Museum Of African Art, Serbia
The museum presents itself as a distinctly anti-colonial institution, distinguishing itself from many other European collections of African art. Its artifacts were not acquired through colonization, plunder, or exploitation but were instead received as gifts from African nations, reflecting Yugoslavia’s diplomatic relationships and cultural cooperation with its African allies.
History
The museum was founded in 1977 and represents the only museum in the country dedicated to the arts and culture of Africa. When it was opened, the museum was promoted as the only anticolonial museum on the European continent. Most of its collection comes from the West Africa.
The museum specializes in African art, and predominantly features African masks. It was established from the private collection of Croatian diplomat in service of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Zdravko Pečar (born in Međimurje), and was a result of his long stay as Ambassador to Africa. The collection contains many rare and valuable pieces from the regions in which he travelled. The collection was bequeathed to the City of Belgrade in 1974 by the ambassador.
Since its initial establishment from Pečar's private collection, the museum has continually expanded its collection and as of 2006 contains approximately 1,700 pieces.
Gallery
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Interior
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Interior
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Permanent exhibition (1977)
See also
- Yugoslavia and the Organisation of African Unity
- Gallery of the Non-Aligned Countries "Josip Broz Tito"
- List of museums in Serbia
References
- ^ Bojana Piškur (2019). "Southern Constellations: Other Histories, Other Modernities". In Tamara Soban (ed.). Southern Constellations: The Poetics of the Non-Aligned (PDF). Museum of Modern Art (Ljubljana). ISBN 978-961-206-138-8.
- ^ "Afrika u Srbiji: Muzej afričke umetnosti u Beogradu slavi 44. rođendan". BBC (in Serbian). 23 September 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
- ^ "Muzeja afričke umetnosti slavi 40 godina". danas.rs (in Serbian). 21 May 2017. Retrieved 24 February 2019.
- ^ Bojana Piškur; Đorđe Balmazović (2023). "Non-Aligned Cross-Cultural Pollination: A Short Graphic Novel". In Paul Stubbs (ed.). Socialist Yugoslavia and the Non-Aligned Movement: Social, Cultural, Political, and Economic Imaginaries. McGill-Queen's University Press. pp. 156–175. ISBN 9780228014652.
External links
- Media related to Museum of African Art (Belgrade) at Wikimedia Commons
- Official website
- About the museum on Belgrade's official website (in English)