African Art

The NOMA collection of tribal arts from sub-Saharan Africa is considered one of the most important half-dozen collections of its type in American art museums. NOMA's commitment to collecting African art is half a century old, beginning in 1953 with the anonymous gift of a rare late 18th-century bronze Head of an Oba from the great kingdom of Benin in Nigeria. From this auspicious start, the Museum, particularly during the past thirty years, has made a concentrated effort to develop a comprehensive collection of African art.

The most significant donation to the Museum's collection was a group of 140 African works bequeathed in 1977 by New York collector Victor K. Kiam. Many of these sculptures, superb examples of their particular type, made the Museum's holdings one of the strongest in the United States. Since this milestone event, the Museum has continued to expand its collection through purchases, gifts and additional bequests. The collection contains in-depth strengths of the major art-producing peoples such as the Bamana, Dogon, Baule, Yoruba, Fang, Tabwa, Luba, Bembe and Chokwe. Among the Yoruba objects are three rare sculptures by the great carver, Olowe of Ise, and two by Areogun of Osi-Ilorin. Also notable is an 18th-century shrine figure of Onile, one of seven extant large bronzes from the Ogboni Society.

The collection also boasts valuable ancient terracottas from the kingdoms and cultures of Nok, Sokoto, Benin, Akan, Djenne and Bankoni and exquisitely carved architectural elements from the Yoruba, Dogon, Bamana, Fang peoples and the Kedjom-Keku and Benin Kingdoms. The collection contains masks, figures (reliquary, shrine, ancestor, initiation), textiles, storage and utility vessels, prestige objects, furniture, costumes, marionettes, jewelry and musica linstruments made of a fascinating variety of materials including wood, ivory, stone, terracotta, cloth, beadwork and various metals, including gold.