African Art

The museum’s collection of African art contains approximately 1,800 objects that reflect the size and diversity of the continent. The collection began in 1994 with the acquisition of more than 800 works of art from art collector William S. Arnett. While the Arnett objects consist predominantly of masks and carved figures from West and Central Africa, the collection has since grown considerably through gifts and key acquisitions and now represents objects from Eastern and Southern Africa, including textiles, ceramics, masks, sculptures, and jewelry, expressing many aspects of the continent's rich cultures from personal identity, spirituality, and community, to power, leadership, and entertainment. Highlights include the Kom Beaded Bowl Figure from the Cameroon Grassfields, used by royalty to hold kola nuts for their guests; Mami Wata, the Ibibio water spirit from Southeast Nigeria; the Makonde Lipiko mask from northern Mozambique; and a Koranic writing tablet from Ethiopia. Works of art on display in the African galleries represent only two percent of this collection. However, annual rotations and efforts to make the entire collection available online are expanding access to this vast collection, while research into the histories of ownership of each object continues to update the provenance record.