Motherland immersion: ‘Art of Africa’ opens at Clinton Center and ‘Mandela’ is on the way

President Nelson Mandela of South Africa gave this metal bust of a woman in a traditional headdress to President Bill Clinton in 1997. The bust is one of the centerpieces of the Clinton Presidential Center’s “Art of Africa.”
President Nelson Mandela of South Africa gave this metal bust of a woman in a traditional headdress to President Bill Clinton in 1997. The bust is one of the centerpieces of the Clinton Presidential Center’s “Art of Africa.”

Different colored, richly dyed strips of cloth are woven together, carefully and painstakingly, to create the vibrant, eye-catching patterns of kente cloth.

It's much the same with Africa. Many people. Many countries. Many cultures. Many traditions all making up one continent.

‘Art of Africa:

One Continent, Limitless Vision’

Saturday-Feb. 11

‘Mandela: The Journey to Ubuntu’

Sept. 24-Feb. 19

Clinton Presidential Center, 1200 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday

Admission: $10; $8 for ages 62 and older, college students, retired military; $6 for ages 6-17; free for children under 6 and active military

(501) 374-4242

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"You think, 'Oh, it's Africa,'" says Ben Thielemeier, the Clinton Foundation's communications manager. "But it's so vast and expansive."

Jennifer Wisniewski, Clinton Presidential Center's exhibits specialist, agrees: "No individual country is representative because it's so diverse. It's so immense."

The center and foundation hope to highlight and demonstrate that diversity, as well as pay tribute to one of the continent's great leaders, in a pair of new exhibits: "Art of Africa: One Continent, Endless Vision," opening Saturday, and "Mandela: The Journey to Ubuntu," which will join "Africa" on Sept. 24.

The idea for the African-theme exhibits came through staff program planning meetings.

"We've got this great team of people who sit around this table and think about every exhibit," Wisniewski says.

In discussions last year, they realized that the center has had a large number of traveling exhibits over the last couple of years and, while they have been successfully entertaining and educational, the center has not utilized some of the valuable assets it has under its own roof.

"We've got such an amazing collection," Wisniewski says. "The vast majority of it is in storage."

While in office, President Bill Clinton took two extended trips to Africa, including a historic 1998 trip that was the longest African visit by a sitting president. During those trips, he acquired a huge collection of sculptures, paintings, clothing and decorative ceremonial pieces from all over the continent that are now part of the center's object archives.

Wisniewski says, "That's something that's a little different for us from some of the other presidential libraries. I think we probably have the biggest representative collection from Africa. Artwork, textiles, you name it, we've got it."

When the foundation came upon a traveling exhibit on Nelson Mandela, that cinched the deal. It was, Wisniewski says, "a perfect tie-in" -- two related exhibits that could stand side-by-side and

provide visitors with a rich educational experience.

Wisniewski knew the African art exhibit would showcase the varied nature of Africa and its different art forms. So, she began sifting through the 100,000 archived objects, searching the database for African art, then breaking it down by type of artifact and by country.

She focused on pieces that would stand out visually or that would have a good story attached to them, taking care to include at least one item from each country.

The result is an exhibit of about 100 pieces, from a blue two-piece takchita (woman's garment) from Morocco to a decorative spear from Kenya.

At the entrance, visitors will see a very visual representation of Africa, its art and its diversity through a 2-foot-tall mahogany carving from Senegal in the shape of Africa, its surface covered with trees, people and faces.

The exhibit is arranged by art form so visitors can see examples from different countries standing side by side. One sculpture, a public gift from Uganda, depicts a woman carrying a lidded basket on her head. Its beautiful, proportional simplicity contrasts nicely with an elongated figure of a bald man with pronounced ribs, an ebony sculpture from Angola. There are traditionally dressed dolls that were a public gift in South Africa.

"You're going to see the differences in what they focus on, what they find to be most attractive and interesting," Thielemeier says.

"The different mediums used in different regions, stylistic differences you can see in forms of how the human figure is portrayed in carvings or in paintings. To me, that's all fascinating. I've loved being able to work on all that," Wisniewski adds.

Most of the pieces are from the archives but there are also some pieces from Clinton's personal collection -- items he acquired on post-presidency trips to Africa.

Some of the most striking, eye-catching works in the exhibit will be found in the textile area where vividly colored kente and batik cloths will be draped above traditionally dressed mannequins, giving some extra visual interest to the jewelry cases.

Photos and information panels will provide background on artworks throughout the exhibit. For instance, one kente cloth in brilliant green, black and gold from Ghana was ceremonially wrapped around the president at an enormous Ghanian rally in 1998. Pictures and an explanation of that moment will accompany the bolt of cloth.

"It's an art exhibit for sure, but the underlying theme that we wanted to weave through was talking about those trips and some of the stories," Wisniewski says.

Part of that story is Clinton's relationship with South African President Nelson Mandela. Two of the exhibit's most striking pieces -- an oil painting of a leopard and a metal bust of a woman wearing a headdress -- were gifts from Mandela.

That ties in nicely with the second Africa-theme exhibit, "Mandela: The Journey to Ubuntu," which will open next month.

"Mandela" is, Thielemeier believes, the first exhibit about his life from his birth in Mvezo, South Africa, in 1918 to his death in Johannesburg in 2013. Produced by the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, it's based around photographs by Matthew Willman, who was commissioned by the Nelson Mandela Foundation to chronicle the last 10 years of Mandela's life.

The exhibit is not all photographs, though. It's experiential. Sound effects help set the mood and create a more sensory experience of apartheid in South Africa.

And the centerpiece of the exhibit is a full-scale re-creation of Mandela's cell on Robben Island, where he served 18 of his 27 years in prison before the end of apartheid. Visitors can actually walk inside, close the door, and experience what that must have felt like.

The exhibit moves on from there to Mandela's election victory in 1994 and his work as the first black president of South Africa.

Because Clinton and Mandela had a close friendship, the center has added a few of its own pieces from the archives and Clinton's personal collection for the exhibit, including a paper ballot from the 1994 South African collection that Mandela gave Clinton. Clinton plans to be at the exhibit's opening.

The final, powerful piece of the exhibit is a case with 15 rocks from Robben Island.

"They don't let you take rocks off Robben Island," Thielemeier says. "It's prohibited. So to have these rocks is really incredible."

The message of the case, and the exhibit as a whole, is to "lay down your stone."

Thielemeier says, "He was angry, but he didn't let that blind him." Instead, Mandela dedicated himself to unifying his country and its people.

Ultimately, the two exhibits should demonstrate the diversity of a continent that is, for many, something of an enigma.

"You can't look at the continent through one lens," Wisniewski says. "You have to shift your thinking and your expectations every time you look at a new country, a new part of the continent. We're trying to do that through the art and art collection."

photo

Clinton Foundation/NELSON CHENAULT

Three traditionally dressed dolls were presented to President Bill Clinton as a public gift during a trip to South Africa.

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Clinton Foundation/NELSON CHENAULT

This mahogany carving of Africa welcomes visitors to “Art of Africa: One Continent, Endless Vision” at the Clinton Presidential Center. The carving was given to President Bill Clinton by President Abdou Diouf of Senegal in 1998.

photo

Clinton Foundation/NELSON CHENAULT

This kente cloth of green, black and yellow sewn with magenta thread was ceremonially wrapped around President Bill Clinton during a rally in Ghana, March 23, 1998. The cloth and photos from the trip are on display in the Clinton Presidential Center’s “Art of Africa.”

photo

Clinton Foundation/NELSON CHENAULT

A vivid nature scene decorates a piece of batik fabric from Tanzania. Colorful textiles are a highlight of the “Art of Africa” exhibit at the Clinton Presidential Center.

photo

Clinton Foundation/NELSON CHENAULT

Made of ebony wood, this statue of a bald man was given to President Bill Clinton by President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos of Angola in 1995.

photo

Clinton Foundation/NELSON CHENAULT

This oil-and-canvas painting of a leopard was presented to President Bill Clinton by President Nelson Mandela of South Africa and will be on display in the Clinton Presidential Center’s “Art of Africa.”

photo

Clinton Foundation/NELSON CHENAULT

President Bill Clinton acquired this Masai hunting spear from Kenya during a 2001 trip to Africa.

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Clinton Foundation/NELSON CHENAULT

A wood carver in Uganda created an image of a traditional woman wearing a draped cloth and carrying a lidded basket.

photo

Clinton Foundation/NELSON CHENAULT

The Clinton Presidential Center’s archives hold hundreds of objects from Clinton’s trips to Africa, including this two-piece takchita (traditional woman’s garment).

Thielemeier agrees. "I think that's the message. Showing off the great culture that the continent has inside and also the stories of one great leader."

Style on 08/22/2017

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