High Museum's African art curator picks her top pieces from the collection

Atlanta Living & Arts

We asked Lauren Tate Baeza, the High Museum's new curator of African art to select her favorite pieces in the collection.

We asked Lauren Tate Baeza, the High Museum's new curator of African art to select her top pieces in the collection and to talk about why they are important. First up: Unidentified Artist, in Timbuktu, Mali, created this Quran sometime in the 16th and 18th centuries.
Baeza said this is a companion piece to the terra cotta figure, also from ancient Mali:

“Another object in the collection from Mali that is reflective of its rich past as a flourishing empire of great wealth and commercial activity and an important religious, cultural and educational center.”

This terracotta Bankoni sculpture from the Mali region of Africa is the oldest example of African art in the High Museum of Art's collection. The female figure was created in the14th or 15th century.

An artist of the Ibibio community in Nigeria made this 20th century mask. It is part of the High Museum's African Art collection.
Baeza said this is a companion piece to the Mami Wata figure which was an inspiration for Beyonce's film, "Lemonade."

"In Ibibio communities of Nigeria, the Ekpo Society is an influential men’s association charged with initiation and ancestral veneration. Masked Ekpo dancers also direct funerals, assuring respect for the deceased. The society’s influence was maintained even during the colonial era, as British officials deferred to its power and Ekpo ceremonies continued. Ekpo masks can be serene and beautiful or fierce and menacing. Ibibio carvers are well respected throughout the Niger Delta for their skilled workmanship. Five faces peer from the upper register of this beaked mask, covered above and below with white paint."

Carved by a Nigerian artist who was likely of the Igbo people, this sculpture represents the powerful water spirit Mami Wata. Carved of wood in the 1950s, the piece represents a deity that appears throughout the African diaspora and was an inspiration for Beyonce's film, "Lemonade." The sculpture is part of the High Museum of Art's African Art collection.

Democratic Republic of the Congo, mask, made by an unknown artist in the early 20th century of wood and kaolin pigment

Baeza says of this mask:
"Masquerading enjoyed an extraordinary resurgence in the Central Pende region in the early twentieth century, in part because so many other routes to male prestige had been blocked. In the 1930s, during the Pende rebellion, masquerade performance constituted a form of resistance to Belgian colonial rule. Pende masquerade performance remains vital to this day. Masks with black and-and-white faces are called masques de maladie, or sickness masks. These masks represent people whose faces are permanently disfigured by illness in order to promote compassion for these individuals."

A Pende mask from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The piece was made in the late-19th or early-20th century, of great blue turaco feathers, fiber, and wood. It's part of the High Museum of Art.'s African Art collection.

A Yoruba Nigerian artist made this headdress depicting a Janus-faced water spirit, in the 20th century.
Baeza said this is a compliment to the Yoruba water spirit that is not one aquatic creature but three.
"This headdress is an example of the innovation, skill, and imagination of Yoruba artists of southwestern Nigeria. The large facial features are typical of Yoruba sculpture, with bulging eyes and triangular nose in high relief. However, the flat, disk-like face is unusual, contrasting with the typical rounded, fleshy forms of Yoruba sculpture. Masks such as this one perform in masquerade festivals in southern Yoruba and neighboring Ijebu communities to honor water spirits."

An unknown 20th century Nigerian artist, most likely from the Ijo, Abua, or Ekpeye people created this headdress honoring a water spirit. Made from polychrome, wood and mirrors the piece honors friendly or helpful aquatic spirits. It's part of the High Museum of Art's African collection.

An unknown Nigerian artist made this vessel of leather, glass beads, cloth and fiber in the 20th century.

Said Baeza: "This vessel is another example of masterful Yoruba glass beadwork."

A Yoruba crown of Obatala or "king" made in the late-19th or early-20th century, in Nigeria. The unknown artists who crafted the crown of glass beads, cloth, fiber, and leather, made the piece slowly, almost as a meditation. Part of the High Museum of Art's African art collection.

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Credit: High Museum of Art

We asked Lauren Tate Baeza, the High Museum's new curator of African art to select her top pieces in the collection and to talk about why they are important. First up: Unidentified Artist, in Timbuktu, Mali, created this Quran sometime in the 16th and 18th centuries. Baeza said this is a companion piece to the terra cotta figure, also from ancient Mali: “Another object in the collection from Mali that is reflective of its rich past as a flourishing empire of great wealth and commercial activity and an important religious, cultural and educational center.”

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