Image: Patrick and Beatrice Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee
The Patrick and Beatrice Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University in Milwaukee will present ‘African Art: Ancient Roots, Enduring Values,’ an exhibition of nearly 40 classical and neoclassical works from its collection. The exhibition will be on view from August 28 through December 19, 2026, offering a survey of African artistic traditions shaped by longstanding relationships between the visible world and spiritual realms.
Curated by Henry John Drewal, Evjue-Bascom Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Art History and African American Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the exhibition examines how African works function, acquire meaning and move across cultural, political and religious boundaries. Drewal specializes in the arts of the Yorùbá-speaking peoples of West Africa and the African diaspora.
The presentation includes works addressing both worldly and otherworldly subjects, as well as objects that mediate between those realms. Masks and divination tools form part of this focus, connecting material forms with ancestors, goddesses, gods and spirits. According to the museum, the works were created to inspire and shape society while also deepening devotional practice.
The exhibition distinguishes between classical works—described by the museum as traditional in style and form, based on methods developed over long periods and regarded as having lasting value—and neoclassical works made by African artists in the late 20th and 21st centuries for local and global audiences. Across both categories, the museum emphasizes the refined technical skills and inventive creativity developed through rigorous apprenticeships.
Among the works identified by the Haggerty are ‘Mother and child,’ made by the atelier of Agbọ́nbiòfé Adéṣinà in Ekiti-Yorùbá, Nigeria, around the 1950s or 1960s; a Kuba-style headdress, or Mwaash aMbooy, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and a Mother drum associated with the Akan/Fante peoples of Ghana. The museum’s collection record also lists a Northern Igbo terracotta ‘Mother and child figure (ntekpe),’ attributed to an unrecorded female artist and dated approximately to the late 19th or early 20th century.
The Haggerty says that works from its African art collection were conserved and photographed for the fall exhibitions. The museum holds a collection of approximately 10,000 pieces and is free and open to the public six days a week. During the exhibition, its listed hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., at 1234 W Tory Hill St in Milwaukee. Support for ‘African Art: Ancient Roots, Enduring Values’ is provided by Lilly Endowment Inc.
