Traces: Reconstructing the History of a Chokwe Mask

October 21, 2016 - January 22, 2017 - The exhibition Traces focuses on one artwork from UMMA’s African holdings: a Chokwe mask that was collected in 1905 near the Angolan city of Dundo by the German explorer Leo Frobenius.  Traces tells the stories of some of these individuals as it reconstructs the “biography” of the mask. Drawing on the Museum’s African art collection and complemented with national loans, the exhibition is informed by research that exposes the mask’s many layers and restores some of its historical complexity.