Director’s Foreword and Acknowledgments

Pitman, Bonnie

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Director’s Foreword and Acknowledgments

Bonnie Pitman

The Arts of Africa: At the Dallas Museum of Art

~The publication of this catalogue coincides with the fortieth anniversary of the founding of the Dallas Museum of Art’s collection of African art. The establishment of the African collection helped to determine the nature of our encyclopedic holdings—the Museum has works of art from many cultures and time periods—and the African collection is...

Author

Bonnie Pitman

PublisherDallas Museum of Art

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-19793

Director’s Foreword and Acknowledgments

The publication of this catalogue coincides with the fortieth anniversary of the founding of the Dallas Museum of Art’s collection of African art. The establishment of the African collection helped to determine the nature of our encyclopedic holdings—the Museum has works of art from many cultures and time periods—and the African collection is one of its jewels. Inaugurated in 1969, our world-renowned African art collection, with its great strengths in Congo sculpture and textiles and its wide range of media and forms, now numbers almost two thousand works and forms a vital part of the Museum’s entire collection in telling the story of art from around the world.

A catalogue of this nature has long been the ambition of the Museum’s friends and family. The Arts of Africa is our first publication devoted solely to this collection, taken both as a whole and with emphasis on many of its most dazzling treasures. It is also the first in a series of catalogues that will document the important riches housed in our Museum.

I am especially grateful to Margaret McDermott and, in memoriam, to Eugene McDermott, to whom this book is warmly dedicated. Their initial gift of the Clark and Frances Stillman Collection of Congo Sculpture constitutes the foundation on which the DMA’s African art collection has been built. The African Art Acquisition Endowment Fund that Mrs. McDermott established in 1997 has furthered the development of one of the most outstanding African art collections in the world, and her endowment in 1999 of the permanent position of a curator for African Art secured the future of scholarship on the collection and ensured its continuing growth. Through their almost half-century of philanthropy and outstanding leadership in the ongoing development of this stunning collection, their generous financial and moral support, and their passion for the arts of Africa, the McDermott family has enabled the Dallas Museum of Art to influence the cultural life of its visitors by broadening their horizons through the experience of the art of diverse cultures.

A project of this magnitude is achieved through the contributions of a multitude of people. I would like to thank all of the past and current trustees and donors, whose guidance has nurtured the Museum’s collecting vision, and to thank my predecessors and their staffs, who have cultivated the programs and contributed to the growth of the collection. I sincerely thank all of the generous donors of works of art and funds that have enabled the Museum’s African collection to attain both depth and quality throughout the years: The African Collection Fund, The Art Museum League Travel Fund, The Bezalel Foundation, Inc., Alta Brenner, The Alfred and Juanita Bromberg Collection, Joel Cooner, Drs. Nicole and John Dintenfass, The Dozier Foundation, The Otis and Velma Davis Dozier Fund, The Foundation for the Arts Collection, The Friends of African and African-American Art, Rita Gaples, The General Acquisition Fund, The Cecil and Ida Green Foundation, Henry H. Hawley III, Mr. and Mrs. S. Roger Horchow, Mr. and Mrs. James H. W. Jacks, Dr. Penn Jackson, The Junior Associates, The Levy Memorial Fund, The Lot for a Little Fund, John Lunsford, Linda and Stanley Marcus, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., The Eugene McDermott Foundation, Alma L. McKinney, Mr. and Mrs. Algur H. Meadows and the Meadows Foundation Incorporated, Edward H. Merrin, David T. Owsley, The Alvin and Lucy Owsley Foundation, Pace Primitive Gallery, New York, George and Sidney Perutz, The Professional Members League, Dr. Hebe Redden and Dr. Kenneth Redden, Gustave and Franyo Schindler, Victoria Scott, Elsa von Seggern, Mr. and Mrs. George A. Shutt, Mr. and Mrs. Lee M. Singleterry, The Textile Purchase Fund, Denni Davis Washburn and Marie Scott Miegel, Carolyn C. and Dan C. Williams, Lester Wunderman, and several anonymous donors.

Gratefully, I acknowledge the connoisseurship and specialized knowledge of the scholars and collectors who have had a particular influence on the growth and development of the African art collection: Ramona Austin, Michael Kan, John Lunsford, Dr. Christopher Roy, Gustave and Franyo Schindler, Clark and Frances Stillman, and Susan Mullin Vogel. We also extend our thanks to the curators, academicians, and other specialists, who provided advice and answers to the author’s questions about specific objects in the Dallas collections: Professor Rowland Abiodun, Amherst College; Professor Barbara Blackmun (retired), San Diego Mesa College; Professor Elisabeth Cameron, University of California, Santa Cruz; Dr. Theodore Celenko, Curator (retired), Indianapolis Museum of Art; Professor Herbert M. Cole (retired), University of California, Santa Barbara; Professor William Dewey, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Professor Toyin Falola, University of Texas, Austin; Marc Leo Felix, independent scholar, Brussels; Dr. Till Förster, University of Basel; Dr. Christraud Geary, Curator, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; David Gelbard, the Gelbard Photographic Archives of African Expressive Culture; Professor Paula Gershick, Indiana University, Bloomington; Dr. Burkhard Gottshalk, Germany; Professor William A. Hart, University of Ulster-Coleraine, Northern Ireland; Professor Christian Kordt Højberg, University of Copenhagen; Dr. Sidney Kasfir, Emory University, Atlanta; Dr. Frederick Lamp, Curator, Yale University Art Gallery; Professor Babatunde Lawal, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond; Dr. Andrea Nicolls, Curator (retired), National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution; Professor Simon Ottenberg (retired), University of Washington, Seattle; Dr. Diane Pelrine, Associate Director and Curator, Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington; Professor John Pemberton III (retired), Amherst College; Dr. Louis Perrois, ethnographer and art historian, Honorary Director of Research, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Marseilles; Dr. Constantine Petridis, Curator, Cleveland Museum of Art; Professor Ruth Phillips, Carleton University, Ottawa; Dr. Mary Nooter Roberts, Deputy Director and Curator, Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California, Los Angeles; Dr. William Siegmann, Curator (retired), Brooklyn Museum of Art; Dr. Robert Soppelsa, Senior Curator, Art in Embassies Office, U.S. Department of State; F. Amy Staples, Chief Archivist, Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution; Professor Zöe Strother, Columbia University; Louis de Strycker, independent scholar; Dr. Barbara Thompson, Curator, the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University; Professor Robert Farris Thompson, Yale University; Lucien Viola, Galerie Rê, Morocco; and, in memoriam, William B. Fagg, Keeper, African Ethnology, the British Museum, London; Joseph-Aurélien Cornet, Director, Institut des Musées nationaux du Zaire; and Dr. Hans Witte, independent scholar and specialist in Yoruba art.

I offer profound thanks to Dr. Roslyn Adele Walker, Senior Curator, the Arts of Africa, the Americas, and the Pacific and The Margaret McDermott Curator of African Art, for her leadership role as author of this publication. Roz joined the DMA staff in 2003. Immediately, she enthusiastically undertook to further the growth of the collection, carefully directing the development of future holdings. For this publication she selected the objects featured, amassed a vast store of research notes, references, and bibliographic material, wrote all of the texts herein, and guided the publication to its successful completion. For her dedication, expertise, and many contributions to the enrichment of the DMA’s African collection, I offer my most sincere appreciation.

A publication of this size, scale, and ambition requires the dedicated expertise of a team of people to bring it to fruition. I would like particularly to recognize Tamara Wootton-Bonner, Director of Exhibitions and Publications, for her contributions in directing the planning for the publications focused on our collection and for her work on this catalogue. Eric Zeidler, Publications Coordinator, and Jessica Beasley, Curatorial Administrative Assistant in the Ancient and Non-Western Art division, deserve special acknowledgment for their efforts on behalf of this project—both worked tirelessly to compile information and assist with every detail related to the publication. Brad Flowers, the lead photographer for this publication, worked meticulously with object after object to recreate the unique texture and complexity of each one on the printed page. Giselle Castro-Brightenburg, the Manager of the Imaging Department, supervised the shooting and sorting of all the photography and worked with Roz Walker, Eric Zeidler, and Marquand Books to coordinate the selection of images. It is with deep gratitude that Roz Walker and I acknowledge the contributions of the DMA staff and other colleagues who have also helped in some way to bring this publication to its realization, making particular mention of Shannon Karol, Anna Lessenger, and Lauren Hughes, McDermott Graduate Curatorial Interns; Carol Robbins, The Ellen and Harry S. Parker III Curator of the Arts of the Americas and the Pacific; Mary Leonard and Jacqueline Allen, Mayer Library and DMA Archives; Jeff Zilm of the Imaging Department; Queta Moore Watson of the Marketing Department; Gabriela Truly, John Dennis, and Vince Jones of the Collections Department; Sidney Perutz and Sandra Youngblood, DMA docents; Natalie H. Lee, independent art historian; the editors Migs Grove and Frances Bowles; the proofreader Sharon Rose Vonasch; Ed Marquand, Marie Weiler, and Jeff Wincapaw of Marquand Books; Patricia Fidler and Carmel M. Lyons of Yale University Press; and John Lunsford, who was the inaugural curator of the African art collection and, before he retired, its keeper for twenty years (1969–1989).

For many years the Dallas Museum of Art has collected, exhibited, and championed the arts of Africa. This catalogue, published on the fortieth anniversary of its establishment, is the first permanent record devoted solely to this important and internationally acclaimed collection. On behalf of the donors, trustees, scholars, staff, and most especially the McDermott family, I am delighted to share these treasures with you on this momentous occasion. We hope that this volume will bring pleasure and enlightenment to its readers and encourage a deeper understanding of the beauty and importance of all of the arts of Africa.

Bonnie Pitman

The Eugene McDermott Director

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