 Interesting
Objects, Fabulous Stories
Reflections on Collecting African Art
Thursday
January 20, 2004, 7:30 pm
Osterman Common
Institute for the Humanities, Room 0540 Rackham School of Graduate
Studies
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Professor Mato provides
this description of his lecture:
"I didn't start out to be an Africanist.
But one rainy day I stepped into a small gallery in Zurich and after
an hour came out with an African sculpture.
I knew nothing about it, nor who made it, nor how it was used, but
it captured my imagination then and continues to do so nearly forty
years later. It was different than anything I had known or studied
and it piqued my curiosity.
Within a short period this experience led to a redirection of my
studies from classics to African art history and the beginnings
of building a collection.
My early studies were explorations of objects that literally had
no history and that were looked upon with bemusement by most other
art historians. At that time there were few books published on African
art and those available offered opinion but little information.
To a great extent it was a discipline that was being created by
teachers who generously shared their field notes, showed us their
collections, and encouraged us in our own research. Enthusiastic
curators led me to the back rooms of museums where I spent hours
handling the sculptures, taking photos and making notes.
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African art first arrived in my Midwest
world in the late 1960s and early 1970s, brought to me by African
art traders commonly known as “runners.” These African traders
came in a rush, traveling across the country to situate themselves
in hotel rooms filled with an extraordinary variety of objects about
which they knew little but which were described for us nonetheless
in creative and fabulous ways. We “played” with the pieces,
made friends with the traders, bargained for sculptures and learned
about Africa from warmly human sources.
In addition to the runners, fellow collectors
themselves brought an enthusiasm for African art to our lives, which
led to interesting interpretations, marvelous stories and long evenings
of conversation. We learned from these objects, looking and comparing,
arguing and developing our own tastes. I was often challenged to make
a case for an object or to identify it and through the process of
looking closely at a piece I came to appreciate the skill of the artist
and an extraordinary underlying sense of aesthetics.
Although we know a lot more about African
art today, fanciful stories created for us by African traders nearly
forty years ago still ring with a special fondness in my mind. My
talk this evening will center around my life as a student, collector,
and scholar in a field that has held my imagination ever since I first
stepped into that gallery in Zurich and, of course, on the wonderful
richness of the world of African art."
For more information about
this event, please contact bltaylor@umich.edu
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Faculty and Graduate
students fellowship opportunities with the
Global Ethnic Literature Seminar next year
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Faculty fellows receive
a course reduction in the fall term to participate in the seminar
(with reimbursement to their home unit) and $1500 in research
funds. Graduate student fellows receive $3000 in summer funding
in advance of their time in GELS and tuition, a stipend equivalent
to a .50 GSI, and GradCare in the fall term. There are also
opportunities to teach courses of one's own design in the winter
term. Information about application and application forms are
available on the GELS website at
http://www.lsa.umich.edu/complit/GELS.html
Faculty
Applications
Faculty must notify their
departments of their intention to apply.
January 10, 2005
at noon. is the deadline for the receipt of application materials.
This is the deadline for completed applications. Complete applications
include six collated sets of the following:
1. GELS application form
2. A brief description, not more than 1000 words, of the work
that you would like to pursue in GELS
3. A complete C.V.
4. A letter of support by the chair or director of your unit
Graduate Students Applications
Graduate students must
notify their departments of their intention to apply.
January 10, 2005
at noon. is the deadline for receipt of application materials.
This is the deadline for completed applications. Complete applications
include six collated sets of the following:
1. GELS application form
2. A brief description, not more than 1000 words, of the work
that you would like to pursue in GELS
3. An official transcript
4. A letter of support by the chair of your dissertation committee
or the director of graduate studies in your unit
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