Met Exhibition to Focus on Artistic Legacy of Africa's Sahel
Equestrian (detail), 3rd–10th century. Bura-Asinda-Sikka Site, Niger. Terracotta. Institut de Recherches en Sciences Humaines, Université Abdou Moumouni de Niamey, Niger (BRK 85 AC 5e5). © Photo Maurice Ascani.
Exhibition Dates:
January 30 – May 10, 2020
Exhibition Location:
The Met Fifth Avenue, Floor 1, Gallery 199
From the first millennium, Africa's western Sahel—a vast area on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, spanning what is today Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger—was the birthplace of a succession of influential states fueled by regional and global trade networks. Opening on January 30 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sahel: Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara will be the first exhibition of its kind to trace the cultural legacy of the region, including the legendary empires of Ghana (300–1200), Mali (1230–1600), Songhay (1464–1591), and Segu (1640–1861). The exhibition will bring together some 200 works that were created in parallel to these developments, including spectacular sculptures in wood, stone, fired clay, and bronze; gold and cast metal artifacts; woven and dyed textiles; and illuminated manuscripts.
"Although the material artifacts created in the Sahel we will be presenting constitute our most immediate connection to its past, they have largely remained isolated and detached from the region's history and succession of legendary states," said Alisa LaGamma, Ceil and Michael E. Pulitzer Curator in Charge of Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. "What is today southcentral Mali is renowned for its traditions of wood sculpture produced by Dogon and Bamana masters. This exhibition seeks to anchor those more fully in what has been an ever-changing cultural landscape and situate them in relation to a more expansive array of its artistic landmarks. The immersive experience of this presentation will take you on a journey that underscores a many-layered past. A sense of continuity in the visualization of ideals of power and leadership will be embodied in a cavalcade of equestrian figures produced by regional artists over the course of the last millennium, led by the commanding Bura example from present-day Niger showcasing a breathtaking amount of detail down to the figure's adornment of stacked bracelets and chokers and his mount's harness."
"There is so much focus on the challenges that the Sahel faces today: increasing desertification owing to climate change, security threats from extremists, and perilous desert and ocean crossings to Europe faced by migrants," said Mamadou Diouf, Leitner Family Professor of African History at Columbia University, and a key curatorial advisor to the exhibition. "This presentation provides an opportunity to wonder at the Sahel's legacy of creative ingenuity and resilience going back millennia."
The exhibition's opening gallery will dramatically juxtapose ancient sculptural creations, from the monumental to the miniature. An eighth-century three-ton megalith in the form of a lyre, originally from what is today the UNESCO World Heritage site of Wanar—now a fixture of downtown Dakar in Senegal, just outside the Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire Cheikh Anta Diop (IFAN Ch. A. Diop)—will be seen in relation to a nearly three-inch female torso known as the Venus of Thiaroye (pre-2000 B.C.), also in the IFAN Ch. A. Diop collection.
The latest installment in a program of long-term African art research projects developed by The Met—previous exhibitions include Kongo: Power and Majesty (2015), Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculptures (2011), and Eternal Ancestors: The Art of the Central African Reliquary (2007)—Sahel: Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara will foreground major artistic movements from sub-Saharan Africa. The exhibition and its accompanying catalogue will bring together a range of cross-disciplinary perspectives on the material, with contributions from historians specializing in oral traditions and Islam, archaeologists, philosophers, and art historians. In developing this project over the last four years, The Met has consulted and collaborated with numerous scholars in the humanities, including Roderick McIntosh (Professor and Curator of Anthropology at Yale University); Mamadou Diouf (Leitner Family Professor of African History at Columbia University); Mamadou Cissé (Chief of the Cultural Mission of Kangaba Direction Nationale du Patrimoine Culturel du Mali); Paulo F. de Moraes Farias FBA (Department of African Studies and Anthropology University of Birmingham, United Kingdom); David Conrad (Emeritus Professor of History State University of New York at Oswego); Souleymane Bachir Diagne (Director of the Institute of African Studies at Columbia University); Ibrahima Thiaw (Associate Professor Archaeology Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar); Ralph Austen (Professor Emeritus of African History at the University of Chicago); and Abdourahmane Seck (Faculty of Civilizations, Religions, Arts, and Communication University Gaston Berger of Saint Louis, Senegal).
The exhibition is organized by The Met's Alisa LaGamma, Ceil and Michael E. Pulitzer Curator in Charge, Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, with the assistance of Yaëlle Biro, Associate Curator, and Research Associate Hakimah Abdul-Fattah.
In conjunction with Sahel: Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara, two doctoral candidates in archaeology from Cheikh Anta Diop University in Senegal have been invited by The Met to participate in a four-month curatorial training fellowship, which began in December 2019. They will join the curatorial team in the Department of Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas in installing the exhibition and engaging in its public programming over the following months.