Portfolio:
Fifty Years of Collecting

The African Art Museum of The SMA Fathers has been collecting African art since 1960 when it received its first donation from Fr. Ignatius Lissner, who was the First Prov'incial Superior of The American Province of The Society of African Missions: 1941-1946. In the five decades since then the collections have grown in depth and breadth. Today we own about 1500 objects. A few who are notable in the development of those holdings Iare: Fr. Kevin Scanlan, Fr. Kevin Carroll, Fr. Ted Hayden, William Siegmann, Fr. Edward Biggane, Leonard Kahan: L. Kahan African Arts, Prof. Charles Bordogna, Dr. Pascal and Eleanor M. Imperato, Carl and Wilma Zabel, William Wright: William Wright African Arts, and over fifty generous patrons and donors.

Some objects were published in 1980 in a first catalogue of the collections. The text and entries are by William Siegmann, now Curator of African Art at The Brooklyn Museum. About a dozen important works were documented by Charles Bordogna in The Artistry of Traditional African Sculpture, 1996. Otherwise, our collections are virtually unknown to the world of African art.

This year, 2007, we will present three exhibitions from the museum's collections, each occupying the entire gallery space. The first exhibitions: Bruce Onobrakpeya, Master Printmaker: The Fourteen Stations of the Cross and Portfolio: Fifty Years of Collecting will open November 18, 2007.

A catalogue illustrating and documenting thirty six pieces selected from all three exhibitions will be published in late 2007 - early 2008. It will be published on line www.smafather.org, but there will also be a paper version.

Robert J. Koenig, Director

Watch The Portfolio, 50 years of Collecting Video

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