From the Earth through Her Hands: African Ceramics

African women have worked in ceramics for millennia, yet their accomplishments are underexhibited compared to male artists who sculpted in wood. This rotation considers key western, central, and eastern African ceramics spanning the first through 20th centuries. Three themes highlight their makers’ technical and aesthetic accomplishments: inspiration and instructors; idealized portraits; and practical beauty. The intimate presentation illuminates the deeply historical practice of African women working in ceramics and considers connections between functional and display (“fine art”) ceramics. It highlights the technical, training, and aesthetic links among 20th-century female African artists working in ceramics. One of the 10 works is newly acquired (a mid-20th-century bowl by renowned Nigerian ceramicist Ladi Kwali OON MBE), while others have not recently been on view or are being exhibited for the first time.