Race, Gender, and the "Decorative" in 20th-Century African Art: Reimagining Boundaries

Exhibition

Exhibition Overview

Race, Gender, and the "Decorative" in 20th-Century African Art: Reimagining Boundaries
Race, Gender, and the "Decorative" in 20th-Century African Art: Reimagining Boundaries
Cassandra Mesick Braun, curator
Jessica Gerschultz, curator
November 11, 2017–May 6, 2018
Gallery 404, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
This exhibition explored the U.S. institutional frameworks for African art in museums throughout the 20th century using a historiographic approach that critiques history, historians, and historical trends. This exhibition accompanied Civic Leader and Art Collector: Sallie Casey Thayer and an Art Museum for KU, the major exhibition for fall 2017 that displayed hundreds of objects from Thayer’s original gift that established the Spencer Museum and our collection, because Thayer’s original gift largely excluded African art from its otherwise expansive geographic and cultural scope.

Exhibition images

Works of art

unrecorded Asante artist, weight
late 1800s–early 1900s
unrecorded Asante artist, weight
late 1800s–early 1900s
unrecorded Asante artist, weight
late 1800s–early 1900s
unrecorded Asante artist, weight
late 1800s–early 1900s
unrecorded Asante artist, weight
late 1800s–early 1900s
unrecorded Asante artist, weight
late 1800s–early 1900s
unrecorded Asante artist, weight
late 1800s–early 1900s
unrecorded Asante artist, weight
late 1800s–early 1900s
unrecorded Asante artist, weight
late 1800s–early 1900s
wall hanging
late 1800s–1929
spindle
late 1800s–1967
spindle
late 1800s–1967
spindle
late 1800s–1967
unrecorded Akan artist, gold weight
late 1800s–early 1900s
unrecorded Akan artist, gold weight
late 1800s–early 1900s
unrecorded Akan artist, gold weight
late 1800s–early 1900s
unrecorded Akan artist, gold weight
late 1800s–early 1900s
unrecorded Akan artist, gold weight
late 1800s–early 1900s

Events

December 1, 2017
Screening
1:00–3:00PM
Spencer Museum of Art Auditorium, Rm 309
March 10, 2018
Activity
1:00–4:00PM
Spencer Museum of Art, Larry and Barbara Marshall Family Balcony, 404
March 8, 2018
Talk
10:00–11:00AM
Spencer Museum of Art, Larry and Barbara Marshall Family Balcony, 404
February 18, 2018
Talk
2:00–3:00PM
Spencer Museum of Art, Larry and Barbara Marshall Family Balcony, 404
April 13, 2018
Talk
2:00–3:00PM
Spencer Museum of Art, Larry and Barbara Marshall Family Balcony, 404

Resources

Documents