Déblé
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The word déblé, can be roughly translated as “spirit figure.” This term is considered sacred to the Senufo men’s initiation society, the Poro, and the word would rarely be used outside of a village’s sacred grove.
The Gustave and Franyo Schindler Collection of African Sculpture
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Published in 2003 on the occasion of the Dallas Museum of Art's centennial, this short essay by previous Dallas Museum of Art curator John Lunsford reflects back to the 1974 acquisition of the Schindler Collection of African Sculpture.
Luba Concepts of Feminine Beauty: Standing female figure
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Luba girls learn that a woman is not born beautiful but becomes so as a result of modifications to her face and body. This process begins at puberty, as part of the coming-of-age rituals (butanda) that transform girls into physically beautiful, sexually attractive, and therefore, highly eligible women who can fulfill their destiny as wives and mothers. Their teeth are filed, their hair is arranged into elegant hairstyles, and their bodies are decorated with beaded jewelry.
Art for Coming-of-Age
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Coming-of-age is an event in the life cycle that is formally acknowledged and celebrated throughout the world. In the United States, coming-of-age rites take various forms according to ethnic or socio-religious patterns.
Sir Edward William Watkin (1819-1901) and the History of _The Icebergs_
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The following passage gives information about The Icebergs' provenance, or ownership history.
Arctic Expeditions and the Open Polar Sea
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
During the first half of the 19th century, frozen environments captured Western imagination as explorers sought the fabled Northwest Passage.
Frederic Edwin Church's "Great Pictures" and Theatrical Display
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
By 1857 Frederic Edwin Church began working with commercial agents and galleries to display each of his large-scale paintings, which he called “Great Pictures,” as a solo event. Viewers paid an admission fee and received a printed broadside to enhance their sense of awe and appreciation of the artist's technical prowess.
Nineteenth-Century Americans, Exploration, and Science
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
For 19th-century Americans it seemed everywhere one looked, from the tropics to the Arctic, from the Far East to the far west, to the heavens overhead, the perspective of the earth and the Universe was widening.In the plethora of names from many countries, one heroic leftover from the age of the Enlightenment loomed largest: Baron Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), the German naturalist, explorer, encyclopedist, thinker
2013.31.A-E.McD Carl Otto Czeschka, Wittgenstein Vitrine (for the 1908 Kunstshau)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The monumental Wittgenstein Vitrine, or display cabinet, is the largest and most lavish known example of the silverwork of the Wiener Werkstätte.
African Masks
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Almost all peoples have used masks to disguise themselves. Prehistoric rock paintings suggest that masking may have been part of magico-religious ceremonies. An image of an African mask first appeared in the central Sahara thousands of years ago.