African Art: Highlights from the Gallery's Permanent Collection

Queensborough’s Permanent Collection of African art includes masks, figures, household and ritual objects, body décor, ceremonial costumes, and textiles from the Western Sudan, the West Atlantic Coast to Central Africa, and East and Southern Africa. Objects featured cover the full range of ceremonial and practical objects produced on the African continent.

What the Western world first deemed as “savage curios” were, in their African context, actually objects imbued with power emitted through form, materials, color, and surface qualities. The diverse cultural expressions from the continent found in the collection are acclaimed by scholars, collectors, museums, and the public alike for their sophistication, vitality, and expressive affect.

One aspect of the collection of note is the Gallery’s ring collection, a comprehensive gathering of powerful instruments of symbolism and imagery, ranging from abstract, symbolic shapes to full representational objects, such as a knife in a sheathe, a pair of sandals, and a bound prisoner, many illustrating folklore and mythology of their particular culture.