Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | A | African Arts

Power Dressing: Men's Fashion and Prestige in Africa.

Article Excerpt
Power Dressing Men's Fashion and Prestige in Africa

The Newark Museum of Art, Newark, NJ October 19, 2005-January 22, 2006 The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY April 2-May 28, 2006 Other venues to come

"Power Dressing: Men's Fashion and Prestige in Africa," curated by Christa Clarke at the Newark Museum of Art, was a dynamic contribution to understanding how men's dress relates to concepts of power within Africa's changing sociocultural and political landscape. Many of the pieces in the show were from the Newark Museum's own important collection, some of them dating back to the museum's first African acquisitions in the 1920s. Private and public lenders supplemented the collection. Ann Spencer, former curator of Africa, the Americas, and the Pacific at the Newark Museum for more than twenty-five years, was instrumental in developing the museum's textile and dress collection.

Africans are known for their exceptional emphasis on dress and the presentation of self, particularly during ceremonial events. For the past three decades, Western scholarship and exhibitions have recognized African dress as "high art," beginning with the 1972 African textiles and decorative arts show at New York's Museum of Modern Art. Traditionally, more attention has been placed on female fashions, with male dress often overlooked. This exhibition marked the first significant museum show of African men's dress in the United States. While the show examined men's adornment...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!