Date: Fri 24-Sep-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: MELISS

Quick Words:

Bareiss-African-Neuberger

Full Text:

African Art From The Bareiss Collection Opens At The Neuberger Museum Of Art

(with 1 cut)

PURCHASE, N.Y. -- "Kilengi: African Art from the Bareiss Family Collection,"

an international travelling exhibition of more than 200 objects, will be on

view at the Neuberger Museum of Art from Sunday, September 26 through Sunday,

January 9.

The exhibition features pieces from the collection of Walter Bareiss, an avid

collector of African Art, who lives in Greenwich, Connecticut and Munich,

Germany. Consisting of a wide variety of objects, including masks, figurines,

and utilitarian objects, the exhibition focuses on unusual, rarely displayed

types of sculpture, primarily from Eastern and Southern Africa.

The title, "Kilengi," means "joy arising through beauty" in the language of

the northern Bantu tribes of the Congo (Zaire). The exhibition expands on

understanding of African art by presenting works from the Baali, Bira, Gogo,

Ha, Sakuma, Wanyatura, and Zigua; it superbly complements the Neuberger Museum

of Art's holdings from West African cultures.

The exhibition is organized by Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover, Germany, and is

accompanied by a catalogue that includes an essay by the curator, University

of Iowa Professor Christopher D. Roy, who underscores Africa's most active

areas of cultural change. Roy writes in his foreword to the catalogue, "Walter

Bareiss has assembled a collection that includes object types and styles from

peoples that were virtually unknown to Westerners only a few years ago."

Numerous pieces from the Bareiss's Collection of more than 800 objects have

been on view in important exhibitions of African art around the world. Before

this tour, however, the collection has never been displayed publicly.

"Kilengi: African Art from the Bareiss Family Collection" opened in Hanover,

Germany and traveled in Europe to Vienna and Munich. The Neuberger Museum of

Art is one of only two venues in the United States. It was presented recently

at the University of Iowa Museum of Art.

There will be a lecture series during the run of the exhibition. The lecture

series includes three prominent African art historians, Roy Seiber, Indiana

University; Robert Farris Thompson, Yale University; and Christopher Roy,

curator of the exhibition.

The Neuberger Museum of Art is located on the campus of Purchase College.

Museum hours are 10 am to 4 pm Tuesday through Friday, 11 am to 5 pm Saturday

and Sunday. Telephone 914/251-6100.