EXHIBITION: THE MET Tributes CHEIK DIOP With ‘African Origin of Civilization’
By Oyiza Adaba | Africa-Related New York
Photo: metmuseum.org
The ongoing exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY titled The African Origin of Civilization, may be a vindication of sorts, of the Senegalese historian Cheik Anta Diop’s previously debunked theory about Africa’s time and place in the global civilization discourse.
In his 1974 book The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality, Diop challenged what history had long taught about Africa.
The exhibition bulletin highlights five millennia of extraordinary artistic production on the African continent. Twenty-one pairings unite masterpieces from the Museum's collections of ancient Egyptian and West and Central African art to reveal unexpected parallels and contrasts across time and cultures.
“The African Origin of Civilization will remain on view while The Met’s galleries of Sub-Saharan African Art are closed for the complete renovation of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing. The re-envisioned wing is expected to reopen in 2024, and will feature three distinct suites of galleries for Sub-Saharan African Art, Ancient American Art, and Oceanic Art.
- The MET Museum -
The Met continues to set an encouraging example to museums worldwide by giving well-earned spaces to their African Ancient & Oceanic Art sections. Our own museum coverage and experience show that in most cases, these sections are reserved at farther wings from the main space, leaving visitors sometimes discouraged by distance, time or exhaustion.
The exhibition opened on December 14, 2021 and remains ongoing.