All events are free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. Reservations are not required.

When different cultures collide, the sometimes uncomfortable space created provides fertile ground for misconception, illumination, and, with luck and a little effort, comprehension and understanding. As cultural outsiders to the objects presented in The William C. Mithoefer Collection of African Art, we are not privy to the knowledge required to activate these traditional African art forms. Even cultural insiders may have a different level of understanding than others within the same ethnic group if they are semi-initiated. And, although known, collected, and exhibited in the west since the late-nineteenth century, it is only in the last few decades that scholars have focused on the context of the material culture of Africa; and how, at every stage of the human life-cycle, these traditional art forms fulfill both practical and spiritual needs while embracing continuity and change.

Many of the objects in this exhibition are genres that would be owned and utilized on a localized, village-level, while others iterate centralized leadership structures. Found consistently throughout the entire exhibition are multi-ethnic expressions about gender dualism, reciprocity, and complementarity. Because African art fulfills both practical and spiritual needs, functions range from social modeling and control, to depicting the story of founding ancestors, to divination and propitiation. Continuity is expressed in the traditional forms that change and adapt over time by incorporating new materials and accommodating changing circumstances.

Because approximately half of the 109 objects in this exhibition are masks, a special note on the nature of African masking is in order to better understand this performative, extra-empirical order. Anthropologist Simon Ottenberg, stated that masks are intended to be seen, yet are also inherently secretive, and that:

...the public nature of the masquerade serves as an allegorical tool for social behavior as well as spiritual intervention. The mask narrows the range of possibilities for the interaction between the masker and the audience in a planned and socially sanctioned manner.

While serving many purposes, masks are primarily used to bridge life-cycle transitions, such as death or initiation, or to provide social and political regulation. Regardless of function, however, it is always the interaction between the performer(s) and the audience that provides the mask's agency and efficacy. Finally, because masquerades are complex, multi-sensorial experiences, other critical factors beyond the face or full-body covering may include: the location of the dance area; the time of year or time of day; color symbolism; the number and sequence of maskers; the presence or absence of postmenopausal women and other significant leaders; and the materials used in the ensemble that conceals the performer.

Whether used personally or ceremonially, traditional African art forms are believed by cultural insiders to contain spiritual powers. As such, an object may represent an individual's soul, the collective spirit of the family or community, and continuity with the ancestors.

The William C. Mithoefer Collection of African Art consists of 250 objects ranging in date from antiquity through the late-20th century. Eleven African nations and 49 African ethnic groups are represented in the collection, which includes stone carvings, pendants, pipe bowls, linguist staff finials, brass castings, game boards, cups, sculpture, and a wide range of masks. The majority of the collection will be on view in this exhibition, in addition to several works on long-term loan from both Mithoefer and his wife, Renee-Paule Moyencourt.

"If you pick a good tree, you get a push."

-Akan proverb*

This Akan proverb describes how making good choices attracts the support of others. It also illustrates how, when two very different Wooster stories crossed paths over thirty years ago, each recognized that the other had selected a similarly "good tree," and worked together to benefit Wooster students and the local community.

One of those stories is that of William C. Mithoefer, Class of 1953. Originally from Cleveland and raised in Cincinnati, William C. Mithoefer majored in philosophy and graduated from The College of Wooster in 1953. While working on his Ph.D. in political science at Duke University in 1958, he was called into the Foreign Service of the United States, where he spent the next 34 years serving in various capacities in Washington, D.C., Madrid, Spain, and primarily in Africa. It was in the latter posting where Bill became passionate about the art of Africa and began collecting.

The other story began in the 1970s — both on the Wooster campus and across the country — when college and university faculties responded to social and political upheaval by developing courses inclusive of gender, race, and non-western topics. At Wooster, in the early 1970s, Emeritus Professor of Art History, Arn Lewis, created two art history courses, African-American Art and African Art, and Richard Bell, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, offered his first African Philosophy course. All three of these courses are still taught to this day.

These two trajectories crossed paths in 1972, with Bill Mithoefer's first gift of 38 African objects to Wooster. These works were incorporated into Professor Lewis's African Art course and became part of the Art Museum's permanent collection. In succeeding years, Bill gave five separate gifts of African objects to the College, with the most recent in 2007, from Bill and his wife, Renee-Paule Moyencourt. Now comprised of 250 objects — approximately half of which are on display — the Mithoefer collection has been used extensively through the years in the classroom and for research and exhibitions. We thank Bill and Renee-Paule for their generosity and vision, and Arn and Rich for their efforts as teachers and scholars. All have contributed special gifts that have benefited Wooster students, past, present, and future.

Having just completed the tenth year of operation in these beautiful galleries, it is also appropriate to mention that the west gallery was made possible by a gift from a 1953 classmate of Bill's, Charlene Derge Sussel, and the east gallery by The Burton D. Morgan Foundation, Hudson, Ohio. Many challenging, beautiful, and serious exhibitions have taken place in the Sussel Gallery and the Burton D. Morgan Gallery in the last decade, and I thank everyone who has contributed to those efforts.

On the production end of this exhibition, the indispensable museum staff once again applied their expertise to produce a beautiful, bountiful, and succinct gallery experience. I thank Doug McGlumphy, Museum Preparator, for his considerable contributions to the design and installation of this show, and Joyce Fuell, Art Museum Administrative Coordinator, for her diligent attention to all things museum, large and small.

In addition to the museum staff, Gitika Mohta '10, Sophomore Research Assistant, worked diligently this past summer researching and writing object label text, and Kevin Reiswig '09, assisted with building exhibition shelves. I would also like to acknowledge the art historians and anthropologists whose excellent scholarship on African art was consulted in the preparation of the text that accompanies this show: Fred T. Smith; Judith Perani; Doran H. Ross; Christopher Roy; Frederick Lamp; Suzanne Preston Blier; Susan Vogel; Herbert Cole; Robert Ferris Thompson; Babatunde Lawal; Ruth B. Phillips; Kwaku Ofori-Ansa; Martha Anderson; Monica Blackmun Visonà; Robert Poynor; and Michael D. Harris.

Finally, and in no way least, we acknowledge and thank the artists and ethnic groups whose material culture is the subject of this exhibition. Although presented out of context, these objects still make manifest complex philosophies, histories, concepts, and worldviews.

  Kitty McManus Zurko
  Director/Curator
  The College of Wooster Art Museum

*This Akan proverb is beautifully illustrated in this exhibition by a gold, Asante linguist staff finial that depicts a figure climbing a tree being helped up by another figure. The finial is located to the left in the Sussel Gallery, in the cases in front of the blue wall.