The Kinsey Collection: Shared Treasures of Bernard and Shirley Kinsey, Where Art and History Intersect
February 8, 2013 – May 19, 2013
The Kinsey Collection: Shared Treasures of Bernard and Shirley Kinsey, Where Art and History Intersect offers an inspirational journey through five centuries of African American history, culture and heritage. Presented as part of MoAD’s Collector’s Series, the exhibition celebrates Bernard and Shirley Kinsey’s passion for collecting objects of extraordinary significance over the 40 years of their marriage.
One of the largest private collections of African American artifacts, documents and artwork, the Kinsey collection of rare books and manuscripts, paintings, prints, sculpture, and photographs includes an early version of the Emancipation Proclamation, correspondence between Malcolm X and Alex Haley, slave shackles, a 1773 first-edition copy of poems by Phillis Wheatley, a 1795 Bannaker’s Almanack, 18th and 19th-century slave documents, letters by Zora Neale Hurston and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and fine art by luminaries such as Henry O. Tanner, Artis Lane, Richmond Barthé, Elizabeth Catlett, Samuel L. Dunson, Lois Mailou Jones, Richard Mayhew, Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, and more.
On view at MoAD from February 8 to May 19, 2013.
The exhibition is organized by The Bernard & Shirley Kinsey Foundation for Arts & Education and KBK Enterprises, Incorporated.
Image: The Cultivators, 2000, Samuel L. Dunson, Jr., Oil on canvas
Presented by Wells Fargo
Honoring the 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation
Desert Jewels: North African Jewelry and Photography from the Xavier Guerrand-Hermès Collection
October 5, 2012 – January 21, 2013
An exhibition of ninety four spectacular jewelry pieces and twenty eight photographs from Algeria, Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia that was collected over thirty years by Xavier Guerrand-Hermès of the renowned Paris-based fashion empire. This rare and stunning collection of North African jewelry and historic late 19th- and early 20th-century photographs by some of the region’s most prominent photographers was organized by the Museum for African Art in New York and previously toured nationally including to the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution. This first ever presentation in northern California, as part of MoAD’s new Collector's exhibition series of important local, national and international collections, offers a unique opportunity to feature and explore the people and culture of North Africa.
A full-color catalog, with contributions from art historians Tina Loughran and Cynthia Becker, accompanies the exhibition and will be on sale in the museum store.
Desert Jewels: North African Jewelry and Photography from the Xavier Guerrand-Hermès Collection has been organized by the Museum for African Art, New York
Images: Top - Young girl, North Africa. Unknown photographer, c. 1870. Original photograph on albumen paper from a collodion glass negative. Bottom - Fibula (tabzimt). Aït Yenni peoples, Great Kabylie, Algeria. Late 19th century. Silver, coral, enamel.
This exhibition and related programs have been made possible by the generous support of Farella Braun + Martel LLP.
Tuareg and Anima: Photographs of GRACE by Elisabeth Sunday
October 5, 2012 – January 21, 2013
On display are photographs from two of Elisabeth Sunday’s monumental series: The Tuareg Portfolio and the Anima Sequence. The Tuareg Portfolio portrays nomads who, for thousands of years, have ranged eastward across the great expanse of the Sahara Desert from eastern Mauritania through the southernmost reaches of Algeria, to the roiling dunes of northern Mali and Niger. They have long worn double-layer, flowing, indigo-colored wraps that fully encase the body and protect against sun, sand, heat, and wind. Their expression of grace is a kind of cultural memory of movement given to them through the ages of arranging and rearranging their wraps. Watching the extension of an arm or hand to perform a mundane task, the gestures from fingers, hands, wrists, and arms combining with the elegant, precise folds and wind-shaped twists in their clothing, is like observing a well-choreographed dance.
Inspired by Sunday’s experiences with the Efe, one of the last remaining hunter-gatherer tribes on earth, The Anima Sequence is a conceptual representation of animist beliefs encountered throughout her travels. The Efe live in the heart of deep Africa, just below the equator. Their Eden is the fabled Ituri Rain Forest located in the Congo Basin about two thousand miles from either coast and nearly a thousand miles from any major city.
Copies of Elisabeth Sunday's recently published book Grace are currently available in the MoAD Store.
Image: The Known, 2005. From Africa VI: Tuareg Portfolio, 2005-2009. Gold-toned silver print. Courtesy of the Peter Fetterman Gallery
The Kinsey Collection: Shared Treasures of Bernard and Shirley Kinsey, Where Art and History Intersect offers an inspirational journey through five centuries of African American history, culture and heritage. Presented as part of MoAD’s Collector’s Series, the exhibition celebrates Bernard and Shirley Kinsey’s passion for collecting objects of extraordinary significance over the 40 years of their marriage. 
An exhibition of ninety four spectacular jewelry pieces and twenty eight photographs from Algeria, Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia that was collected over thirty years by Xavier Guerrand-Hermès of the renowned Paris-based fashion empire. This rare and stunning collection of North African jewelry and historic late 19th- and early 20th-century photographs by some of the region’s most prominent photographers was organized by the Museum for African Art in New York and previously toured nationally including to the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution. This first ever presentation in northern California, as part of MoAD’s new Collector's exhibition series of important local, national and international collections, offers a unique opportunity to feature and explore the people and culture of North Africa. 
