Ife and Thaw

Went to the Indianapolis Museum of Art today. Spent my time at two temporary special exhibits.

The first exhibit was art from Ife (an area of the Yoruba people from Nigeria), mostly terra cotta and metal sculpture and masks. There were some interesting pieces ... and some interesting history on the little cards. Did you know that they practiced human sacrifice of foreigners? When they did, they gagged the victims so the victims couldn't utter curses against their killers. Some of the art featured those gagged individuals. Also, many pieces were nearly pure copper, which is much harder to work than alloys like bronze (apparently), testifying to the artists' great skill.

The second exhibit was art from the peoples of North America ... something called the Thaw Collection. The pieces in that exhibit which were most interesting to me were the ones with shamanic or socio-religious purposes, like the Tlingit shaman's rattle or the large Raven mask.

Unfortunately, neither exhibit permitted photographs and the pieces I liked best were not available on the postcards for sale. C'est la vie.

I did get some photos of other pieces on the grounds of the museum, which might find their way onto this blog some Friday.

Stay tuned.