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Spend a Sunday afternoon learning the wonders of African Art! Jean Borgatti, Consulting Curator of Global Africa, First Peoples - North America and Oceania at the Fitchburg Art Museum, will delve in to a different aspect of African Art each month! This series of talks is meant as an introduction to African Art, its variety of forms, the depth of its history, and how it became an important player first in Western culture and continues to be important in a global world. A reading list will be available for anyone who wants to delve more deeply into any one topic. Jean Borgatti, our speaker, will invite participants to an online workspace where she will post additional images, articles, and links to videoclips for anyone interested.

For those interested in additional resources from the get-go, Jean suggests Christopher Spring’s African Art in Detail (2010), full of wonderful illustrations from the collections of the British Museum and a very accessible, readable text. Chris Spring served as a curator at the BM from 1987 until his retirement in 2018. I might also suggest Suzanne Blier’s book The History of African Art (2023). Suzanne Blier is a distinguished scholar and professor of art history at Harvard University. This is a new textbook based on many years of research, writing and teaching. Both are available on Amazon.

September 8 - 21st Century African Photography

Take a look at photography currently on exhibit at the Fitchburg Art Museum, Africa Rising, as well as that part of the backstory centered on Studio Portraiture. Names that will become familiar: Seydou Keita, Malik Sidibé, Zanele Muhole, Aida Muluneh, George Osodi, Wilfred Ukpong, Omar Victor Diop, Heather Agyepong, Lina Iris Viktor, Cyrus Kabiru, Maurice Mbikeye, Tamary Kudita, and Sethembile Msezane. These are only a few of the photographers whose work is represented in the exhibition.

Senegalese photographer Victor Diop has become known for his self-portraits adapted from historical European artworks featuring distinguished Africans. His Dom Miguel De Castro is based on a 1643 portrayal of a central African envoy sent to the Dutch Republic on a diplomatic mission. The image draws attention to Africans neglected in European history, while the inclusion of soccer gloves suggests parallels between those forgotten men of distinction and today’s sports heroes. Both gained glory and recognition but still face the challenge of being “other.”

October 13 - African Art in the medieval world--1000-1600 CE: The Trans-Saharan trade, Igbo-Ukwu, Ife, Benin, Djenné, Lalibela, Great Zimbabwe

November 10 - African Art and the West –From Curiosity Cabinet to the Museum and the Development of Modernism (e.g. Picasso and African art)

December 8 - Learning to Look: Forms and Materials

The African art that is most familiar in the west are carvings, 2-D design was equally important. It took the form of wall-painting, textiles, and body decoration.

January 12 - Case Studies: Art in Cultural Context: Contrasting Cultures – Contrasting Styles -The Dogon of Mali and the Yoruba of Nigeria.

The Dogon, living in the harsher world of the Western Sudan, create multi-functional sculpture in a style based on cubes and angles; the Yoruba, with a very large and diverse population live in more tropical zones in Southern Nigeria and the Benin Republic. Their art tends to be more purpose-created and based on lush oval forms.

February 9 - Masquerade – A multi-media artform including a ‘head’ or mask, of many possible materials and a body costume presented in the context of movement and sound--not just that mask on the wall!

March 9 - Anonymous Doesn't Live Here Anymore--African Artists Traditional and Modern

April 13 - Likeness and Beyond: Portraiture in Iconic African Art

African ‘traditional’ portraits take many forms, from those based on likeness to those that are highly symbolic.

May 4 (May 11 is Mother’s Day) - Shango to Shonibare: African Art in the Black Atlantic World--with a focus on the form, meaning and movement of the Thunder Deity Shango from Africa through the Diaspora (Cuba, Brazil, Haiti), and into the art of the Harlem Renaissance and Civil Rights movement in the United States

RECORDING NOTE: This program will be recorded. All registrants will receive the recording via email within 48 hours of the program.

Made possible by the Groton Public Library Endowment Trust and a gathering of public libraries throughout Massachusetts and New Hampshire, including the Leominster Public Library.