Travel Tip: Art and Archaeology in United States
Eternal Ancestors: The Art of the Central African Reliquary

This exhibition seeks to present some of the most celebrated creations of African masters beyond their role as muses to members of the Western avant-garde (Braque, Picasso or Vlaminck among others) who collected and closely studied them for their inventive aesthetic qualities in their studios during the early 20th century.

The show, therefore, attempts to reveal the significance of these works to their cultures of origin (often ignored by the European and American art world) by revealing the underlying sources of cultural and spiritual inspiration that led to their creation in equatorial Africa. Drawn from the most important collections of African art in Europe and the United States, the more than 150 works featured are from fourteen distinct cultural traditions in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Republic of Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.