See ‘Strategic Interplay: African Art and Imagery in Black and White’ in Toledo

Lanisa Kitchiner can’t contain her excitement as she examines the large ceremonial mask depicting the ideal female figure in the Baga Nimba culture. 

“I can’t even stand in front of it without feeling its strength, its muscle, its power, its importance to the Toledo Museum of Art collection,” says Kitchiner, the museum’s curator of African Art.

The mask is one of the museum’s recent African art acquisitions and on display as part of “Strategic Interplay: African Art and Imagery in Black and White,” which uses the game of chess to bring out aspects of African art and invites visitors to engage with and rethink how they view that art. 

The mask was a muse for 20th-century Spanish painter and sculptor Pablo Picasso, and a vase created by the artist is on display as part of the exhibition.  

“This particular artwork was what Pablo Picasso would turn to again and again and again while he was working through his creative practice — a move by Pablo Picasso, or perhaps a move by Baga society that Pablo Picasso counters,” says Kitchiner, explaining the pieces’ connections to the exhibition’s chess theme. “This is the genesis; this is the beginning point. It’s just a remarkable representation of the creative genius of indigenous African artists.”

Toledo Museum of Art’s “Strategic Interplay: African Art and Imagery in Black and White” features works such as Kuba People’s Democratic Republic Congo Headdress Mukenga and Baga Nimba Shoulder Mask, pictured above. (left photo courtesy of Toledo Museum of Art, right photo by Vincent Girier DuFournier)

On display through Feb. 23, “Strategic Interplay: African Art and Imagery in Black and White” is organized into three parts: Openings and Interplays, Modern Gambits, and End Games. Throughout, it uses the theme of chess — one of the oldest games in the world and one that has a strong history in Africa — to draw the viewer in and challenge their perceptions of art. 

The works on display are mostly from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries and include painting, sculpture, photography and textiles. The oldest work is an Egyptian senet game piece inscribed with the name of Queen Ty from the 1300s. (Senet is an ancient game that is a precursor to chess.)

“[The exhibition’s] three sections are looking at the arts of Africa — the sort of strategic rigor, the headiness … the intentional actions of artists in the process of creating their artworks,” Kitchiner says, “[Along with] the strategic and critical thinking that is on par with what a chess master might do when engaged in a game of chess.”

2445 Monroe St., Toledo 43620, 419/255-8000, toledomuseum.org

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