Yale Art Gallery

As I began my stroll down Chapel Street toward the Yale Art Gallery on this magnificent fall afternoon,I was captivated by the building adjacent to the gallery, Gallery of Fine Arts. The building was designed in the early 1900s.

The architect Egerton Swartwout, had a vision of an art gallery that extended farther than any other building on Yale’s campus. The architectural design was influenced by Gothic Florentine constructions created during the thirteenth century. This is evident by the winged females symbolized in the bridge that connects this dwelling to one of New Haven’s most historic
buildings.

Completed in 1866, Street Hall designed by Peter Wight is known as one of the first art schools established at an American college.

http://www.swarthoutfamily.org/Famous/Egerton.htm

As I continued toward the gallery, I could not help noticing that the structure of the Yale Art Gallery does not conform to the Gothic style prominent around the university. The structure was completed in 1953 by one of the most influential architect of the mid 20th century, Louis Kahn.

http://www.designmuseum.org/design/louis-kahn

Entering the building, the use of space and light is evident by the layout of the open lobby that welcomed me in today. As I looked up, I saw the triangles that formed the ceilings. The lightning fixtures drop right below, giving an illusion that the ceiling is floating overhead.

As I visited each exhibit, the design of the fixtures appear to provide the right balance of lighting complimenting the natural light gleaming from the huge glass windows that surround a portion of the gallery.

One exhibit in particular drew my attention, the African Art exhibit. I was amazed how contrastingly different the layout of the exhibit. It exposed a balance of light, color, and space not demonstrated in the previous exhibits I visited.

The collection was given to the museum by Charles B. Benenson (1913-2004), a New York real estate developer and Yale alumnus. He was a prominent philanthropist that had a deep interest in African and Contemporary Art. Over three decades, he amassed one of the finest private collections of African art in the world.
http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/2004_09/benenson.html

What is noticeable about the exhibit is that it is undivided and left open. This is probably a result of the complex diversity found in the world’s second-largest continent. Africa is full of people, societies, and civilizations, each with its own unique visual culture. Trying to define its art strictly by region or culture would be difficult, which may be the reasoning behind the arrangement of the exhibit. This ensemble appears to illustrate a movement and narrative of religious and music ceremonies.

African used masks as a form of communication expressing ideas about nature, social organization, and spiritual domain. The African masks were often linked to a dance or song, usually used in tribal religious celebrations and worn during ceremonial dances. Dated back to the late 19th century, people of the ‘Suku’ tribe who originated from the Democratic Republic of Congo, often wore this mask to teach obedience and respect.

The mask is carved from a cylinder of hard wood and draped with a shoulder full of flowing fibers.

Continuing down the western coast of Africa; the people of the Republic of Sierra Leone was founded as a settlement for liberated slaves. For generations, the people of this nation prepared young women for adulthood, marriage, and motherhood by performing masquerades that featured carved wooden masks.

http://www.international.ucla.edu/africa

The masks adopt contemporary forms and materials in their physical appearance as depicted below. It appears to fuse spirituality and femininity.

The style of the two masks shows the aesthetic continuity of the Ibibio ancestors who were returned back to the country after they were released from slave ships that were captured in the 19th century.

Tiny masks like these were often miniature portraits of the owners who carried them. As in the full-sized masks, the miniatures masks were endowed in spiritual power and were often buried with their owners at death.

Continuing to observe and examine the exhibition, another noticeable difference was that some of the objects blend into a photographic background. The background depicts a performance of excitement, movement, and color. This allowed the exhibits to be viewed in three dimensional by portraying the wearer as a living sculpture.

My visit to the Yale Art Gallery provided me a sense of cultural enrichment. The African exhibit gave me insight to African history and culture.