Icons of Perfection: Figurative Sculpture from Africa

Hamline University College of Liberal Arts students contributed to the recent publication of Icons of Perfection, a comprehensive look at figurative sculptural traditions from across sub-Saharan Africa. Hamline's Department of Studio Arts and Art History invited Frank Herreman, former Director of Exhibitions at the Museum for African Art in New York, as a visiting professor this past fall. Herreman taught an undergraduate seminar on museum studies and assembled an exhibition of African art for the University. The course encompassed an introduction to the arts of Africa and a step-by-step study of the process of creating an exhibition and publication. Students examined the history of collecting and exhibiting African art objects in American and European institutions, engaged in critical comparative analysis of past and contemporary museum installations, visited a number of key public and private collections in the region, and contributed significantly to the research and composition of object and informative didactics. Students put classroom theory into practice with the creation of this exhibition and publication. Through the collaboration with The Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the generous support of private lenders, the exhibition included forty-one extraordinary examples of figurative traditions from across sub-Saharan Africa which are reproduced in the publication. The exhibition was featured in a major article in the Spring 2006 edition of Tribal Art magazine, an international publication devoted to non-Western art. The Minneapolis Star Tribune also reviewed the exhibition in a January 6th article. Icons of Perfection: Figurative Sculpture from Africa was edited by Alisa McCusker and MacKenzie Moon, and includes an introduction by Chair of the Department of Studio Arts and Art History and Director of Exhibitions Leonardo Lasansky and an essay by Visiting Professor Frank Herreman. Didactic information was contributed by museum seminar students, Aryn Arnold, Sarah Sue Burich, Ken Favell, Candice Keimig, M’Erin Leitch, Tobie Miller, MacKenzie Moon, Breanne Nicole Sallee, and John Tatge. Published by Hamline University Press, this publication includes fifty-one full color photographs. The hardcover publication was designed and printed in Antwerp in an edition of one thousand.