Warriors and Mothers

Epic Mbembe Art - The figures created by Mbembe master carvers from southeastern Nigeria are among the earliest and most visually dramatic wood sculptures preserved from sub-Saharan Africa. Created between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, and striking for their synthesis of intense rawness and poetry, these representations of seated figures—mothers nurturing their offspring and aggressive male warriors—were originally an integral part of monumental carved drums positioned at the epicenter of spiritual life, the heartbeat of Mbembe communities.
Friday and Saturday: 10:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m.*
Closed Thanksgiving Day, December 25, January 1, and the first Monday in May