Imaging Women in African Art: Selected Sculptures From Los Angeles Collections

2000

Twenty-six outstanding works of African art conveyed the remarkable diversity of female representation across the continent. Companion to Body Politics, Imaging Women in African Art featured sculptures, masks, and a colorful dance ensemble from west, central and southeast Africa to consider the complex social and philosophical motivations underlying these forms. Created by male artists, the works reflect male perceptions of female attributes — from images of the mother and child and the young female initiate, to a king’s wife and a female diviner — and express varying cultural constructions of gender and authority.