Highlights

African Cosmos: Stellar Arts shows how the sun, moon, stars, and the phenomena of lightning and rainbows inspired the arts of Africa for thousands of years.

African Mosaic: Celebrating a Decade of Collecting pays tribute to the extraordinary variety of individual works of art that come into the museum as gifts or purchases.

Textiles in the NMAfA collection come from all over the continent and are both locally made from traditional materials to imported materials and factory printed cloth. Many are worn, others are for public or household display.

African artists depict an array of domestic and untamed animals that are chosen because they are beautiful, dangerous or fertile. Some are portrayed individually, others blend species or even animal and human traits. They can be symbols of leadership, or teach history or moral values. Many design elements come from direct observation of the animals in nature.

Works of African Art currently on view in the galleries.

Works of contemporary African art stress individual vision and innovation. They find their place within both African and global networks of interpretation and exchange.

“Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa” reveals the diverse ways in which African artists and communities draw power from, interpret, and protect the land.

In 2005, the National Museum of African Art received a gift of 525 objects from the Walt Disney-Tishman African Art Collection. These rare and iconic works of art, primarily from West and Central Africa, were instrumental in developing interest and understanding of African art in the United States.

While we perceive masks as works of art, in context they transform the wearer, teach important cultural values and entertain. By African standards, museum masks are often incomplete, since they usually lack the costumes or the words, music and movements that are necessary to the mask's identity.

Musical Instruments from the NMAfA collection.

Explore some of the newest gifts and purchases that are part of the collection at the National Museum of African Art.

These 130 examples of traditional art from the collection of the National Museum of African Art were chosen to reflect the variety of ethnic groups, materials and object types in the collection. While many are well known, others are curator's more personal choices to expand our perception of African art.