Africa galleries

Metal, cloth, wood and pottery call for different kinds of attention in the Africa galleries. The displays bring together skilled making, use and performance across many societies and periods, including work by contemporary artists. Benin court art belongs within this wider setting. The brass Altar of the Hand made for a Queen Mother combines a royal figure with attendants. Other material includes carved doors by the Nigerian artist Olowe of Ise and the Throne of Weapons. Their subjects and materials carry different histories. The Benin works also require an account of British looting in 1897 and their later dispersal. Court functions, makers and later collecting all belong to their stories. Choose one object long enough to see how it was made and whom it served, before moving to a work in a different material or tradition.