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Embodying the Sacred in Yoruba Art:
Featuring the Bernard and Patricia Wagner Collection

Embodying the Sacred in Yoruba Art explores the relationship between art and the spiritual world in Yoruba culture, presenting 67 works of art in diverse media. For the Yoruba, one of Africa’s oldest and most influential cultures, art and spirituality are often intertwined. Works of art give visual form to the divine and inspire religious devotion. In turn, they are empowered by spiritual forces. The exhibition includes shrines and beaded regalia that reference the supreme deity of the Yoruba, altar images and ritual implements that facilitate spiritual communication, and a variety of spectacular masks that dramatize the presence of the sublime. The exhibition features important art works from the Bernard and Patricia Wagner Collection, many of which are recent gifts to the organizing institutions, along with major art works from the collections of The Newark Museum and the High Museum of Art.

Organized by The Newark Museum and the High Museum of Art

Curated by Christa Clarke, The Newark Museum and Carol Tompson, the High Museum of Art in consultation with Babatunde Lawal, Virginia Commonwealth University

Number of objects: 67 (includes some object sets)

Contents of Exhibition: wood and metal sculpture, beaded regalia, and other mixed edia works

Space requirements: 3,500 square feet

Availability: Beginning Fall 2008

Duration: 8–12 weeks

Number of venues: 4 total, 2 beyond the High Museum and The Newark Museum

Participation fee: $45,000

Catalogue: 116 pages with 55 color plates and 37 contextual photographs. Essay by Babatunde Lawal

Fee includes: objects, object mounts, text panels and labels on disk, contextual photographs and video, 10 catalogues; Newark Museum courier/installer

Fee does NOT include: cases, lender couriers if required

Shipping: pro-rated (estimated fee $6,000)

Security: high

Exhibition requirements: 5-7 foot candles on all textiles

Insurance: carried by The Newark Museum/General policy

Insurance value: TBD, below $1,000,000
 

For further information, please contact Zette Emmons, Manager of Traveling Exhibitions at (973) 596-6689 or via E-mail at  zemmons@newarkmuseum.org.

Image: Dance Vest with Esu staff figures, 20th c., Nigeria, Yoruba, Wood, Cowrie shells, leather, Collection of The Newark Museum, Gift of Bernard and Patricia Wagner, 2006