| Tribal sculpture and artifacts from the private collection of Laurence Rathsack Cedarburg Cultural Center W62 N546 Washington Avenue, Cedarburg 262-375-3676 July 6-August 28, 2006 |
Laurence Rathsack, who taught painting at the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, from 1956 until
1995, purchased his first piece of African art in 1968. He
had been at his art dealer, Dorothy Bradley’s gallery, on
Downer and noticed in a nearby window an African
mask. It was a black, rabbit-ear mask from the Bobo
people of Mali. “I felt a rapport between myself and it,”
Rathsack said recently during a phone interview, “At that
moment, I needed to have it.”
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, from 1956 until
1995, purchased his first piece of African art in 1968. He
had been at his art dealer, Dorothy Bradley’s gallery, on
Downer and noticed in a nearby window an African
mask. It was a black, rabbit-ear mask from the Bobo
people of Mali. “I felt a rapport between myself and it,”
Rathsack said recently during a phone interview, “At that
moment, I needed to have it.”
| Rathsack Collection installation view. |
Unlike art of the western world, tribal art serves both aesthetic and
functional roles in a harmonious means. The overall purpose of most of
these pieces is to address the spirit world or at least serve as an interface
between the temporal, human realm and the infinite one of gods and
ancestors. Some of the most powerful pieces in the show are ones that
actually have the most overt function -- bowls, pipes, fly whisk, milk jug,
pipe or medicine horn. A bird effigy feast bowl from New Guinea is a large,
swollen form with intricate carved patterns. In one glance, it holds the
presence of ceremony, shared ritual, community and potent human/animal
bonds. The power of this art, which privileges the communal or societal
over the individual, feels foreign yet comforting compared to our western
egocentrist mode.
A perfect example of Rathsack’s notion of “rightness” is a simple
rectangular-shaped wooden food/nut bowl from Africa with two carved
figures perched on top. It is a profoundly complete and perfect form where
its medium of carved wood not only serves the purpose of “bowl” efficiently
but somehow is inseparable from the physical, visceral, tactile and in
general, multifaceted sensory-way, one would encounter the object.
Essentially, the tree, the carver, the tradition of design, the hot sun of the
place, and the act of eating coexist in the piece in an almost indescribable
gestalt. In another work, a New Guinea Yam Ceremony figure, which is
essentially a giant carved face with a large, cascading tongue, the strong
forms and conscious orchestration of how the deeply carved areas cast
shadows (such as over the eyes) as well as the use of natural white clay,
soot, and red ochre for coloration thoroughly joins a grounded, dusty
earthiness with a complete visual departure from the knowable world.
Artists should visit this exhibition with sketchbooks to gain the full impact of
these objects. The exhibition’s installation allows the viewer to get very
close to most of the works and draw the patterns and lines of the pieces
with one’s own hand.
What a shame that this collection has never been exhibited in the city of
Milwaukee (only Rockford, Il. and now Cedarburg) and that Rathsack still
does not have a home for the collection once he is ready to donate it.
Imagine if Paris would have had the same attitude in the early 1900s.
Picasso and other turn-of-the-century artists would never have been
inspired to move away from representational form into Cubism. African art
was a crucial inspiration. The pantry raid of nonwestern influences by
Picasso, Giacometti, Miró and others didn’t do a lot to further the
understanding of the origin of these pieces, but it did open eyes and doors
to the study of nonwestern objects not just as curiosities but as important
works of art. Has the interest fallen out of favor or are we simply still not
able to fully appropriate this work to our own cultural needs?
In the last few decades, museums have tried to present this work in a
broader, more enlightened context that speaks of its active cultural roles.
For example, a traveling exhibition of African art at the Milwaukee Art
Museum several years ago, used video, text panels and onsite
photographs of the masks being worn in rituals to provide a deeper
understanding of the “active” properties of the art. Even with this kind of
presentation, however, it seems like the space between our contemporary
world and these tribal objects remains a distant gorge.
functional roles in a harmonious means. The overall purpose of most of
these pieces is to address the spirit world or at least serve as an interface
between the temporal, human realm and the infinite one of gods and
ancestors. Some of the most powerful pieces in the show are ones that
actually have the most overt function -- bowls, pipes, fly whisk, milk jug,
pipe or medicine horn. A bird effigy feast bowl from New Guinea is a large,
swollen form with intricate carved patterns. In one glance, it holds the
presence of ceremony, shared ritual, community and potent human/animal
bonds. The power of this art, which privileges the communal or societal
over the individual, feels foreign yet comforting compared to our western
egocentrist mode.
A perfect example of Rathsack’s notion of “rightness” is a simple
rectangular-shaped wooden food/nut bowl from Africa with two carved
figures perched on top. It is a profoundly complete and perfect form where
its medium of carved wood not only serves the purpose of “bowl” efficiently
but somehow is inseparable from the physical, visceral, tactile and in
general, multifaceted sensory-way, one would encounter the object.
Essentially, the tree, the carver, the tradition of design, the hot sun of the
place, and the act of eating coexist in the piece in an almost indescribable
gestalt. In another work, a New Guinea Yam Ceremony figure, which is
essentially a giant carved face with a large, cascading tongue, the strong
forms and conscious orchestration of how the deeply carved areas cast
shadows (such as over the eyes) as well as the use of natural white clay,
soot, and red ochre for coloration thoroughly joins a grounded, dusty
earthiness with a complete visual departure from the knowable world.
Artists should visit this exhibition with sketchbooks to gain the full impact of
these objects. The exhibition’s installation allows the viewer to get very
close to most of the works and draw the patterns and lines of the pieces
with one’s own hand.
What a shame that this collection has never been exhibited in the city of
Milwaukee (only Rockford, Il. and now Cedarburg) and that Rathsack still
does not have a home for the collection once he is ready to donate it.
Imagine if Paris would have had the same attitude in the early 1900s.
Picasso and other turn-of-the-century artists would never have been
inspired to move away from representational form into Cubism. African art
was a crucial inspiration. The pantry raid of nonwestern influences by
Picasso, Giacometti, Miró and others didn’t do a lot to further the
understanding of the origin of these pieces, but it did open eyes and doors
to the study of nonwestern objects not just as curiosities but as important
works of art. Has the interest fallen out of favor or are we simply still not
able to fully appropriate this work to our own cultural needs?
In the last few decades, museums have tried to present this work in a
broader, more enlightened context that speaks of its active cultural roles.
For example, a traveling exhibition of African art at the Milwaukee Art
Museum several years ago, used video, text panels and onsite
photographs of the masks being worn in rituals to provide a deeper
understanding of the “active” properties of the art. Even with this kind of
presentation, however, it seems like the space between our contemporary
world and these tribal objects remains a distant gorge.
| Ancestral blood figure, Sumatra. |
| New Guinea Yam Ceremony figure. |
The Cedarburg exhibition returns to the old method of simply presenting the objects as amazing works of art,
skilled in craftsmanship and dense with power. And there is a real pleasure in this permission to marvel at the
beauty of these objects and to image faraway places where one could craft “things” that served as potent
navigators through realms unknown.
A companion exhibition of Afro-centric paintings by contemporary Oregon artist Betty LaDuke shares the space.
-Debra Brehmer
Debra Brehmer is co-publisher of Susceptible to Images).
Comments to the writer? Email dbrehmer@susceptibletoimages.com
skilled in craftsmanship and dense with power. And there is a real pleasure in this permission to marvel at the
beauty of these objects and to image faraway places where one could craft “things” that served as potent
navigators through realms unknown.
A companion exhibition of Afro-centric paintings by contemporary Oregon artist Betty LaDuke shares the space.
-Debra Brehmer
Debra Brehmer is co-publisher of Susceptible to Images).
Comments to the writer? Email dbrehmer@susceptibletoimages.com
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Since that fateful day, Rathsack has accumulated nearly 200 pieces of ethnographic art from African, New
Guinea, and Southeast Asia. Although he has never traveled to any of these places (and never particularly
wanted to) he has steadfastly amassed, through long-term relationships with several dealers, a collection of
artifacts. About 100 of these pieces are currently on view at the Cedarburg Cultural Center, a nondescript, strip
mall looking building on the main street of this tourist destination, just 15 miles or so outside of Milwaukee.
Entering the show, one immediately senses that the work was selected from an artist’s sensibility, rather than
an anthropologist’s or curator’s. Each piece packs its own visual wallop. Rathsack says he looks for two things
in art, whether tribal or contemporary: “First, the piece has to have a sense of rightness or correctness that is
consistent,” he said, “meaning that every part seems to belong properly to the thing. And secondly, each piece
has to have great strength and power. Those are two concerns I would apply to my own painting as well.”