This year the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas marks the twenty-fifth year of special exhibitions in the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing. It has given AAOA an opportunity to present timely and focused exhibitions, whether drawn from the permanent collection, important private collections, or traveling exhibitions. It also allows visitors to view special exhibitions within the context of the permanent collection. Arguably the first permanent gallery space in the Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted exclusively to exhibitions of a single department, the gallery has spawned a host of imitators within other curatorial departments.
During this time the department has continued to exhibit numerous large-scale exhibitions in special exhibitions galleries elsewhere in the Museum.
Below is a list of the exhibitions from 1983 through the one that opens today. Exhibitions with publications are linked to the WATSONLINE catalog entry. An extraordinarily high percentage of the exhibitions have been accompanied by publications, from eight-page brochures to extensive exhibition catalogs.
Color and Shape in
American Indian Art (March 25 – September 4, 1983)
Desert Valley
Symbol and Substance in American Indian Art (February 28 – May 27, 1984)
African Ivories (June
26 – December 30, 1984)
Micronesia (January 21 – May 5, 1985)
Taino: The Art of the
Dominican Republic (June 3 – October 15, 1985)
Mimbres Painted Pottery:
Ancient Art of the American Southwest (November 19, 1985 – February 2, 1986)
Recent Acquisitions (April 2 – July 17, 1986)
Bamana: Sculpture from West Africa (August 19, 1986 – March 1, 1987)
Houses for the
Hereafter: Funerary Temples from Guerrero, Mexico (April 28, 1987 –
September 4, 1988)
Forest and Village: Art
from Liberia and Ivory Coast (October 18, 1988 – January 1, 1989)
Early Indonesian
Textiles from Three Island Culture (February 14 – May 14, 1989)
Southeast Asian Tribal Art: The
Fred and Rita Richman Collection (June 13 – September 10, 1989)
Gold of Africa: The
Barbier-Mueller Collection (October 20, 1989 – March 11, 1990)
Art of Central Africa:
Masterpieces from the Berlin Museum fur Völkerkunde (June 6 – November 4,
1990)
New Guinea Bone Carvings (November 30, 1990 – March 20, 1991)
Royal Art of Benin from the Perls Collection: Treasures from the African Kingdom (January 16 – September 13, 1992)
Loma
Negra, A Peruvian Lord’s Tomb (October 12, 1992 – July 4,
1993)
Elephant: The Animal and
Its Ivory in African Art (October 13, 1993 – March 27, 1994)
Divine Protection: Batak
Art of North Sumatra (April 19 – December 31, 1994)
Ancient Peruvian
Mantles, 300 B.C. – A.D. 200 (February 23 – August 13, 1995)
River of Gold:
Precolumbian Treasure from Sitio Conte (September 19, 1995 – February 4,
1996)
Picturing Paradise:
Colonial Photography of Samoa, 1875-1925 (March 1 – August 4, 1996)
Enduring Rhythms: African
Musical Instruments and the Americas
Master Hand: Individuality and
Creativity Among Yoruba Sculptures (September 11, 1997 – July 12, 1998)
Jade in Ancient Costa
Rica (September 16, 1998 – March 9, 1999)
Guardians of the Long House: Art
in Borneo
Perfect Document: Walker
Evans and African Art (February 1 – September 3, 2000)
Rain of the Moon:
Silver in Ancient Peru (November 3, 2000 – April 22, 2001)
Recent Acquisitions (May 22 – October 28, 2001)
Splendid Isolation: Art
of Easter Island (December 11, 2001 – September 8, 2002)
Genesis: Ideas of Origin
in African Sculpture (November 19, 2002 – July 6, 2003)
Echoing Images: Couples
in African Sculpture (February 10 – September 5, 2004)
Heritage of Power:
Ancient Sculpture from West Mexico: The Andrall E. Pearson Family Collection (October 19, 2004 – April 3, 2005)
Adorning the World: Art
of the Marquesas Islands (May 9, 2005 – January 15, 2006)
The Fabric of Life: Ikat
Textiles of Indonesia
Coaxing the Spirits to
Dance: Art of the Papuan Gulf (October 25, 2006 – December 2, 2007)
Radiance from the Rain Forest:
Featherwork in Ancient Peru
The Essential Art of
African Textile: Design Without End (September 30, 2008 – March 22, 2009)
An impressive recap. Let me congratulate the department on the beautiful and interestingly varied African textiles exhibition. I need to spend more time there, but a quick first visit has already induced me to recommend it to everyone. I also enjoyed the Ethiopian installation; how pleasant to reclaim space for art from commerce.
Posted by: nbmandel | October 11, 2008 at 07:02 PM