Senufo: Art and Identity in West Africa by Constantine Petridis and Susan Elizabeth Gagliardi (review)

With nearly 160 works on display, Senufo: Art and Identity in West Africa explored and challenged established definitions of “Senufo,” perhaps one of the most well-known categories of African art. Working through the five galleries, visitors learned of the historical underpinnings of Senufo as an ethnic, linguistic, and stylistic classification. Visitors were encouraged to challenge their understandings of these classifications through close looking and comparisons of like objects. Finally, they were asked to rethink the stylistic categories by reexamining objects that tend to be outside of the established canon. The brilliant displays and excellent selection of objects provided a visually stunning experience, while the expert organization and insightful texts presented an intricate educational narrative. These two aspects worked together to create one of the most sophisticated and provocative contemporary exhibitions of classical African art to date.

Opening the exhibition, a dark, teal blue wall boldly displaying the exhibition’s title and blocking the galleries from view greeted the visitor (Fig. 1). The effect of turning the first corner was stunning. Situated under two spotlights and backed by the same teal blue wall stood a tall pair of wooden sculptures, one male and one female (Fig. 2). This section highlighted the history of European contact with Mali, Burkina Faso, and Côte d’Ivoire, and the subsequent collection and exhibition of what came to be labeled as “Senufo” art. Reproductions of historical illustrations and photographs gave context to the moment of European “discovery.” A display of historical texts connected explorer accounts to the early twentieth century and the growing popularity among European modernists and early collectors of African art. The objects in this section, apart from being beautiful centerpieces, were also linchpins in the exhibition because their provenance could be traced back to some of the most important early collectors.

Moving into gallery 2, the white-cube aesthetic abruptly changed the mood (Fig. 3). In this section, visitors saw how expectations and classifications of Senufo art were solidified through the Museum of Primitive Art’s 1963 exhibition Senufo Sculpture from West Africa and curator Robert Goldwater’s 1964 accompanying catalog. The gallery reassembled many of the objects that appeared in the 1963 exhibition and reproduced the aesthetic of this foundational exhibition to illustrate challenges associated with historical attributions. For example, the gallery included a style of mask that was identified as Senufo in 1963 but has since been recategorized.

1.

Title wall and opening of Senufo: Art and Identity in West Africa, February 22–May 31, 2015, at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

All photos © The Cleveland Museum of Art.

2.

First gallery, featuring a pair of figures (on loan from a private collection) along with examples of the earliest publications that helped to establish and solidify “Senufo” as a stylistic, linguistic, and ethnic identifier.

With warm-colored walls, the third section again shifted focus. For the visitor, the historiography and aesthetic expectations of Senufo were established at this point, and gallery 3 opened up the well-known category of arts associated with Poro initiation. Here, with a long diagonal sightline, the curators and designers created small areas for displaying many subsections (Fig. 4). Each subsection focused on a set of objects: standing figures, zoomorphic helmet masks, face masks, cultivator staffs. These subsections provided space for ample contextual information. The groups of like objects displayed in many different views encouraged visitors to look closely and compare objects (Fig. 5). Although objects may have served similar purposes, visitors will quickly came to see the endless design possibilities.

3.

The second gallery explored Robert Goldwater’s 1983 exhibition Senufo: Sculpture from West Africa at the Museum of Primitive Art.

4.

Sightline through gallery 3. Exploring the arts of Poro, this gallery used several small sub-groupings to...