AFRICAN GOLD FROM THE GLASSELL
COLLECTION ON VIEW
MFA,
Houston Shares Golden Treasures with Beeville Art Museum
Selections from the Glassell African Gold Collection of the Museum of
Fine Arts, Houston, will be on glittering display at the Beeville Art Museum
from September 17, 2011 through January 7, 2012. One of the most extensive collections of African gold in the
world, the Glassell Collection was donated to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
in 1997 by Houston businessman and philanthropist Alfred C. Glassell, Jr.
Dating from the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries, the collection is made up of more than 900 artworks
representing African cultures and traditions, primarily focusing on the Akan
peoples of West Africa, and featuring crowns, jewelry, sandals, swords, and
staffs used by royalty and court officials in a variety of ceremonies and
festivals. ?I have loved these
inventive designs and wonderful animals for decades,? stated the late Alfred C.
Glassell, Jr, who died in 2008 at the age of ninety-five. ?It?s not just they are made of gold,
but that the artwork seems so alive and vital.?
Stated Tracy Saucier,
Director of the Beeville Museum, ?We are thrilled to have the opportunity to
showcase the African Gold, and grateful to the MFA for sharing this world class
collection.? The exhibition,
featuring a selected portion of the collection, has traveled nationally and
internationally from 2001 to 2008, and was on view at the High Museum of Art in
Atlanta, the Louisiana State University Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston, the Pearl Fincher Museum in Spring, Texas, the National Museum of
African Art in Washington, D.C., and The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Russia.
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