Kongo: Power and Majesty presented by Alisa LaGamma – Curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Wits Art Museum (WAM) is privileged to host a special lecture by Alisa LaGamma, the Ceil and Michael E. Pulitzer Curator in Charge of the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. LaGamma curated a critically acclaimed exhibition on Kongo (present-day Angola and DRC) art at the Metropolitan Museum in 2015. In this lecture, she will examine Kongo society’s history and artistic traditions in the context of its relationship with Europe over half a millennium.
LaGamma’s work as a curator at the Met over the last 20 years has involved building the African art collection and developing a dozen influential exhibitions. She has also been instrumental in rethinking the history of sub-Saharan African art and culture. In 2012 the Bard Graduate Center recognised this with the Iris Award for Outstanding Scholarship. Her most recent exhibition Kongo: Power and Majesty received critical acclaim and its accompanying publication has been recognised by this year’s George Wittenborn Memorial Award, the International Tribal Art Book Prize, Honourable Mention for the PROSE Award, and a finalist for the College Art Association’s Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award.
Date: Wednesday 15 March 2017, 18:00 for 18:30
Address: Wits Art Museum, corner of Bertha (ext. of Jan Smuts Ave) and Jorissen Streets, Braamfontein, Johannesburg
RSVP by emailing info.wam@wits.ac.za or calling 011 717 1365
Free admission, 80 seats available on first come, first serve basis
Museum opening hours: Wednesdays to Sundays 10:00 – 16:00
Tel (Mon – Fri): 011 717 1365 | Tel (Sat – Sun): 011 717 1358
Underground parking is available on the evening only. Entrance is left off Jorissen Street, just after the Station Street intersection.
