BEHIND THE MASK: AFRICAN ART FROM THE ELLEN HOBBS COLLECTION AND THE KENNEDY MUSEUM OF ART AT OHIO UNIVERSITY, ATHENS

Auburn University features African mask exhibit February 8 through May 10, 2008

Beginning February 8 until May 10, 2008, Auburn University has the privilege of exhibiting Behind the Mask: African Art from the Ellen Hobbs Collection and the Kennedy Museum of Art at Ohio University, Athens. The exhibition features masks and other carvings from many different African nations.

Ellen Hobbs is a retired art teacher living in Hendersonville, NC. Among other passions such as traveling and sailing, Hobbs is an avid collector of masks from all over the world. Her collection consists of over 500 masks.

Last year the Kennedy Museum of Art at Ohio University assembled an African art exhibition predominately based on the Hobbs collection but also incorporating pieces from their own permanent collections. They asked Andrea Frohne, who teaches African Art at the University to lend her expertise to planning the exhibition. Working with graduate students in a seminar setting, Frohne grouped and selected pieces in order to offer visitors to the exhibition a better understanding of the artistic and symbolic intentions of this art.

Although the masks are from several different countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Mali, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the widely held belief of many African cultures is that the masks are part of a larger experience. They are often central to ritual and performance (called masquerade) as well as serve to represent the spirit world or honor ancestors.

The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University greatly appreciates the spirit of collegiality in which the Kennedy Museum of Art has shared this exhibition with Auburn and wishes to thank and acknowledge Ms. Hobbs, Dr. Frohne and the Kennedy Museum of Art, for sharing this unique opportunity to learn and appreciate African cultures through these exceptional objects.

In conjunction with the exhibition Behind the Mask: African Art from the Ellen Hobbs Collection and the Kennedy Museum of Art at Ohio University, Athens (Feb 8- May 10, 2008) the JCSM invites you to attend a lecture by Dr. Sidney Kasfir.

Kasfir, who is a Professor of African Art History at Emory University, will give a lecture Thursday March 6, 2008 at 4:00 PM. Her goal in this lecture is to provide background information in order to broaden the understanding of this exhibition. Kasfir received a Ph.D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London in 1979. Her research interests include art, ritual and representation, masking, colonial and postcolonial urban art, West and East Africa. Kasfir also has several publications, some of which include West African Masks and Cultural Systems, Contemporary African Art and the forthcoming African Art and the Colonial Encounter: Inventing a Global Commodity.

Contributed by Mandy Walters