African Art

The African art collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) contains about 480 works dating from the 100s CE through today. Encompassing sacred, secular, and prestige objects, it aims to reflect the diversity of African creativity in all its forms. Major strengths include carved wooden masks and sculptures by central and western African makers, with growing strengths in textiles and southern African beadwork. The collection also contains artworks made in ivory, copper alloys, precious metals, and earthenware. While those examples mostly date to the late 19th or early 20th century, three terracotta figures—one from Nigeria (20–620 CE), one from Mali (1300s–1600s), and a third from Ghana (1600s–1700s)—attest to the continent’s deep cultural history. Growing attention has been placed in recent years on acquiring historical objects made by female artists and pieces from across southern and eastern Africa. 

Recent acquisitions of contemporary works by leading African artists—including Hervé Youmbi, Kendell Geers, Rachid Koraïchi, Ladi Kwali, and Yinka Shonibare—represent an expansive view of the arts of Africa to the present day. The collection also boasts a significant number of named artists who worked in tradition-based arts, including Wäldä Maryam (Ethiopia), Ibrahim Njoya (Bamum Kingdom, Cameroon), and Moshood Olusomo Bámigbóyè (Nigeria), along with several identified artistic hands.

The CMA acquired its first African artworks in 1915, a year before opening its doors to the public. In 1929, it received a significant gift of works from the Gilpin Players and the African Art Sponsors, a group of primarily Black Clevelanders. Their fundraising efforts allowed noted Cleveland artist Paul Travis to purchase works while traveling through Africa the previous year. The core of the museum’s collection consists of the nearly 100 objects donated in the late 1960s and early 1970s by Cleveland resident Katherine C. White. Among the first to build an important American collection of African art, she was instrumental in producing several landmark exhibitions at the CMA. The acquisition of the collection of René and Odette Delenne in the 2010s greatly expanded the representation of accomplished artworks from across central Africa. In addition, other works by African creators are cared for in the museum’s collections of textiles, Islamic art, medieval art, contemporary art, photography, and Egyptian and ancient Near Eastern art.

Contact the department at the following: africanart@clevelandart.org.