NOTRE DAME, IN.- The Snite Museum of Art African art collection will reopen this fall within a larger, more prestigious space on the main floor of the museum. The reinstallation will explore themes of power.

In the past, African art was often tied into the way African leaders promoted their agendas. Royalty and rulers used art to project their authority; religious groups promoted their faiths; while the wealthy desired to display their riches. Ordinary Africans also used art to enable them to wield their own forms of power. Since supernatural forces were thought to play a large role in determining events, it was important to own objects that could withstand or shape events that lay beyond ordinary control. Fifty-nine outstanding works from the Snite Museum collection will illustrate these ideas through themes of economic, political, social, and spiritual power in Africa.

Most of these works have never been on public view before. Nearly a third belong to the Owen D. Mort Jr. Collection, with art primarily from Democratic Republic of Congo, where Mort worked for many years. As he said, “My hope is to educate people on Africa. It’s been a great love of mine… Ideally Notre Dame would use the collection for education, to get interest going in Africa.”

The African gallery will feature online interpretive tools to encourage further learning. A highlight will be a digital touch screen with an interactive map of Africa.

The reinstallation is curated by Visiting Curator of African Art Elizabeth Morton. An exhibition catalogue by Dr. Morton will be available after December 2017.

Making Everything Out of Anything: Prints, Drawings, and Sculptures by Willie Cole
This exhibition focuses on American artist Willie Cole and his extraordinarily creative repurposing of everyday objects such as steam irons, ironing boards, hair dryers, bicycle parts, and women’s shoes to create artworks that comment on diverse subjects such as African art, African-American history, cultural identify, consumerism, gender, and sexuality.

A perfect example is Shoonufu Female Figure, 2013, acquired by the Snite Museum of Art earlier this year. Cole utilized cast off women’s shoes to create this figure that suggests a traditional African (Senufuculture)powerfigure. While historic African power figures were created to control people, societies, or nature, Cole’s sculpture wittily suggests how the fashion industry influences contemporary Western ideals of feminine body image, beauty, and allure.