronze sculpture “ Dying Indian,” (circa1904) alongside other representations of Native Americans by non-Native artists. 

The sculpture embodies a widely held view by Anglo-Americans in the early twentieth century that Native Americans were doomed to extinction as they were pushed ever west by settlers.

Gibson counters this view, asserting the continued vitality of Native American culture by adding a pair of commissioned beaded moccasins to the sculpture. Made by John Murie, they’re decorated with the phrase “I’m gonna run with every minute I can borrow,” which is also spelled out in the colorful wall mural behind the sculpture. 

Taken from a song by Roberta Flack, the lyrics show how Gibson often includes language and references to pop culture into his work.  

An arrangement of moccasins from the museum’s collection faces the sculpture, allowing us to imagine the absent bodies of the men, women, and children who once wore them.

In the adjacent gallery, also with wall murals designed by the artist, Gibson’s paintings on hide and on canvas with beadwork frames, sculptures, garments, and headpieces mingle with parfleche bags, beaded whimsies, and patchwork dresses by other Native artists. 

Gibson often employs materials and techniques that have historically been used by Native American makers, including beadwork, jingles, and ribbons, which he sometimes combines with contemporary forms such as punching bags. One of his beaded punching bag sculptures hangs from the ceiling.

Geometric letters spell out “WHEN FIRE IS APPLIED TO A STONE IT CRACKS,” an Irish proverb Gibson chose as the title of the exhibition. The image of fire applied to stone suggests transformation, whether this pertains to Indigenous makers using new materials and techniques or institutions rethinking the power dynamic in writing of historical narratives. 

This painting refers to many artistic traditions, including European oil painting on canvas, text-based conceptual art, psychedelia, and Native American beadwork.

Gibson also paints on rawhide, a material used by Native Americans to make bags decorated with painted designs. This abstract work is composed of panels that fit together like a puzzle. Nearby are examples of beaded hats and bags from the collection. Many of these were made for the tourist market.

Nearby is a selection of painted parfleche bags drawn from the collection.  Not so dissimilar from Gibson’s painted hide drums seen in the distance.

The third gallery largely focuses on photographs and material from the Museum’s Library Special Collections and Archives. Gibson worked with curatorial advisor Dr. Christian Crouch to select photos, paintings, and drawings from the papers of Stuart Culin, the curator who formed the collection of Native American Art at the Brooklyn Museum in the early 1900s. 

Gibson and Crouch decided to highlight images of Native men, women, and children, showing spontaneous representations of daily life as a form of resistance to the colonial gaze.  Although they acknowledge Culin’s role in the foundations of the collection, the material on view centers Indigeneity, rejecting the exclusion and erasure of Indigenous histories that Museums have historically promoted.

Many of the European explorers who journeyed to what we today call North America, recorded their travels and published them upon their return to Europe.  Many of the European explorers who journeyed to Engravers like Theodor de Bry were hired to illustrate these manuscripts based on second hand accounts.

Since he could only imagine what they had seen, de Bry’s depictions were skewed to fit the Western world, creating some of the first inaccurate depictions of Indigenous Peoples--the reverberations of which are still felt today.

This tipi liner by Húŋkpapȟa Lakota leader Rain-In-The-Face is a visual representation of his life’s deeds.  Made by his own hand, it is a first person account as well as a self portrait and a self representation in contrast to the photographic portraits of Native American people from the same period in this gallery.

Visually striking and intellectually provocative,”When Fire Is Applied to a Stone It Cracks” is an original and innovative project: inviting a more expansive narrative that includes and integrates the histories of Indigenous people and challenging visitors to reconsider their assumptions of what Native American art can be.

Shout out to Nancy Rosoff, Andrew W. Mellon Senior Curator, Molly Seegers, Museum Archivist, Margarita Karasoulis, Assistant Curator of American Art, and Drew Sawyer, Phillip Leonian and Edith Rosenbaum Leonian Curator of Photography for their incredible work on this exhibition as well.

Thank you for joining us on our tour of Jeffrey Gibson: When Fire Is Applied to a Stone It Cracks Join next Sunday for another virtual tour of our galleries!

Installation view of Jeffrey Gibson: When Fire Is Applied to a Stone It Cracks, February 14, 2020–January 10, 2021. (Photo: Jonathon Dorado)

More cooking with Andrew!

Can YOU solve the puzzles and help Hansel and Gretel break out of our first virtual escape room? Click the link and find out!

http://bit.ly/olsescape-hg

Hansel and Gretel: Kitchen Countdown Escape Room Intended for adults, teens, and tweens. Can be completed in groups or alone.

[Image description: against a Facebook-blue background, white letters read “Learn how to conduct a LIVE social media session for your library!”]

Join us for a preview of Studio 54: Night Magic—the first museum exhibition devoted to one nightclub.  Enter and Sparkle! Virtual tour created by Matthew Yokobosky, Senior Curator of Fashion and Material Culture. 

SETTING:  NYC in the 1970s was rundown, almost bankrupt, and in need of escapism.  Because rents were low though, many artists and musicians flocked to the city.  It was during this time that three genres of music emerged: punk, hip-hop and especially disco.

THE CREATORS:  Two Brooklyn-born entrepreneurs Ian Schrager (right)  and Steve Rubell (left) created Studio 54 in 1977, the same year the I Love (insert red heart) New York campaign began and Saturday Night Fever was released--together they helped to re-brand NYC.

THE PLACE:  The building at 254 West 54th Street first opened in 1928 as the Fortune Gallo Opera House, became a CBS television studio for three decades (What’s My Line), and in 1966 “The Velvet Underground and Nico” album, produced by Andy Warhol, was recorded here at Scepter Studios..  

DECOR: In 1977, the designer Ron Doud and lighting wizards Jules Fisher and Paul Marantz transformed the theater/soundstage into a discotheque--replacing the stage with a dancefloor but keeping the balcony for viewing, and so that everyone could be seen and become a star for that moment. Voyeuristic architecture.

LOGO and MUSIC:  LIFE magazine art director #GilbertLesser with Schrager created the iconic tilted 54 logo—one of the most widely recognized logos of the ‘70s.  Later, 54 became the cover of the double-album “A Night at Studio 54”, mixed by DJ Roy Thode.  Along with the album, Thode’s custom headphone, original reel-to-reel recordings,  and “beats-per-minute” bible are also on display.  Each gallery of the exhibition has a soundtrack based on original Studio 54 mixes.

OPENING NIGHT:  On  April 26, 1977, The Alvin Ailey Dance Company performed to a disco soundtrack, with choreography by Kay Thompson and costumes designed by the legendary illustrator Antonio Lopez for Fioirucci.

WHO GOT IN:  Studio 54 soon became a must-see destination for celebrities, fashion designers, and New York’s most interesting residents--as doorman Marc Benecke described: “people who could bring energy to the room”.   

One such person was performance artist Richard Gallo, who wore outrageous costumes designed by Phillip Haight and Ronald Kolodzie. 

BUSBOYS: Kolodzie was also the designer of the “eye-catching” busboy uniforms composed of  satin shorts one size too small, knee-high tube socks and sneakers. Many photographs in the exhibition are by @miestorm1 who himself was a busboy known as “Lenny 54”.

STARS:  The exhibition features over 650 works, including twenty original paintings by Richard Bernstein of Studio 54 regulars featured on Interview magazine covers.  Studio hosted the 10th Anniversary Party on June 7, 1979.

DIVERSITY:  Truman Capote on The David Susskind Show, February 1979:   Studio 54-- “Its everything the way it ought to be.  Its very democratic.  It’s all kinds of colors.  All kinds of sizes.  Boys and boys together.  Girls and girls together.  Girls and boys together.  Poor people. Rich people.  Taxi drivers.  Anything you want.  It's all mixed up together and that’s what I like about it.”

Truman Capote, 1979 by Roxanne Lowit

NEW YEARS EVE: The nightclub became known for extravagant décor by Renny Reynolds, Richie Williamson (Moon and the Spoon), and Tony-award winning designer Tony Walton (Neon Fan).  Schrager’s most favorite party of all was New Year’s Eve 1978-79 which he described as “Standing on Stardust”.  Reynolds brought in 4 tons of diamond dust: two for the floor, and two to sprinkle on the dancefloor throughout the night.

Background: Stroke of Midnight at Studio, 1978-79 by Dustin Pop, with dresses by Zandra Rhodes Giorgio DiSantAngelo and Kenny Bonavitacola in foreground.

DISCO FASHION: Fashion designer Halston installed disco lighting in his atelier, so that he could see how his designs would look at Studio 54 and other nightclub settings. His clients included Liza Minnelli, Elizabeth Taylor and Lauren Bacall.

ICONS: Elizabeth Taylor famously wore her Bulgari 62-carat sapphire necklace to Studio, for Martha Graham’s 1979 benefit honoring Halston.  Other attendees included past Graham students: former First Lady BettyFord, DorisDuke and LizaMInnelli.

COMING SOON:  Though it only lasted for 33 months, Studio 54 –  known for its legendary parties that attracted the most diverse, famous and glamorous clientele of its day  –  is considered to be the most important nightclub of the Twentieth Century. 

See why at the Brooklyn Museum. Stay tuned for more updates about Studio 54: Night Magic.

Thank you for joining us on our tour of Studio 54: Night Magic. Join us next Sunday for another virtual tour of our galleries!

Installation view of Studio 54: Night Magic. (Photo: Jonathon Dorado)

Join us for a virtual tour of Luce Visible Storage, one of the gems of the Luce Center for American Art! While only a fraction of the Brooklyn Museum’s holdings are on view in the galleries, Luce Visible Storage gives open access to some 2,000 works in storage for visitors, scholars, and students to view and research. Let’s take a look at some of the collections.

Created by Jane Dini, Andrew W. Mellon Senior Curator, American Art, Catherine Futter, Senior Curator, Decorative Arts, Margarita Karasoulas, Assistant Curator, American Art, Nancy Rosoff, Andrew W. Mellon Senior Curator, Arts of the Americas, and Elizabeth St. George, Assistant Curator, Decorative Arts.

Gaston Lachaise’s monumental Standing Woman is among one of the larger-than-life-size sculptures visitors encounter in Luce Visible Storage. 

The pronounced contrapposto of the figure’s pose evokes classical traditions, while the robust proportions and sensuous treatment of the female form recall Paleolithic fertility figures. This sculpture is a pictorial homage to the artist’s model and muse (and later wife) Isabel Nagel, who inspired numerous other works.

The Brooklyn Museum’s collection is particularly strong in direct carving, where sculptors carved directly on the chosen material, whether wood or stone, and advocated “truth to materials.” Many of these modernist artists were recent immigrants to the United States. 

The French-born sculptor Robert Laurent studied under the painter Hamilton Easter Field in Brooklyn Heights. Carved out of alabaster and weighing nearly two hundred pounds, Robert Laurent’s The Bather depicts an idealized, nude female figure in a dynamic pose, her finely carved hair cascading over her body. Laurent preferred working with this material, noting that “…the beauty of alabaster is its transparency. This is what gives it life and vibration.”

Upon moving to New York City in 1914, Polish-born sculptor Elie Nadelman earned acclaim for his early idealized and classical heads such as La Mysterieuse. Here, rhythmic, curvilinear shapes imbue the sculpture with a sense of dynamism. As Nadelman once acknowledged, “I employ no other line than the curve.”

A protégé of French sculptor Auguste Rodin, Malvina Hoffmann was one of the foremost women artists of the twentieth century. Inspired by her travels in North Africa in the late 1920s, Martinique Woman (1928) anticipates Hoffmann’s later work on The Races of Mankind for the Field Museum. Although the work represents a racial type, its modernized realism signals a deliberate break with earlier treatments of African subjects ranging from caricature to romanticism.

This screen features the museum’s important collection of early twentieth century modernism, including, in the bottom-right corner, Marsden Hartley's Handsome Drinks from 1915.

Responding to the 1915 downing of the RMS Lusitania (or LUS) by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland, Hartley implores the countries united in response—the United States represented as a Manhattan cocktail flanked by France as a glass of absinthe and the United Kingdom as a cup of tea, to “Forgive (or LOGH in Irish) the blockhead,” or boche an offensive term for a German soldier. The flaming chalice underscores this plea for unity and peace a year before the United States officially entered into the First World War.

In addition to sculpture and painting, decorative arts also abound in Luce Visible Storage.

The museum has a large collection of objects made by Tiffany Studios (formerly in Corona, Queens) including this lamp with delicately cut shades of glass in green, pink, and purple. Each Tiffany lamp has an original composition, many designed by women. 

If it seems like the museum has a lot of chairs, it does. The Museum has an exceptional collection of American chairs from the 1700s to today. The form is an excellent way for designers to express themselves with different styles, materials, and forms.

Folding chairs are not a new invention. During the 1860s and 1870s, George Hunzinger, of Brooklyn and Manhattan, manufactured this folding chair that seems to combine function with upholstered comfort.

This charming pair of singing Zacatecas ceramic figures from Jalisco, West Mexico may represent a married couple or founders of an ancestral lineage. Placed in tombs to accompany the dead, these animated sculptures reveal aspects of ancient Mexican life over 1,800 years ago. The man’s fashionable antennae-like hairstyle was probably achieved by wrapping hair around an interior support, and the painted designs on their bodies may represent tattooing.

Amid the display of Native American pottery, storage boxes, and eating utensils, this elk-horn spoon dating from the late 19th century was carved and used by Yurok men to eat an acorn-mush cereal. Today, the Yurok are the largest tribe in California with over 5,000 enrolled members.

This polychrome, wooden statue of Saint Joseph dates from the 19th century and reportedly comes from the church in Zia Pueblo in New Mexico, where it was likely displayed on a sanctuary table. The unidentified artist was likely Native American or of Mexican-Hispanic heritage. Present-day New Mexico was the northernmost frontier of the Spanish Colonial Empire, until Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821. Its remoteness encouraged the development of religious folk images that differed greatly from their European-inspired counterparts such as the Virgin displayed nearby.

This exquisitely inlaid box from present-day Peru or Bolivia, was likely used to store coca leaves. During the 18th century, such luxury items were prominently displayed in affluent Spanish American homes to underscore the owner’s wealth and social status. Coca-leaf teas were, and continue to be popular as a mild stimulant.

Thank you for joining us on a tour of Luce Visible Storage! Missed one of our other virtual tours? Check them all out here.  

Join us for a virtual tour of JR: Chronicles, the first major exhibition in North America of works by the French-born artist JR. Working at the intersections of photography, social engagement, and street art, JR often collaborates with communities by making portraits and wheat pasting them in nearby public spaces. See how JR has expanded the meaning of public art through his ambitious projects that give visibility and agency to a broad spectrum of people around the world.

Created by Sharon Matt Atkins, Director of Exhibitions and Strategic Initiatives, and Drew Sawyer, Phillip Leonian and Edith Rosenbaum Leonian Curator, Photography, Brooklyn Museum.

Born in Paris in 1983 to Eastern European and Tunisian immigrant parents, JR began his career as a graffiti artist under the alias Face 3. 

JR (French, born 1983). Expo 2 Rue, Action à Paris, 2001–4. Gelatin silver photograph. © JR-ART.NET 

After finding a camera in the Paris Métro in 2000, he started to document his posse of friends in the act of graffitiing and eventually pasted photocopies of these images onto exterior walls and added painted frames, creating Expo 2 Rue (Sidewalk Galleries). 

Since the pasted images almost always get washed and worn away, documentation of these installations, including the voices of the participants through video and audio recordings, is central to JR’s practice.

In 2004 JR initiated his first major public project, Portrait of a Generation, which featured photographs of young people from housing complex in the Parisian suburbs of Montfermeil and Clichy-sous-Bois.

28 Millimètres, Portrait d’une génération, Amad (2004). Gelatin silver photograph. © JR-ART.NET

JR and his friend Ladj Ly, a filmmaker and resident of Les Bosquets, worked with these communities to produce black and white portraits. 

JR used a camera with a wide-angle lens, which not only distorts their faces but also conveys extreme proximity and intimacy, as opposed to photojournalists who use telephoto lenses from a distance. 

28 Millimeters, Portrait d’une generation: Amad, Paris, Bastille, 2004. Installation image. Wheat-pasted posters on building. © JR-ART.NET

JR and his collaborators then pasted the enlarged images in the surrounding neighborhood of Montfermeil and, eventually, throughout central Paris. Each pasting included the name, age, and address of the sitter.

This photograph of Ladj Ly and friends was the first large-scale image that JR and his friends wheat pasted in the neighborhood prior to the riots there in 2005. It appeared as the backdrop in photographs accompanying newspaper articles and television footage about the uprising, thereby becoming JR’s first published work.

JR (French, born 1983). 28 Millimètres, Portrait d'une génération, B11, Destruction #2, Montfermeil, France, 2013. Installation image. Wheat-pasted posters on building. © JR-ART.NET

In 2013 JR learned that the housing towers in Les Bosquets were going to be demolished, so he and a group revisited the Portrait of a Generation project by pasting portraits in the interior. As the buildings were being torn down, the monumental images of residents were slowly revealed.

In 2005 JR traveled to Israel and Palestinian territories, where he and his friend Marco were inspired to carry out a public project similar to Portrait of a Generation. 

The following year, during a period of fierce tension and fighting in the Gaza Strip, they began meeting with and making portraits of Palestinians and Israelis who held the same jobs.

Ayman Abu Alzulof, a Palestinian actor from the town of Beit Sahour, said he agreed to be photographed because the images would be seen on both sides of the border. "It shows that both parties look like each other, as human beings,” he explained. “It's difficult to differentiate between a Palestinian face and an Israeli face. It will also show that we live here. I think a lot of people will talk about it.”

In 2008 JR initiated Women Are Heroes after learning about the deaths of three young men in the favela of Morro da Providência in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the subsequent riots ignited by the involvement of the Brazilian military. 

The exhibition includes this multi-media diorama that narrates the stories of the participants and project.

28 Millimeters, Women Are Heroes, Action dans la Favela Morro da Providência, Stairs, a Few Days Later, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2008. Color lithograph. © JR-ART.NET

After meeting with residents for a month, the artist collaborated with them to make photographs of the eyes and faces of local women, including some related to the murdered men. Together, they pasted the blown-up images on staircases and buildings around the favela.

28 Millimètres, Women Are Heroes, Action dans la Favela Morro da Providência, Favela de Jour, Rio de Janeiro, 2008. Installation image. Wheat-pasted posters on buildings. © JR-ART.NET

Giant faces and eyes appeared to be staring down into Rio from the hilltop.

Casa Amarela, in Morro da Providência, Brazil. © JR-ART.NET

JR continues to work with the communities with which he partners. In 2009, he established the Casa Amarela (Yellow House) in Morro da Providência in 2009. 

The moon on top of the house is actually a room, where artists from all over the world can stay in exchange for conducting workshops for the children and adults of the favela. They just celebrated their 10th anniversary! 

The exhibition includes a model of Casa Amarela, created by Brazilian artist Raphael Truffi Bortholuzzi

Between 2008 and 2010, JR also completed Women Are Heroes installations in Cambodia, India, Kenya, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

Here is an installation that shows portraits of some of the participants alongside an aerial shot of the images printed on vinyl and installed on rooftops in Kibera, Kenya in 2009. 

The images both transformed the landscape and provided protection from the rain.

In 2008 JR began his project The Wrinkles of the City in Cartagena, Spain. As he had done for Women Are Heroes, JR collaborated with the community to create large-scale portraits. This time he photographed the oldest inhabitants of the city.

This gallery also demonstrates more of JR’s process, including the rolls of paper shown here and mockups.

In 2011 JR won the TED Prize, a $100,000 award given to “leaders with creative, bold wishes to spark global change.” The prize enabled JR to launch Inside Out, a global public art project. He began encouraging others to use his process and providing the means to do so, expanding his collaborative practice to a fully participatory art project.

This installation highlights many of the Inside Out projects (@insideoutproject) through more than 50 videos created by the organizers and participants of actions around the world.

Since 2011 more than 400,000 portraits have been pasted in 141 countries worldwide, including visitors to the Museum’s First Saturday programming last August!

In September 2017 JR installed a monumental photograph of Kikito, a one-year-old boy from Tecate, Mexico, in a location near the child’s home along the U.S.-Mexico border. The giant toddler, seeming to peer over the fence, prompted the viewer to wonder, What does a child think about a fence he sees every day?

Kikito, 2017

Although the nearly 70’ tall image stood in Mexico, it could best be viewed from the United States. Kikito’s mother remarked: “I hope this will help people see us differently than what they hear in the media. . . . I hope in that image they won’t only see my kid. They will see us all.”

JR (French, born 1983). Migrants, Mayra, Picnic across the Border, Tecate, Mexico—U.S.A., 2017. Installation image. Wheat-pasted poster on table. © JR-ART.NET

On October 8, 2017, for the last day of the Kikito installation at the U.S.-Mexico border, JR organized a gigantic picnic on both sides of the wall. Kikito, his family, and dozens of guests came from the United States and Mexico to share a meal. 

People at both sides of the border gathered around the eyes of Mayra, a “Dreamer,” eating the same food, sharing the same water, and enjoying the same live music (with half the band’s musicians playing on either side).

In 2016 JR returned once again to Clichy-Montfermeil with the filmmaker Ladj Ly to photograph more than 750 people from the Parisian suburb in order to create a large-scale mural, inspired by the work of the Mexican painter Diego Rivera. 

In 2017, the mural was installed at Les Bosquets. Here the work is shown as a large-scale transparency print in a lightbox. 

In early 2020, JR started teaching a course titled “Art and Image,” at the École Kourtrajmé, a film school in the neighborhood founded by Ladj Ly.

Still from The Gun Chronicles, 2018. Video, black and white, sound; 4 min. loop. © JR-ART.NET.

Commissioned by Time magazine for its cover on November 5, 2018, this video mural visualizes a spectrum of views on guns in the United States through collaged portraits of 245 individuals, including gun collectors, hunters, law enforcement officials, shooting victims, emergency room teams that treat victims of mass shootings, and gun industry lobbyists. 

Participants were invited to share their individual views, describe their own experiences, and search for common ground; their accounts are accessible on the project's website.

At the center of the exhibition is JR’s new monumental mural project, The Chronicles of New York City (2019). In the summer of 2018, JR and his team spent a month roaming all five boroughs of New York City, parking their 53-foot-long trailer truck in numerous locations and taking photographs of passersby who wished to participate.

JR (French, born 1983). The Chronicles of New York City, 2018–19 (detail). © JR-ART.NET

Each of the 1,128 participants was photographed in front of a green screen, and then the images were collaged into a New York City setting featuring architectural landmarks. 

The participants chose how they personally wanted to be represented and were asked to share audio recordings of their stories, which are now available on a free mobile app.

In keeping with the public and collaborative nature of JR’s art, the museum partnered with organizations in Brooklyn to install murals throughout the burough.  

The Chronicles of New York City, JR and Triangle Stack 2, LOT-EK at Domino Park Photo credit: Marc Azoulay - JR-ART.net

A monumental version of The Chronicles of New York City is on view in Domino Park (@dominopark) in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The project has been conceived in collaboration with LOT-EK, which designed Triangle STACK #2 to help bring JR's mural into the city's open space. 

Installation view of The Chronicles of New York City at Kings Theatre, 2019; and Inside Out project at Brooklyn Academy of Global Finance, Bedford-Stuyvesant Courtesy © JR-ART.NET

JR’s murals are also on view at Kings Theatre in Flatbush and the Brooklyn Academy of Global Finance in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Thank you for joining us on our tour of JR: Chronicles. Tune in next Sunday for another tour of our galleries! 

Join us as we take you on a tour of African Arts—Global Conversations. Curated by Kristen Windmuller-Luna and presented by Bank of America. 

African Arts—Global Conversations puts African arts where they rightfully belong: within the global art historical canon. This exhibition pairs diverse African works with objects from around the world in groupings throughout the Museum.

These groupings explore how shared themes such as portraiture, faith, modernism, and origins developed independently in different parts of the globe and fill in the blanks of decades of art history teaching.

Beginning in our introductory gallery, two idealized portraits of African rulers made centuries apart greet visitors.

These portraits respect cultural norms about how a ruler is expected to look, often combining distinctive individual features with visual concepts such as divinity or rulership.

Kuba artist (Bushoong clan). Ndop figure depicting Nyim Mbó Mbóosh (reigned circa 1650), Nyim Mishé miShyááng máMbúl (reigned circa 1710), or Nyim Kot áNée (reigned circa 1740), circa 1760–80. Mushenge (Nsheng), Kasai Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Wood, tukula, 19 1/2 x 7 5/8 x 8 5/8 in. (49.5 x 19.4 x 21.9 cm). Purchased with funds given by Mr. and Mrs. Alastair B. Martin, Mrs. Donald M. Oenslager, Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Blum, and the Mrs. Florence A. Blum Fund, 61.33.

Kuba ndop (commissioned royal portraits) represent the concept of leadership and contain a ruler’s life essence.The hand on this drum identifies this ruler as one of three Kuba nyim (kings): Mbó Mbóosh, Mishé miShyááng máMbúl, and Kot áNée.

Other royal indicators include his long-brimmed headdress, cowrie belt and armbands, and calm expression.

Egyptian artist. Ptolemaic Prince, 51–30 B.C.E. Egypt. Quartzite, 12 1/2 x 5 5/16 x 3 3/8 in. (31.8 x 13.5 x 8.5 cm). Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 54.117.

Ancient Egyptian sculptures use hieroglyphic text to identify subjects by name, but a blank back pillar suggests this sculpture is unfinished. 

Although this figure is unidentified, his youth, crown, and Hellenistic hair and face suggest that he is Caesarion, son of Cleopatra VII and Julius Caesar.

Warriors hold a valued place in many societies across time and place. Warriors’ memorials reflect what societies think these figures “should” look like, often representing ideals rather than individuals.

Huastec artist. Warrior Figure, circa 1440–1521. Xico Viejo, Veracruz, Mexico. Sandstone, 65 3/16 x 14 3/4 x 7 1/2 in. (165.6 x 37.5 x 19.1 cm). Frank L. Babbott Fund, 39.371.

Wooden stelae (left/middle) memorializing powerful Konso warriors in Ethiopia were grouped with additional sculptures of weapons, slain animals, and defeated foes. The stelae memorialize specific male Konso ancestors, emphasizing his individual deeds as well as his connection to shared experiences and values.

The stone Huastec warrior figure (right) from Mexico is adorned with fearsome symbols of death such as the human skulls on his skirt and bead-and-human-heart necklace. Huastec viewers who saw these elements knew he was likely Micoatl-Camaxtle, the god of hunting and warfare.

Nestled amongst our European paintings and sculpture collection are three Ethiopian processional crosses. 

Beginning in the medieval period, the Christian Ethiopian Kingdom and numerous Italian states enjoyed a lively relationship that included travel and exchange of religious art and ideas between the two regions.

Ethiopian Orthodox priests carried these copper alloy crosses atop staffs (right).

just as their Italian Catholic counterparts carried wooden ones like this (left).

Amhara artist. Processional Cross (qäqwami mäsqäl), late 15th or early 16th century. Possibly Lalibela, Ethiopia. Copper alloy, 11 1/2 x 7 3/16 in. (29.0 x 18.3 cm). Gift of George V. Corinaldi, Jr., 81.163.2.

An Ethiopian artist incised Mary holding the Christ child, archangels, and saints on this fifteenth- or sixteenth century cross.

Master of Monte del Lago (Italian, School of Umbria, second quarter of the 14th century). Double-Sided Processional Cross, second quarter of the 14th century. Umbria, Italy. Tempera and gold on panel, 39 1/16 x 16 9/16 x 4 5/8 in. (99.2 x 42.1 x 11.7 cm). Gift of Mary Babbott Ladd, Lydia Babbott Stokes, and Frank L. Babbott, Jr., in memory of their father, Frank L. Babbott, 34.845.

While the Master of Monte del Lago painted Crucifixion scenes on this fourteenth-century gilded Italian cross.

A trio of ceramics made by living artists born in Kenya, Korea, and Nigeria shows the ways that modern ceramicists can choose to draw inspiration from their own regional heritage, or not.

Magdalene Anyango N. Odundo DBE (British, born 1950, Kenya). Symmetrical Reduced Black Narrow-Necked Tall Piece, 1990. Farnham, Surrey, England. Terracotta, 16 x 10 x 10 in. (40.6 x 25.4 x 25.4 cm). Purchased with funds given by Dr. and Mrs. Sidney Clyman and the Frank L. Babbott Fund, 1991.26. © Magdalene Anyango N. Odundo

Dame Magdalene Anyango N. Odundo fires her dramatic pots multiple times to create glossy, iridescent surfaces. 

Born in Kenya, she learned ceramics in Britain (where she lives today), citing pottery traditions from multiple other countries as her primary influences, drawing ideas from Nigerian Gwari ceramics, Native American Pueblo pottery, European Modernism, and even ancient Cycladic art.

Kang Suk Young (Korean, born 1949). Untitled, 1992. Korea. Unglazed porcelain, 24 13/16 x 6 x 6 in. (63 x 15.3 x 15.3 cm). Purchased with funds given by Dr. and Mrs. Richard Dickes, 2006.20. © Kang Suk Young

Kang Suk Young uses porcelain, a medium that is traditional in his home country of Korea, but he creates forms using slip casting, a method he learned in France. He pulls the porcelain from its mold when it is still somewhat soft and twists and bends it to create something that is lively and anthropomorphic.

Ranti Bam (Nigerian, born 1982). Antafi, 2019. London, England. Terracotta, 15 3/8 × 8 1/4 × 8 1/4 in. (39 × 21 × 21 cm). Gift of Anne Goldrach in honor of Anne Pasternak, 2019.25. © Ranti Bam

Ranti Bam has created a very complex object, contrasting a heavy clay slab with delicate painting, and a rough surface with areas of shiny glaze. 

The painted surface references woodgrain, but in an unlikely color of dark pink that gives the vessel its name, Antafi, a word that the artist derived from the Greek word for “rose” (triantafyllo).

Although these artists participate in the multinational field of contemporary ceramics, their work has until now been categorized by the museum according to their place of birth.

Grouping these ceramics highlights how museums (including Brooklyn!) tend to leave artists  born outside of Europe and the U.S. out of conversations about contemporary art.

Kongo (Yombe subgroup) artist. Power Figure (nkisi): Woman and Child, 19th century. Lower Congo Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Wood, glass, upholstery studs, metal, metal and glass buttons, resin, 11 x 5 x 4 1/2 in. (27.9 x 12.7 x 11.4 cm). Museum Expedition 1922, Robert B. Woodward Memorial Fund, 22.1138.

This sculpture is linked to a Kongo fertility-focused women’s cult that flourished during the height of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. During this period, women both raised children and took on customarily male agricultural roles. Made into an nkisi (power figure), it underscores how Kongo women supported future generations during a time of widespread social upheaval and trauma.

Louis Rémy Mignot (American, 1831-1870). Niagara, 1866. Oil on canvas, 61 1/2 × 104 1/4 × 4 1/2 in. (156.2 × 264.8 × 11.4 cm). Gift of Arthur S. Fairchild, 1993.118.

Displayed in a gallery devoted to Civil War and Reconstruction-era (1861–1877) American art, this sculpture provides a poignant Central African perspective on the widespread repercussions of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

On the fifth floor, you’ll find a pairing of two great leaders: Wóót and George Washington. Artist-made images created before the invention of photography, they show how two artists represented their society’s founding fathers.

Kuba artist. Mask (Mwaash aMbooy), late 19th or early 20th century. Kasaï Province (former Kasaï-Occidental Province), Democratic Republic of the Congo. Rawhide, paint, plant fibers, textile, cowrie shells, glass, wood, monkey pelt, and feathers, 22 x 20 x 18 in. (55.9 x 50.8 x 45.7 cm). Museum Expedition 1922, Robert B. Woodward Memorial Fund, 22.1582.

The Mwaash aMbooy mask personifies Wóót, mythical ancestor of the D.R. Congo’s Kuba peoples. Kings performed this mask during initiations and funerals. One performance tells the story of Wóót’s role in the Kuba kingdom's founding and his ties to its first ruler.

Gilbert Stuart (American, 1755–1828). George Washington, 1796. Oil on canvas, 96 1/4 x 60 1/4 in. (244.5 x 153 cm). Dick S. Ramsay Fund and Museum Purchase Fund, 45.179.

Gilbert Stuart’s larger-than-lifesize portrait of George Washington reminds a young republic of the soldier who led them to victory and the statesman who stepped down from power for the country to flourish for some.

Both works rely on extensive symbolism and create enduring images of “founding fathers.” 

While Stuart’s portrait turned an individual into an icon, the Kuba artist’s Wóót mask connected a current ruler to his dynastic past.

Beauford Delaney began including African artworks in a series of compositions from the 1940s as he deepened his engagement with the African American cultural movement called the Harlem Renaissance.

Beauford Delaney (American, 1901-1979). Untitled (Fang Sculpture, Crow and Fruit), 1945. Oil on canvas, 25 x 30 in. (63.5 x 76.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum Fund for African American Art in honor of Arnold Lehman, A. Augustus Healy Fund and Ella C. Woodward Memorial Fund, 2014.73. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2014.73_PS9.jpg)

In this dynamic and brightly colored still life, a bird of spirit figure hovers over a bowl of lemons, presenting them as an offering to Fang ancestors represented by the reliquary sculpture seen at right.

An Ntem River Valley Master. Reliquary Guardian Figure (Eyema-o-Byeri), mid-18th to mid-19th century. Wood, iron, 23 × 5 3/4 × 5 in. (58.4 × 14.6 × 12.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund, 51.3. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: , 51.3_overall_PS9.jpg)

By showing this painting alongside its specific source and acknowledging the contributions of Fang master artists, this grouping brings to life a transatlantic cultural dialogue and exchange.

This is just a small glimpse of the works on view in this groundbreaking exhibition. Come see for yourself as soon as we reopen our galleries!

Thank you for joining us on our tour of African Arts—Global Conversations. Join us next Sunday for another tour of our galleries!