Friends of Ethnic Art Lecture

A VISUAL MEMOIR

50 years in African Art
50 Months of Fieldwork
50 Slides in
50 Minutes—(p.s. It can’t be done…)

Sunday, February 12th,
Fort Mason, Fleet Room (across the street from Festival Pavillion entrance) 10 AM, Free

 Coffee will be served

Well-known writer and teacher of African art, Dr. Herbert Cole was among the first art historians to write primarily from his own fieldwork.   Although his first love has been the arts of West Africa, he has increasingly been able to take a “big picture” view of multiple cultures, describing how art objects and rituals — especially masquerades — make belief systems visible and help order human society.

Cole’s talk features highlights of his fieldwork and exhibitions plus some of his pet peeves and crazy experiences — and stunning photographs: objects, art and architecture in African life and ceremony in NIgeria, Ghana, Mali, Cote d’Ivoie and Kenya.

Curator of twelve exhibitions of African art and author, co-author, or editor of nine books, Cole was the recipient of a Leadership Award, for lifetime achievement, by the Arts Council of the African Studies Association in 2001.

As an emeritus professor, lecturing and consulting a bit and sometimes advising museums such as the de Young, “Skip” Cole founded a “friends of Africa” group in Santa Barbara to raise money for varied NGOs headquartered there. Among his favorite pastimes, as Kofi Cole, is whittling exquisite miniatures of classic African masks and figures, with amazing detail and accuracy. These will be on view after his talk (and for sale, benefitting a fellowship set up to honor his son, killed in Uganda two years ago). For a preview of Skip’s carvings, visit koficoleart.com on the web.

FEA MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION TABLE VOLUNTEERS SIGH-UP

for the upcoming Tribal Art Shows!

(respond to info@friendsofethnicart.org and either Jo or Cecily will contact you)

Hours listed below…

TRIBAL and TEXTILE ARTS (Fort Mason, San Francsico):

February 10 – 12Friday (11-7), Saturday (11-7) and Sunday (11-5)

ART OF THE AMERICAS (Marin Center, San Rafael):

 February 25 — 26 Saturday (10-6) and Sunday (11-5)

                       …and, on Sunday, Friends Of Ethnic Art Presents an African Arts lecture:

                                                           A VISUAL MEMOIR

                                                              50 years in African Art
                                                              50 Months of Fieldwork or
                                                             50 Slides in 50 Minutes –

                                                         (p.s. It can’t be done….)

                                            by Professor Emeritus Herbert (Skip) Cole

                                     Fleet Room, Ft. Mason, Sunday, Feb 12, 10:00 am

A long-time Friends of Ethnic Art member, Mrs. Robertson was a leading researcher of ancient Mayan civilization and a passionate teacher who led hundreds of local students on adventures amid the ruins of Central America and Mexico.

Mrs. Robertson pioneered a type of archaeological rubbing, using rice paper and Japanese ink, that elevated the standard technique for recording images of artifacts to an art form, managing to preserve details that have since deteriorated and were often missed in photography.  More than 2,000 of her rubbings are preserved at Tulane University in New Orleans.

I Did Not Die

Do not stand at my grave and weep.

I am not there.

I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.

I am the mountain goat on snow.

I am the sunlight on Maya grain.

I am the gentle jungle rain.

When you awake in the morning hush,

    I am the soft uplifting rush

    of quetzal birds in a highland flight.

I am the Venus star at night.

I visit now Hunahpu and Xbalanque,

    in the forever ever land of God K.

I am the Mother Goddess

    of Palenque’s past.

Do not stand at my grave and cry.

I am not there.

I did not die.

     Merle

http://www.mesoweb.com/reports/merle.html

*******************************************************************

VIRGINIA FIELDS dies at 58; scholar of early Mesoamerican art, archaeology at LACMA  In her 22 years at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Virginia Fields helped make the museum a vital center of Latin American culture.

Download (PDF, 990.2KB)

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Download (PDF, 259.39KB)

Holiday Party  

will be hosted by

Jim Haas and Bonham’s and Butterfields

The party will be on December 4, 2011

     Ever wonder what dealers collect? What they keep?

After a lifelong career as a most highly respected
Indian dealer, historian/expert, and ancient art connoisseur, FEA member Ramona
Morris will take us on a half-hour slide-illustrated visual stroll through her
private collection of Keepers and Favorites.

Our Annual Friends of Ethnic Art Holiday Party will
host Ramona and her delightful, short presentation this year, adding additional
aesthetic appreciation and connoisseurship to our usual holiday festive fun and
camaraderie. As in years past, there will be hands-on inspections and
personally tailored previews of Bonham’s full Native American Art Auction (held
Dec. 5, the next day at noon). On view to us will be 386 objects — Hopi
kachinas, historic and Pre-Historic Southwest pottery, Navajo rugs and blankets
(including a classic Navajo chief’s blanket, est. $300,000) and silver jewelry,
Indian baskets, a fine selection of Eskimo and Northwest Coast artifacts, and
exciting Plains Indian material, including an extremely early Cheyenne quilled
war shirt (est. $300,000–$500,000). Specialists will answer your incisive
questions. And, of course, coupled with these feasts for our eyes will be FEA’s
cornucopia of wines, cheeses, eggnogs, and zesty party foods.

This presentation, preview, and party is free for
members of FEA. There will, however, be a registration table at the door to allow
late renewers and new joiners to pay their modest annual dues; when they do,
they will get into this event free.

This triple-layered event is Sunday, December 4,
5-8 PM, at Bonham’s & Butterfields Auction House, San Francisco. Remember: joining or renewing may be accomplished at the door
with your personal check.

FEA Newsletter – January 2007

Wine, and Catered Lunch Provided

The  Park-like Setting Offers Spacious Cool Interiors

and

Both Shady and Sunny Gardens,

Quick Mid-Peninsula  Highway 101 Access,

Easy Free Parking.

The Annual FEA Meeting, Party and Auction will take place in a beautiful South Bay park where lunch will be served and our fund-raising auction held. Dressing in Ethnic Clothing & Jewelry is Encouraged!!!

What a Party & Auction is coming this September 18!—lively and
exciting but in a secluded parkland setting that will be ‘ours’ for
the day, artful and aesthetically stimulating – and fun.

The catered food will be a spectacular array of the varied cuisines
of India, but our theme this year focuses more on the village life
of Tribal Asia. If you’d like to take advantage of this traditional
opportunity to wear your ethnic finery, from jewelry to colorful
indigenous textiles made into skirts or shirts, pants or dresses,
vests or scarves, then here is your chance. Consider examples of
the costumes, clothing, or jewelry of the hill tribes of S.E. Asia
and the Golden Triangle, or of The Philippines or Indonesia, or of
the ethnic minorities of China, India, and The Himalayas. But any
ethnic adornment is encouraged, and don’t forget a hat.

There will be a lot of tribal art to admire at the Annual Party &
Auction. On one side of the room will be a display of Animals
in Ethnic Art, loaned (and not for sale) by many members of
FEA. You are invited, urged, to bring one exciting example of an
animal motif in an art object or artifact from Africa, Oceania, The
Americas (including Pre-Columbian cultures), or Tribal Asia. It
can be a figure, a mask, a textile depiction, jewelry or an object of
adornment, weapon, or whatever you wish. You may bring three
objects if they are small, two if medium-sized, or one if large.
Please bring nothing huge and nothing alive. Bring a label or small
sign-card for each object, on which you have typed or printed:
What the object is and a recognizable description; Which people,
tribe, or culture made it; Where these people live(d); When you
believe it was made; and, Who has loaned it (you or Anonymous).
You will have to pack, transport, pick up, and insure your own
object(s) and hold FEA and its members blameless.

One the other side of the room will be displayed a bounty of more

than 100 donated art treasures: statues and masks, textiles and
costumes/clothing, baskets and bowls, jewelry, figures, weapons
and shields, art books, objects of use, stools and tools…

A favorite annual event for many FEA members is the Fundraising
Auction that concludes the Annual Party. Dedicated tribal art
collectors, enthusiastic art lovers and artists, and home designers
and decorators all seem to love the two aspects of this auction.

The first pleasure is donating a significant pre-loved ethnic art
object from your home, gallery, or storage. You help FEA in its
programs, events, publications, and good works; you help your
tax deductions; you clear display space in your home; you bring a
happy tear to the eye of your spouse, roommate, or cat; and, you
feel good about yourself and your encouragement of the ethnic art
community.

The second pleasure is attending the Auction, spotting some
treasure(s) that the generous and overwhelmed have donated and
the unknowing have overlooked, and bidding and buying it at a
bargain.

But, Donors: not every piece goes for a bargain price. You may
donate significant objects with the assurance that an eager throng
of 100+ knowledgeable art lovers will carefully preview and study
your donation. They’ll read and hear your object description and
your name (anonymity upon request) and they’ll appreciate your
generosity. They’ll bid spiritedly. (Pieces with marketable values
over $1000 may be donated contingent upon the piece bringing a
pre-agreed minimum, or else the donor can have the piece back.)
Your generosity will not be overlooked, so give like a chief to a
potlatch. Do you want to acquire a significant piece? Then bring a
significant piece. If we all bring an old significant piece, then we
can all go home with a new significant piece.

Please walk around your house, gallery, or storage and put aside
for donation to FEA those pieces that no longer excite you or your
spouse, or don’t display well with your recent acquisitions or your
home renovation. Operators are standing by for your donations
to FEA: volunteers will PICK UP your donations, or you can take
them to local drop spots (see accompanying page).

Although art donations may be brought to the Party, they are better
promoted when received as soon as possible or during these next
four weeks. Remember our motto: Clear Space in Your Home –
And Then Fill It.

The Auction will be live and lively for most of the objects, but
determined bidders and those having to leave early can leave
strong bids or take advantage of Buy Now prices for some pieces;
others will close during lunchtime in a Silent Auction.