|  |  |
|
|
Highlights
NEW! Interactive tour of African Art
View works from the collection |
|
|
|
The Museum’s African collection focuses on masks, sculptures, and objects of daily use and personal adornment. It contains representative examples of many of the major art traditions of West and Central Africa, with works predominantly carved in wood, a material that allows for a wide range of expression in both conception and execution. Many of the finest pieces are associated with life-cycle rituals. These include a Kongo Ntadi figure and an outstanding altar created by Fon artists, both of them belonging to the realm of funerary ritual and the commemoration of ancestors. Many favorite African pieces in the MFA celebrate the role of kings, queens, and chiefs, while among other highlights are works by distinguished artists, such as figurative house posts by the Nigerian artists Obembe Alaye and Agbionbiofe Adeshina of Efon-Alaye, two famous Yoruba carvers. Most of the African collection has been generously donated to the Museum since 1991 by William E. Teel and the late Bertha L. Teel.
|
 | Agbonbiofe (Yoruba/Nigerian, died in 1945)
House post from the palace of Efon-Alaye, Nigeria, about 1912–16
Gift of William E. and Bertha L. Teel 1994.425 | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
