Images from the current BMA exhibition, A PERFECT POWER, Motherhood and African Art.
It has long been symbols of fertility, so much so that such pictures became symbols of the African diaspora, birthing the phrase “mother Africa”.
“Sweet mother I no go forget you” (Prince Nico Mbarga)
European women visiting the continent, became jealous of the sinuous African women’s bodies, walking along the popular African beaches. They wanted to look tanned and shirtless, like the natives.
The French went “buck wild” on the Caribbean beaches, and rudely envied the body population of Brazilian beaches, like “Ipanema”.
One is not left aghast, in looking at an African woman with the bulge in her pregnant belly, or nursing her baby in public. In fact, in the industrial world, it became a landmark of independence, or revolution, when female celebrities began taking pictures of their naked bodies while pregnant, for the world to see.
These everyday depictions of MOTHERHOOD have finally come to the Balitmore Museum of Art, in an exhibition entitled A PERFECT POWER.
It is a collection of art from Central Africa, especially the Congo, and parts of Zambia.
It is precious art, representing a time, when African men left home for the hunt, and mothers were home to do everything until their men returned.
For Baltimore, it is the grand re-opening of the museum since the pandemic hit, and all went into lockdown. BLACK LIVES MATTER, is now draped along the front entranceway, and African masks are also what your eyes will behold as part of this exhibition, curated by Kevin Tervala.
This is a test, especially for my male counterparts, of whether they can see this exhibition and be asexual.
Theculturepagedotcom 