Skip to Main Content

Second Careers: Two Tributaries in African Art

Tags for: Second Careers: Two Tributaries in African Art
  • Special Exhibition

Explores the connections between historical African art and contemporary practices through a selection of exemplary highlights from the museum’s African collection and loaned works. CMA objects from nine cultures in Central and West Africa

Sunday, November 1, 2020–Sunday, March 14, 2021
Location:  010 Focus Gallery
Julia and Larry Pollock Focus Gallery

About The Exhibition

Second Careers explores the connections between historical African art and contemporary practices through a selection of exemplary highlights from the museum’s African collection and loaned works. CMA objects from nine cultures in Central and West Africamale and female figures and masks, masquerade costume, a hunter’s tunic, and a prestige throneare juxtaposed with large-scale installations, sculptures, and photographs by six leading contemporary African artists. The exhibition considers the status of canonical African art objects when they begin their “second careers” upon entering museum collections. It simultaneously examines modes of artistic production in Africa that employ mediums that once served other purposes in everyday life. Focusing more on the conceptual relationship between the two contexts of African art, the exhibition contemplates how contemporary African artists from different generations draw inspiration from and seek transformative encounters with the historical canon. These contexts provide a critical understanding of African art, past and present.

Second Careers: Two Tributaries in African Art

Tags for: Second Careers: Two Tributaries in African Art
  • Book
  • Online Store
The contemporary African artists featured here—El Anatsui, Nnenna Okore, Elias Sime, Tahir Karl Karmali, Zohra Opoku, and...
book cover Second Careers: Two Tributaries in African Art with two  images, one traditional African figure next to a contemporary photo of African female model adorned with electronics and wires

Second Careers

Tags for: Second Careers
  • Magazine Article
  • Exhibitions

When I arrived at the Cleveland Museum of Art in August 2017, I was under no illusion that it was important to expand the...

Male Figure (nkishi)

The Cleveland Museum of Art Presents Second Careers: Two Tributaries in African Art

Tags for: The Cleveland Museum of Art Presents Second Careers: Two Tributaries in African Art
  • Press Release

The connections between historical African art and contemporary practice are deep but not always apparent. Second Careers:...

Untitled (Jua Kali Series)

Sponsors

Generous support is provided by Ben and Julia Brouhard.

    All exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Exhibitions. Principal annual support is provided by Michael Frank and the late Pat Snyder, the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation, the John and Jeanette Walton Exhibition Fund, and Margaret and Loyal Wilson. Major annual support is provided by the late Dick Blum and Harriet Warm and the Frankino-Dodero Family Fund for Exhibitions Endowment. Generous annual support is provided by two anonymous donors, Gini and Randy Barbato, Gary and Katy Brahler, Cynthia and Dale Brogan, Dr. Ben and Julia Brouhard, Brenda and Marshall Brown, Gail and Bill Calfee, Dr. William A. Chilcote Jr. and Dr. Barbara S. Kaplan, Joseph and Susan Corsaro, Ron and Cheryl Davis, Richard and Dian Disantis, the Jeffery Wallace Ellis Trust in memory of Lloyd H. Ellis Jr., Leigh and Andy Fabens, Florence Kahane Goodman, Janice Hammond and Edward Hemmelgarn, Robin Heiser, the late Marta and the late Donald M. Jack Jr., the estate of Walter and Jean Kalberer, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, the William S. Lipscomb Fund, Bill and Joyce Litzler, the Roy Minoff Family Fund, Lu Anne and the late Carl Morrison, Jeffrey Mostade and Eric Nilson and Varun Shetty, Sarah Nash, Tim O’Brien and Breck Platner, Dr. Nicholas and Anne Ogan, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, Henry Ott-Hansen, the Pickering Foundation, Christine Fae Powell, Peter and Julie Raskind, Michael and Cindy Resch, Marguerite and James Rigby, William Roj and Mary Lynn Durham, Betty T. and David M. Schneider, Saundra K. Stemen, Paula and Eugene Stevens, the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Claudia Woods and David Osage.