Divine Intervention: African Art & Religion at the Michael C. Carlos Museum Through December 4, 2011

This new exhibition at Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University illustrates the traditional African belief that works of art function as a bridge between the human and divine worlds. Through its creation or through its use in ritual, a work of art becomes potent, filled with the power of the spirit and ancestral realms, and can effect change and transformation in the lives of human beings.

The exhibition features over 50 works from over twenty African cultures including familiar items such as masks and shrines, and less familiar items like the jacket of a hunter from Mali. Covered with amulets, mirrors, talons, and other objects believed to be imbued with nyama, or ritual potency, the jacket both empowers and protects the hunter. Also included are divining instruments that facilitate human communication with ancestors and other spirits. The works in Divine Intervention illustrate the active nature of African art, in which works of art are not passive representations of deities, ancestors, or spirits, but rather agents of communication between the divine and earthly realms.

Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University is located at 571 South Kilgo Circle
Atlanta, GA 30322.