African Art

At Princeton, the collection of art from Africa spans the ancient to the contemporary and embodies the ways that Africa has existed within a global network of material, conceptual, and iconographic exchange for thousands of years. The collection has grown through gifts, bequests, and purchases across media including sculpture, ceramics, textiles, metalwork, photography, works on paper, and painting. Its holdings are particularly strong in nineteenth- and twentieth-century tradition-based work by artists from West (Akan, Yorùbá, Bamum) and Central (Kuba, Pende) Africa, including personal objects, masks, figures, and beadwork originally used in spiritual and secular practices. Standout artworks include an Ifá divination bowl by Àreògún of Osi-Ilorin and an Epa helmet mask attributed to Àreògún’s mentor, Bamgbosẹ, a Kongo nkisi power figure, and a cowrie- and bead-laden Kuba chief’s belt.  

In recent years, the Museum has increasingly recognized the importance of representing the centuries-old presence of world religions in Africa, acquiring important works of Christian art from Ethiopia, Jewish ritual art from North Africa, and artworks featuring Islamic iconography. It has also grown its collection of textiles to include some of the finest examples of craftsmanship, artistry, and ingenuity, from exceptional Ewe and Akan kente wrappers to a new take on the voluminous Yorùbá agbádá, designed by Lagos Space Programme in 2024. The Museum also prioritizes acquisitions by modern and contemporary artists from Africa and its diasporas, with works by artists including Ibrahim El-Salahi, Demas Nwoko, Ozioma Onuzulike, Magdalene Odundo, and Nike Davies-Okundaye, who interrogate the continued relevance of tradition to contemporary societies, thus enabling the Museum to tell a fuller history of modernism across the world.  

Collections research and interpretive strategies prioritize multiple perspectives, especially those of artists, and shine a light on the different networks through which art from Africa circulated to Princeton in the twentieth century.  

Learn more about the history of the African collection at the Princeton University Art Museum in this article from African Arts, published by MIT Press. Please note that access is restricted and may require a fee. 

Kristen Windmuller-Luna, “African Arts at the Princeton University Art Museum,” African Arts 52, no. 1 (February 2019): 72–89