The National Museum of African Art is easy to miss. Tucked behind the Smithsonian Castle, the low-profile museum is often overlooked by sightseers jonesing instead for T-Rexes, airplanes, and presidential portraits, but you could do worse than visiting the museum’s newest exhibit, an innovative “discussion” between two African artists.
“Artists in Dialogue: António Ole and Aimé Mpane,” presents a visual dialogue between the eponymous artists. Ole and Mpane are renowned for specializing in multi-media pieces, celebrating the “beauty of unassuming materials,” and commenting on the political and economic struggles of their continent. The exhibit showcasing their work manages to be provocative, speaking to the complicated political issues that plague the African continent, without coming across as preachy or over-the-top.
A native of Angola, António Ole’s contributions range from a collection of arresting pop art pieces to a series of striking black-and-white photographs of his fellow countrymen. His most eye-catching piece, however, is “Allegory of Construction II,” an installation piece unique to the museum. Covering an entire wall, the work is a patchwork quilt of colorful debris, meant to represent the shantytowns of Ole’s hometown in Angola. By using street signs, tools, doors, and sheets of metal, Ole has created a colorful and free-flowing piece that celebrates the ingenuity in design demanded of individuals stricken by poverty.
Aimé Mpane, who hails from the Democratic Republic of Congo, also has numerous pieces on display. Though constructed from common, cheap material, “Nude,” a six-foot-tall plywood statue of an African man placed in the middle of the room, manages to appear imposing and oddly noble. Mpane’s “Rail, Massina 3,” another installation piece unique to the Smithsonian, works as a perfect contrast to Ole’s “Allegory.” Mpane’s work is a wall of bold, colorful African storefront recreations advertising expensive goods. Mpane has slashed and scratched the wood, and the crude, angry carvings juxtapose starkly with the bright colors, brutally underscoring the iniquities of the Congolese economic system.
“Artists in Dialogue” presents two artists who have borne witness to the struggles of post-colonialism and who have responded with artwork that is both visually engaging and politically thought provoking. For those with an open mind, these two artists’ visual discourse shouldn’t be missed.
The National Museum of African Art is located at 950 Independence Avenue, SW. “Artists in Dialogue” will be showing through August 2, 2009.
