The language of beauty
Exhibit is Kimbell Museum’s first focused on African art in 25 years DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writertaffet@dallasvoice.com The Language of Beauty in African Art, a new exhibit at the Kimbell Art Museum, gives “insight into African cultures and their ideas of beauty,” according to the museum’s director, Eric Lee.
Three murals open the display to show that much of what is shown was part of a multi-sensory performance. That includes masks, jewelry, helmets and more in this massive exhibit of more than 200 pieces of African art from West, Central and Southern Africa.
While this exhibit may not be everyone’s taste, it certainly is mine. I have a collection of masks and carved statues, some from Africa, that I mostly picked up at street markets.
They don’t have the value of these museum-quality pieces, but I learned several things about them at the exhibit. According to Constantine Petridis, the show’s curator, in many African languages, the word beauty extends beyond visual beauty and includes goodness.
