Happenings

The "Musée des Confluences" in Lyon received in 2000 an important donation of African Objects from a couple of Lyon in France, Michel et Denise Meynet, both fascinated by a common subject: finding objects that tell stories and talk about the societies.
The exhibition invites the public to share the passion of these two collectors by showing the diversity and the wealth of a collection up for 10 years with a network of dealers.

In case you are a museum or an institution , note that you could host the exhibition at your place for free. For more information, you can download the presentation (in French).

Africa of our reserves - Collections in Rhône-Alpes
Exotic objects, fetish objects, artistic productions of black Africa are coming out of their reserves. They were given to the Rhône-Alpes museums by travellers, missionaries and artists. They reflect the aesthetic values identified by museums and marketing channels. Today they are considered as masterpieces. The exhibition takes the story of it, between perfumes of exoticism and art market speculations.
The web site of the exhibition

***LAST DAYS***
Exerting a great fascination first on European sailors, then on twentieth-century Western artists and collectors seduced by the expressiveness of its formal creativity, the traditional art of Gabon unveils its wealth in an exhibition of rare and emblematic works from the Barbier-Mueller Collection, displayed for the first time in the Barbier-Mueller Museum in Geneva. Besides expressive masks used to reinforce cohesion within the community, this exhibition pays tribute to the variety of reliquary figures, sacred ancestral objects, and other ritual items brought forth by the artisans of Gabon.

Through some seventy-five works from American private collections and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art, this exhibition celebrates the stunning formal diversity and deep cultural meanings of Southern Africa’s artistic heritage. Despite having enjoyed a degree of growing interest and appreciation over the past three decades, the art of traditional Southern African societies has long been largely neglected. The aesthetic merits of objects stemming from this part of the African continent are still largely underrated within the field of African art, often being described as “craft” rather than “art.”
View the exhibition website

The 57th annual Brussels Antiques and Fine Art Fair will be held at Tours & Taxis from January 21-29. With over 120 exhibitors from eleven different countries, BRAFA has succeeded in developping an international audiance and has earned a well-deserved place on the international calender of major art fairs, while maintening its Belgian "character". Among the Belgian dealers: Pierre Dartevelle (stand 64), Serge Schoffel (stand 11), Jacques Germain (stand 80), Adrien Schlag (stand 28), Schoffel-Valluet (stand 21) and Didier Claes (stand 20).

This exhibition unmasks the fluid and dynamic nature of art and the local spheres of interaction, adaptation, and transformation in which objects have moved. Over the centuries, the Benue River Valley witnessed a confluence of peoples, institutions, and ideas that is only now beginning to be understood as having resulted in one of the major artistic legacies of Africa.

As from November 27th, "Africacentrum" will welcome "Congo" has guest of honour. The exhibition of Tony Jorissen organized in 1966 in Hasselt is reissued for 2 months in Cadier en Keer
Statues and masks from the ex-collections of Alan Steele, Pierre Dartevelle or Alain Guisson, will guide you through the Kongo, Yaka, Kuba, Songye, Luba, Hemba and Lega styles, which make the richness of this big country.

This exhibition shows how very "ordinary" albums from the colonial period can provide a unique insight into the colonial experience. Colonial albums are common, owned by many families who where involved in colonial activities, such as administration, missions, engineering, medical work or teaching. They are now recognised as important historical documents, and yet they are rarely seen.
They albums exhibited were produced by Percy Coriat, Ernest Emley and Wiliam Freer Hill between 1905 and 1935, and relate the periods spent in Sudan, Kenya and Nigeria respectively. Web site of the exhibition.

Embroidered Treasures: Textiles from Central Asia
Approximately 14 bold, colourful embroidered textiles from Central Asia are being presented for the first time at the BMA. These stunning late 19th- to early 20th-century textiles include wall hangings, covers, a wedding canopy, and saddle cover made in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. They represent both city cultures and those of formerly nomadic peoples such as the Lakai.

***NEW***
Baltimore—The Walters Art Museum presents Exploring Art of the Ancient Americas: The John Bourne Collection Gift an exhibition of 135 artworks from cultures that rose and fell in Mexico, Central America and Andean South America from 1200 B.C.–A.D. 1530. Drawn from the collection of John Bourne recently gifted to the Walters, this exhibition, on view February 12–May 20, 2012, expresses each culture’s distinctive aesthetics, world view and spiritual ideologies.
Web site of the exhibition