MFA Presents Global Patterns: Dress and Textiles in Africa

  • March 22, 2011
MFA Presents Global Patterns: Dress and Textiles in Africa
Throughout the centuries, African textile artists seamlessly and joyfully integrated into their visual vocabulary new design elements and imported materials such as glass beads, buttons, and fabrics, which arrived as the result of trade with Europe and places as far away as India and Indonesia.

Drawing from the holdings of the MFA and private collections in the Boston area, the exhibition focuses on the accomplishments of African weavers, dyers, bead embroiderers, and tailors, during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Different media and styles in various geographic areas are explored: textiles and dress among the Akan and Ewe peoples of Ghana and Togo, the Yoruba of Nigeria, and the Kuba and related peoples in today's Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as beadwork and dress among the Ndebele and neighboring South African peoples.

April 13, 2011–January 8, 2012
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Arts of Asia, Oceania, and Africa Gallery
www.mfa.org