Tanzania. Masterworks of African Sculpture (; ) was an art exhibition of traditional African sculptures originating from the mainland region of modern Tanzania. The exhibition was shown in 1994 at the House of World Cultures in Berlin and the same year at the Lenbachhaus art museum in Munich, Germany. Under the same title, it was accompanied by a bilingual catalogue with numerous photographs, maps, illustrations and a bibliography as well as contributions by ethnologists, art historians and collectors, published in German and Swahili, the national language of Tanzania.
With more than 400 sculptures and masks from museums and private collections in Europe, the US, and Africa, the exhibition and extensive catalogue made an important contribution to the public appreciation of traditional wood carving from Tanzania. The featured sculptures and masks had been selected from private collections and, for the most part, from the depots of major ethnological museums in Germany. The diversity and origin of the sculptures allowed for a detailed comparative style analysis and art historical classification according to the country's various ethnic groups. Unlike earlier and more limited presentations of traditional art from Tanganyika, the exhibition and catalogue emphasized the exhibition's wide scope and artistic quality, countering the opinion of art critics that East African artworks were only few and of lower quality compared with the rest of sub-Saharan Africa.
The exhibition From 29 April to 7 August 1994, the House of World Cultures in Berlin presented an extensive exhibition of African art objects.For definitions of the term "African art", see the relevant section in the article African Art and the sources cited therein. The same exhibition was shown from 29 September 1994 to 27 November 1994 at the Lenbachhaus-Kunstbau in Munich. More than 400 historical sculptures and masks from Tanganyika, the East African mainland in present-day Tanzania, had been selected for this exhibition. Some of the objects on display came from German museums, while others were provided by private collectors from Europe, the US and Africa.The catalogue lists the ethnographical museums in Berlin, Frankfurt, Freiburg, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Cologne, Leipzig, Mannheim, Munich, Stuttgart, Vienna as well as private collections in Germany and other countries. See Jahn 1994, pp. 9–10See the catalogue preface by Helmut Friedel and Wolfger Pöhlmann in Jahn 1994, pp. 13–14
In the course of the former colony of German East Africa, cultural artefacts and other objects worthy of preservation from the point of view of ethnology came into the possession of German museums and private collections.Apart from cultural objects, these include human remains such as skulls and palaeontological finds of dinosaur fossils from the Tendaguru formation. As evidence of the traditional cultureFelix in Jahn, 1994, p. 37: "By 'traditional' we mean sculptures for ritual purposes created and handed down by members of a people for clients from that people." of African peoples, such objects have been kept in ethnological museums in numerous cities since the end of the 19th century. Until the exhibition in Berlin and Munich, sculptures from a wide range of Tanzanian ethnic groups had not previously been presented as evidence of the country's cultural traditions on such a large scale.In 2013, QCC Art Gallery of the City University of New York (CUNY) and Portland Museum of Art, USA, presented Shangaa: Art of Tanzania, which was called "the first major exhibition of traditional art from Tanzania outside of Germany and Tanzania." The curator, art historian Gary van Wyck, also edited a catalogue with numerous illustrations and contributions by Tanzanian and international scholars. See
In contrast to sculptures from West Africa, which have been appreciated by European artists and collectors such as Picasso, Braque and Apollinaire since the beginning of the 20th century, there had been a prevailing judgement based on art exhibitions and ethnological literature that East Africa was poor in traditional African art.See Kecskési in Jahn, 1994, p. 18–22. With the 1994 exhibition of East African art objects in Germany, the organisers wanted to make "a previously unknown rich cultural landscape accessible to the wider public." The presentation of the sculptures as works of art from Africa was supplemented by art-historical and ethnological information in the accompanying catalogue.
The catalogue The 528-page, large-format exhibition catalogue with the same title as the exhibition was compiled under the direction of Munich-based art historians Maria Kecskési and Iris Hahner-Herzog. The book contains contributions by European and American ethnologists, art historians and collectors on aspects of traditional sculptural art from Tanganyika. More than 500 black-and-white photographs of sculptures and masks from public and private collections as well as maps, illustrations and a bibliography complement the individual chapters.
Maria Kecskési: "Introduction" In the introductory section, Maria Kecskési, then head of the Africa department of the Ethnological Museum in Munich, describes the aim of the exhibition of sculptural art objects from various ethnic groups in what is now Tanzania. Referring to comparisons between the traditional arts from West and East Africa, she mentions the appreciation and formal richness of West and Central African art, for example from Nigeria and today's Democratic Republic of the Congo. Then, she comments as follows on the thesis by art historian Gerald W. Hartwig, who wrote that East Africa has generally brought forward few sculptures compared to other African regions:
Refuting this thesis of an alleged scarcity of figurative art in Tanzania's history was one of the reasons for putting together this comprehensive exhibition from public and private collections in 1994. Kecskési also refers to changes in the appreciation of traditional African art by European artists such as Georg Baselitz and A. R. Penck who "recognised the 'raw' sculpture of East Africa as rich and expressive and which inspired their own works since at least the 1980s."See Kecskési in Jahn, 1994, p. 24. Furthermore, Kecskési points out that research into traditional cultural objects has only been possible from the middle of the 19th century onwards on the basis of written sources. She also comments on different approaches to cultural anthropology and art history in relation to African art. On the fundamental question of how tradition and creativity relate to each other in African art, she writes the following:
Marc L. Felix: "A Short History of Tanzania" The introductory article by the Belgian art expert and collector Marc L. Felix provides information about the peoples who have inhabited the Tanzanian mainland over the course of its millennia-old history. In addition to the Cushitic, Nilotic and Bantu-speaking groups with their developed cultural techniques in agriculture and animal husbandry, these also include the Swahili-speaking coastal inhabitants, whose societies were characterised by the cultural influences of immigrants from the Persian Gulf, India and Indonesia. Since the 19th century in particular, gradual population movements and cultural change have taken place as a result of the trade in ivory and slaves, the introduction of plantation farming and finally the colonisation of Tanganyika.See Felix in Jahn, 1994, p. 31–33
Marc L. Felix: "The Traditional Sculpture of Tanzania" This art-historical is overview with extensive pictorial material provides a typology of objects that have been handed down as part of the material culture of different ethnic groups. For the most part, these are wooden sculptures including figurines, masks, practical household items or symbols for positions of power and ritual purposes. Felix identifies eight geographically overlapping stylistic groups with specific art-historical, stylistic and typological similarities for the more than 100 ethnic groups on the Tanzanian mainland.See the detailed map of Tanzania and neighbouring countries with their respective ethnic groups, Jahn, 1994, p. 39. Further, he distinguishes between the respective function and the type of sculpture. As an example, he cites an ornately decorated axe as a type that did not serve as a tool, but as a symbol for the ritual function of its use. Depending on the situation, such a symbol could serve "to heal, protect, deter or as a mediator between spirits and humans."See Felix in Jahn, 1994, p. 37–38 and the images of ceremonial axes, p. 57, 144 and 145.See Felix in Jahn, 1994, p. 37–74.
Enrico Castelli: "Traditional Sculpture from East-central Tanzania" Enrico Castelli, ethnologist at the University of Perugia, describes above all the so-called mwana hiti (transl.: children made of wood) figurines of the Zaramo, Luguru, Kami, Kwere, Kutu and Ngulu ethnic groups, who live between the coast and the hinterland.Außer den Abbildungen im Text wird dieses Kapitel wie auch die folgenden durch einen ausführlichen Bildteil mit Abbildungen der besprochenen Skulpturen ergänzt. As a uniform element, these figurines have female features such as stylised breasts, scarified navels and specific hairstyles. Furthermore, many figurines are decorated with geometric patterns that Castelli interprets as a sign of kinship relationships (lineage). Mwana hiti figurines were used as ritual objects in initiation rites for girls who were accompanied by mothers or godmothers in their passage into the age group of young women.See also Marc L. Felix, Mwana hiti: life and art of the matrilineal Bantu of Tanzania, Munich, Fred Jahn, 1990.See Castelli in Jahn, 1994, p. 94–95
Similar figurines were also used at the upper ends of ritual staves, musical instruments and for grave steles as an image of an ancestor. Similar grave steles with male figurines exist from the end of the 19th century alongside female ones. The male figurines feature elements such as knives, axes or the Islamic headdress kofia. According to Castelli, the use of grave sculptures of the same ethnic group showing female and male elements indicates the change from matrilineal to patrilineal kinship relationships.See Castelli in Jahn, 1994, p. 96–97.In addition to the illustrations in the text, this chapter and the following ones are supplemented by sections with photographs of the sculptures discussed.
Georges Meurant: "Sculptures Made of Clay and Wood from Northeastern Tanzania" In his article, Georges Meurant, collector, author of studies on African art and former professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, Belgium, discusses the mostly small-format sculptures made of wood or clay of the ethnic groups south of the Kenyan border in the north-eastern part of the country.Meurant describes the following ethnic groups and their sculptures in detail: Chaga, Pare, Kamba, Shambaa and Zigua. This roughly corresponds to the style region V introduced by Felix, p. 39 These were used in connection with initiation, fertility or agriculture, but also as tools of sorcerers and healers.See Meurant in Jahn, 1994, p. 154–166
In his explanations, Meurant refers to the collection and publications of the self-taught British ethnologist of Austrian descent Hans Cory. Thanks to Cory's long years of residence in Tanganyika and his knowledge of the language, he had collected ethnographic information since the 1930s, including on clay figurines and their ritual use. Cory had published numerous studies, particularly on topics such as African customary law, local customs and rites, secret societies and witchcraft, traditional medicine, music and initiation rites.