African art. Legacy of oppression

Your Playlist:

Description

Belgium's Tervuren Museum contains the world's largest collection of Central African art, which consists of approximately 250,000 pieces. Noted journalist Paul Solman discusses the power and the true price of this collection with art historian Ramona Austin and journalist/author Adam Hochschild. In the immense Congo region, there are more than 250 different cultures, so there is a broad range of artistic styles to be found there. Austin is particularly drawn to the emotionally riveting abstracts, with their modernistic qualities and generalized forms that influenced Picasso and other European masters. She also admires the intricate detailing lavished on everyday objects like combs. But how did the Tervuren collect this body of art? Hochschild says that when Belgium's King Leopold II colonized and brutally exploited this territory during the late 1800s, ivory and rubber were not the only things sent back to Europe.