From April 4 - May 31, 1997, the Equitable Gallery will present Affinities of Form: Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas from the Raymond and Laura Wielgus Collection, an exhibition of 99 rare and exceptionally fine works of art.

Highlighting many rich and diverse cultures of the world and spanning 3,000 years, the works range from a clay bowl and figure of 1200-900 BC from the Olmec culture, found in present-day Mexico, to an early twentieth-century lifesize figure from the Angoram peoples of Papua New Guinea. The exhibition is arranged according to geographic regions; however, it also explores cross-cultural themes such as prestige art, funerary art, objects of ancestral or religious significance, indigenous ideas about beauty, and animal imagery.

Affinities of Form was organized by the Indiana University Art Museum and curated by Diane M. Pelrine, the museum’s associate director for curatorial services and curator of the arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. The exhibition is circulated by The American Federation of Arts, the nation’s oldest and most comprehensive non-profit art museum service organization. The Equitable Gallery is sponsored by the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States.

Raymond and Laura Wielgus, collectors since 1955, have sought out those objects that were highly regarded by the people who had made and originally used the pieces -- works that were designed and used in the respective society’s established systems of social, religious, and artistic activities. Objects in the Wielgus’s collection were chosen primarily for their embodiment of artistic qualities that transcend cultural boundaries. More than half of the works in the exhibition, which is traveling for the first time ever, have been donated by the Wielguses to the Indiana University Art Museum, with the remainder of the collection a promised gift to the museum.

Of the exhibition’s 22 ritual and domestic objects from sub-Saharan Africa, most are from western and central Africa, where figural traditions are most prevalent. The majority of the objects are carved from wood, often with other materials added, as in the case of the heavily adorned power figure from the Songye people of Zaire that is made of wood and encrusted with fiber, snakeskin, hair, iron, horn, and cowrie shells. Embodying the epitome of refined simplicity is an elegantly abstract antelope headdress used in agricultural ceremonies by the Bamana peoples of Mali. Many such objects were meant to function in spiritual contexts -- to honor deities as well as aspects of life and the supernatural which Westerners are less likely to see as directly related to the sacred world -- or such objects were meant to emphasize the status or position of their owners. Items such as a 19th-century Zulu wooden snuff container will provide a sense of daily life in the sub-Saharan cultures.

Kambot peoples, Papua New Guinea, Mask. Wood, rattan, clay, cowrie shells, nassa shells, boar tusks; h. 21½ in. Wielgus Collection, IUAM.

The Oceanic section, the largest of the three comprising Affinities of Form, presents 42 works from the island groupings of Melanesia and Polynesia, many of which were made prior to extensive European contact. The rarity of extant Polynesian material from this early period makes these objects particularly noteworthy. A wood and clay mask made by the Kambot peoples of Papua New Guinea, encrusted with shells, human hair, and boar tusks, is one of the most powerful works in the exhibition. The smooth, worn surface and deep golden color of a female figure from Tongo bespeak much care and handling, fitting for an object made of whale ivory, a material precious throughout Polynesia. Few objects in the collection are as evocative as the lizard figure and male figure from Easter Island. Possibly used as spiritual protective images, the meaning of the carvings may never be fully known since much information about the island’s traditional way of life has been lost.

The 35 objects from North, Central, and South America illustrate the diversity of artistic expression used over the course of three millennia in the western hemisphere. Pre-Columbian objects predominate this section, and include a vessel from Santa Cruz in the form of a kneeling skeletonized woman, which has been described as one of the most important ceramic sculptures from pre-Columbian Mexico. An extremely rare stone figure can be traced to the great ancient metropolis of Teotihuacan, the first urban center in the Americas, which existed from 150 BC to AD 750. A Maya jadeite pendant in the form of the Sun God, with a presence that belies its 1-3/4” size, is remarkable for its intricate carving done without metal tools. Jade was used for prestige and ritual objects and was prized even above gold. Also displaying exceptional, intricate carving, a Tlingit shaman’s charm from the northwest coast of North America illustrates the complexity for which much Northwest Coast art is known.

Tlingit peoples, British Columbia, Shaman's Amulet, ca. 1750-1800. Sperm whale ivory; length 4-3/8 in. Collection Raymond and Laura Wielgus.

Little is known about the artists who created these works (particularly those from Africa and the Americas), even in cases where an object is signed. Research on the Americas suggests that they enjoyed high status within their communities. African artists were often farmers or part-time specialists such as carvers, blacksmiths, and potters who were well known to their clientele and who might be sought from far away to undertake commissions. Most often, skill and style were their only signature.

The American Federation of Arts, founded in 1909, provides its more than 500 member institutions with traveling art exhibitions and educational, professional, and technical support programs developed in collaboration with the museum community. Through these programs the AFA seeks to strengthen the ability of museums to enrich the public’s experience and understanding of art.

The Equitable Gallery presents works from all fields of the visual arts, including exhibitions originating outside of New York that would not otherwise have a presence in the city, as well as works from New York collections that would benefit from preservation and public presentation.