BOSTON, MA (December 11, 2009)–In their search for new modes of expression, avant-garde artists during the early 20th century–such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Henri Matisse–found inspiration in objects from Africa and Oceania. Their %u2015discovery%u2016 of these objects from distant places, which had made their way into the marketplace in Paris, New York, and other major cities, elevated these artifacts to much-sought-after works of art. Photography aided this transformation, shifting the perception of pieces previously considered ethnographic or merely utilitarian to works of art and, in the process, created new, appreciative audiences. An exploration of this evolution is presented in Object, Image, Collector: African and Oceanic Art in Focus, an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), that draws from 20 Boston-area collections and the collections of the MFA. On view December 12, 2009, through July 18, 2010, in the Art of Asia, Oceania, and Africa Gallery on the Museum’s second floor, it features some 50 objects, including three-dimensional works and textiles (many of which have never been shown publicly), photographs, and illustrated books. The exhibition and accompanying free brochure are generously supported by the Bertha L. and William E. Teel Fund.
%u2015We are pleased to feature these works from Boston-area collections, the first such exhibition at the MFA and a culmination of the Museum’s efforts to reach out to the community of collectors. The MFA’s commitment to the arts of Africa and Oceania began in the 1990s, when William E. and Bertha L. Teel generously donated objects that now form the core of the Museum’s growing holdings. In 2003, the Museum hired its first Curator of African and Oceanic Art, a position made possible by the Teel Fund. Six years later, this exhibition highlights some exquisite and rarely seen objects from 20 local collections and demonstrates how the friends of these arts have been instrumental in making the Museum’s activities a success. We are grateful to them for their support,%u2016 said Malcolm Rogers, Ann and Graham Gund Director of the MFA.
Object, Image, Collector offers a chronological examination of the ascent of African and Oceanic objects to the status of works of art. The exhibition begins with The Artist’s Eye, which explores the growing interest in these daring and expressive works during the early decades of the 20th century. It is followed by two sections, Arts from the South Seas and Classical African Arts, which look at the ensuing years when many collectors began to acquire well-known, now iconic types of figures and masks. The exhibition concludes with New Regions and New Forms, Media, and Research in African Art, two sections that focus on the decades from the 1950s onward, when the conception of what constitutes African and Oceanic art was broadened and redefined.
%u2015For many years, the histories of collecting African and Oceanic objects and the way these pieces moved into the domain of art in the 20th century have intrigued me. Artists were the first to embrace these objects. Exhibitions in art museums and galleries followed and also played a role in their reinterpretation, but the impact of photography in promoting this shift has been neglected. When Boston-area collectors kindly showed me their objects and shared with me their extensive knowledge of the pieces’ histories, I realized that the story of African and Oceanic objects from artifact to art could be told through the lens of these collections, and the idea for this exhibition took shape,%u2016 said Christraud Geary, Teel Senior Curator of African and Oceanic Art, who curated the exhibition with Karen Haas, The Lane Collection Curator of Photographs at the MFA.
The Artist’s Eye
Artists in the early 1900s who questioned the conventions and formalism of European art were d
