Largest African art exhibition at Saint Louis Art Museum being staged

The Saint Louis Art Museum presents “Narrative Wisdom and African Arts,” an exhibition bringing together a rich variety of sculptures, textiles, works on paper, photography, painting and time-based media created by artists from across sub-Saharan Africa as well as contemporary African artists working globally. The exhibition considers how historic and contemporary works—ranging from the 13th to 21st centuries—facilitate, document, reinforce or critique narratives such as leadership legitimacy, memory of place, prescriptions for healing and destiny, and enduring ancestral wisdoms.

The largest African art exhibition to be organized by SLAM, with approximately 150 works, the show will also include 18 recent acquisitions by the museum. The exhibition will be on view October 19, 2024 through February 16, 2025. Admission to the museum is free.

“ ʻNarrative Wisdom’ provides an opportunity for audiences to appreciate deep connections between visual and verbal storytelling in African art from across a range of times and geographies,” Nichole N. Bridges, SLAM’s curator of African art and the curator for the exhibition, said. “By bringing together sacred and ceremonial objects with everyday pieces, unique objects with mass-produced items, and contemporary art with works from the 19th century and earlier, this exhibition will help audiences see more clearly the connections between these important, recurring themes and their enduring relevance.”

The exhibition unfolds across a series of thematically focused sections, beginning with “Prelude: Oral Traditions.” This introductory gallery presents visitors with the multisensory contexts of African oral traditions. Featuring the 2019 sound art installation “Ties That Bind,” by Emeka Ogboh, this section emphasizes the ongoing importance of oral traditions. This section also includes musical instruments and sculptures that portray musicians. 

Kings or chiefs reinforced the oral histories that legitimized their rule or pronounced their larger ambitions and legacies by commissioning works of art that would inspire and endure. The “Leadership and Power Play” section showcases a diverse range of objects, from historic West and Central African kingdoms and chieftaincies to modern Pan-African nations, including an early to mid-20th century monumental relief-carved palace door by Yoruba artist Areogun of Osi-Ilorin and an array of historic chief’s chairs masterfully carved by Chokwe artists. Selections from 2008’s “African Spirits,” in which photographer Samuel Fosso employs his signature mode of self-portraiture to embody mid-20th century Pan-African leaders, including Haile Selassie and Nelson Mandela, will also be on view in this section.

Artworks in the “Memory: Place and Commemoration” section visualize individual and collective memory to commemorate personal or communal experiences and histories. Many works challenge linear constructs of time, suggesting the fluidity of memory. In the 2010 sculpture, “Relative” by Sokari Douglas Camp, the artist references Kalabari memorial traditions to critique oil extraction and its adverse effects on the ecologies of waterways in the eastern Niger delta region.

An early 20th century divination gourd (mboko) made by a Luba artist is one of a diverse array of media on view in the “Foretelling: Destiny and Healing” section. The artworks on display underscore the importance of these practices in resolving personal challenges or conflicts among individuals or communities.

The final section, “Ancestral Wisdoms and Allegory” examines arts that reinforced communal knowledge generation, such as Asafo flags made by Fante artists and “Hommage aux anciens créateurs,” a 1994 painting by Chéri Samba. Artworks that communicate proverbs or wisdoms visually or through written messages are also presented here.

Outside the ticketed galleries, satellite installations elsewhere in the museum continue the exploration of the exhibition’s themes. Selected short films from “Stories of Our Lives” by the Nest Collective, based in Kenya, will be presented in Gallery 301, and permanent collection works related to the exhibition will be on view in Morton D. May and Louis D. Beaumont Foundation Gallery 117, which regularly displays sub-Saharan African art.

The exhibition is curated by Nichole N. Bridges, SLAM’s Morton D. May Curator of the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas, with curatorial assistant Amy Clark and research assistant Elyse D. Schaeffer. A 240-page catalogue with contributions from 11 authors accompanies the exhibition, providing further insight into the themes and artworks on display.