Art&Seek on Think TV: The Arts of Africa at the DMA

by Jerome Weeks 15 Jan 2010 3:29 PM

Westerners often see African art as ‘folk crafts’ — anyone made them. But according to Roslyn Adele Walker, the DMA’s senior curator of African art, that’s because early explorers weren’t interested in individual artists. There actually have been celebrated artists in Africa, and the DMA has one of our country’s leading collections of their work. The museum has just released a new, sumptuous book by Dr. Walker, showcasing the collection’s riches.

The Dallas Museum of Art has one of the leading collections of African art in this country — thanks, in part, to the early interest and continuing support of Margaret McDermott. For the 40th anniversary of the collection, the DMA has released a handsomely illustrated new book (through Yale University Press), The Arts of Africa at the Dallas Museum of Art. The book showcases 110 items in the museum — from fantastic masks and crowns to statues and clothing. The author is Roslyn Adele Walker, the DMA’s senior curator of the Arts of Africa, the Americas and the Pacific. Before coming to the DMA, Dr. Walker was the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art in Washington, D. C.

We talk to Dr. Walker about the collection, about the nature of African art and about her book. Tonight at 7 p.m. at the DMA, she’ll be signing The Arts of Africa and talking about her research and the items currently on display.