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"Toussaint Louverture and the Elderly Slave," by Ousmane Sow, was made from mixed media by Senegalese artist Ousmane Sow. Courtesy of the African Art Museum

The African Art Museum’s new exhibit, “African Mosaic,” surveys works collected within the past ten years. The exhibit features more than 100 objects—everything from gold jewelry to ivory carvings to contemporary artworks.

“This particular opening really captures who we are, what this museum is about, and the extent of the diversity and dynamism of African art centered around a decade of collecting,” said the museum’s director Johnnetta Cole at a media preview last week.

One work in the exhibit is a standout, according to Cole, who says Ousmane Sow’s sculpture of Haiti’s liberator, Toussaint Louverture is sure to become a “destination work.”  Just as Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” is to the Louvre Museum in Paris, Cole says the piece is certain to become the museum’s must-see icon.

The work, a larger than life sculpture called “Toussaint Louverture and the Elderly Slave” by Sow, a Senegalese artist, towers at the entrance to the exhibit. Louverture (1743-1804) was a Haitian slave who led the Haitian uprising against French colonial rule around the turn of the 18th century. He is widely considered the great liberator of the Haitian people.

Sow, who moved from Senegal to Paris as a young man, created the sculpture in 1989 as part of a three-work series to commemorate the bicentennial of the French Revolution. Each work in the series depicts a hero to liberty, some are French and others, such as the Louverture are colonial subjects who rebelled against the French.

Sow uses a special material to make his sculptures, a mixture of natural fibers and clay. He tends the material every day, keeping it fresh and malleable, even if he doesn’t work on his art at all.

Sow, who was present at the media preview, had not seen the work for 20 years, and said (in French, through a translator) that it was an emotional experience to see the piece once again. He said he felt that the work had, after two decades, finally found its true home.

“African Mosaic” is now on view through 2011 at the African Art Museum.

Alexis Rockman's 2006 work, Hollywood at Night, reimagines the famous California hillside with its landmark sign decayed and illegible. © Alexis Rockman, Photo courtesy of the artist

A strange other world recently emerged in the third floor galleries at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. It’s a vivid, surreal land where cities are swamped by floods, man-size mosquitoes taunt ecotourists in the night, cows and pigs and chickens are re-engineered to look more ani-meal than animal, and microorganisms grow huge and threatening.

This is our future as seen by New York artist Alexis Rockman in a show entitled “A Fable For Tomorrow,” which opened November 19.  The title is borrowed from the prologue of environmentalist Rachel Carson’s epic 1962 book, Silent Spring.  There, Carson chillingly foretold of the dangers the world faced as it grew increasingly dependent upon chemical pesticides. Carson’s book launched the environmental movement and is credited with helping to usher in the ban on DDT.

As did Carson’s work, Rockman’s apocalyptic fable emerges from the artist’s admirable reserve of research and scholarship. In this show, artist and scientist are one; and the museum’s mid-career retrospective of the 48-year-old painter is also a provocative commentary on biodiversity, genetic engineering and global climate change. Rockman frequently consults with scientists and researchers before he begins his work. The artist has contributed to several publications and has taught at both Columbia and Harvard Universities.

Curator Joanna Marsh says the interdisciplinary approach makes Rockman a “master of merging fact and fiction.” The show, she says, is a perfect example of how the Smithsonian Institution itself has long formed a tradition of embracing the “intersection and the interplay of art and science.”

And in fact one of Rockman’s friends and mentors is Thomas Lovejoy, who served as the Smithsonian’s assistant secretary from 1987 to 1994 and was the scientist who coined the term, “biological diversity.” In our December issue, Lovejoy says Rockman’s paintings depict “a surrealism that is seriously anchored in reality.” (Learn more about Rockman in Cathleen McGuigan’s article “Picturing Tomorrow.”)

“I’m picking through the debris,” said Rockman at a recent press preview. His 2006 work, Hollywood at Night (above) reduces the famous California hillside to a lost civilization where the city of Los Angeles is barely distinguishable in the distance, its lights and power extinguished. All that is left to sparkle are the moon and the fireflies.

But all is not lost and dreary in this fabled world, the final gallery explodes with the seven-panel, 2007 painting entitled, South. A glorious floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall panorama depicts in chill blues and grays the place where immense glacier meets water—a sight the artist took in aboard a cruise ship on an expedition he took to the Antarctic Peninsula. The work, housed in a dead-end cave of a gallery, lends a sense of cautious hopefulness to the dreary depictions on the walls of the other galleries. But in order to leave the exhibition, visitors must first retrace their steps once again back through Rockman’s disquieting Tale of Tomorrow.

This ritual vessel (ca. 1100-1050 BC) is adorned with the “taotie” animal design that prevailed among early Chinese bronzes. Courtesy of the Freer Gallery

After spending more than a decade in storage, a group of Chinese jade and bronze works have been reinstalled in two newly renovated galleries at the Freer Gallery of Art. The exhibit, “Ancient Chinese Jades and Bronzes,” marks the first phase of the museum’s plan to overhaul each of their Chinese art galleries.

“People don’t come to the gallery to read a book, they come to look at art,” said curator Keith Wilson at a media preview last week. With the mass of information available on the Internet, Wilson says his intent with the new galleries was to create a simple display that let the objects tell their own stories. This way, the works would be more likely to provoke an emotional response in the viewer.

The galleries are undeniably simple, with tranquil, muted sage walls and almost no text to be found. There is ample room to admire the works up close or from afar. The first is dedicated to jades from the neolithic Liangzhu culture (ca. 3300-2250 BC). Most pieces are suspended in clear glass cases. The jade swords, bi (ceremonial discs), and intricately hewn jewelry seem to float, well-lit, as if in mid-air. The second largest jade work in the world (about three feet long) stands out, as do a group of four bi that are the only such objects in existence to bear finely etched bird pictographs.

The second gallery contains the bronze works, mostly from the bronze foundries at Anyang, capital of the late Shang dynasty (1300-1050 BC) and early Western Zhou dynasty (1050-900 BC). Mostly ceremonial food and wine vessels, the bronze objects sit in the middle of the floor so that visitors can walk around them and get a 360-degree view. The animal mask, or taotie, is a mythical creature with bulging eyes, horns and snout (right) that appears on many of these pieces. “I think mythical animals were very popular because when you have vessels of a variety of shapes and sizes, mythical creatures can be stretched vertically and horizontally to fill whatever shape and size area you want to decorate,” says Wilson. With vessels ranging from pocket-sized wine containers to 50 pound trough-like food holders, this creates a cohesion among the Bronze Age pieces that Wilson says may not have existed otherwise.

Most of the objects in the exhibit were used in ceremonies aimed at communing with the dead. Many were excavated from Chinese tombs. ”I think it’s difficult for us to put ourselves in a neolithic bronze age setting and think about the world the way they did,” says Wilson. “They were invoking those ancestors and offering them food as if they were there. So I think if you begin to consider that kind of context, it shows that it was necessary to keep this balance between the spirit world and the human world. If you didn’t, there may be hell to pay. Maybe your grandmother would come back and give you a toothache.”

“Ancient Chinese Jades and Bronzes” is on view indefinitely at the Freer Gallery. In two years, the Gallery says they plan to replace the objects in the bronze gallery with a selection of works from the later Bronze Age.

Buffalo Dance (ca. 1925-1930) by Awa Tsireh. Image courtesy of the American Art Museum.

Monday, November 22: National Postal Museum Highlights Tour

Only have a limited time to see the sights at the Postal Museum and don’t know where to dive in? Take a docent-led tour of the museum’s collections to make sure you see all the major things and gain a little insight into their importance courtesy of your tour guide. Tours traditionally take place at 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM; however, last minute cancellations may occur. You can call 202-633-5534 (voice) or 202-633-9849 (TTY) to confirm dates and times. Or, if you’re a “do it yourself-er,” download this brochure and take yourself on a tour of the museum. Free. National Postal Museum, 11:00 AM.

Tuesday, November 23: Black American Coal Miners

In this discussion, author Nancy Frantel gives you an in-depth look at Chesterfield County, Virginia’s coal mining industry. But who were these coal miners? Frantel is the author of Chesterfield County, Virginia, Uncovered: The Records of Death and Slave Insurance Records for the Coal Mining Industry, 1810-1895. Free. For reservations and information, call 202-633-4844. Anacostia Museum, 10:30 AM

Wednesday, November 24: Book Signing: George Norfleet’s Pilot’s Journey: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman

Washington, DC resident and author George Norfleet will be available to sign his book Pilot’s Journey: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman, which details the life of Tuskegee airman Curtis Christopher Robinson. Copies of the book will be available in the museum store. Air and Space Museum, 12:00-5:00 PM

Thursday, November 25: Happy Thanksgiving! Try pairing your holiday meal with an IMAX movie

Yes, the museums are open today—and what better way to digest your festive meal than in the comfort of a movie theater? So come out to the Smithsonian where the entertainment options are plentiful. Theaters are located in the Natural History Museum, the Air and Space Museum and the Udvar-Hazy Center. In addition to short films—like “Dinosaurs” and “Legends of Flight”—you can catch a screening of the new feature “Grand Canyon Adventure.” Check out this site for a full film schedule and to buy tickets online. Tickets may also be purchased at the IMAX box office at the museums.

Friday, November 26: Native Dance: Acoma Inter-Cultural Dancers

Learn about the Acoma Pueblo’s social dance traditions. Watch performances by the Acoma Inter-Cultural Dancers as they pay homage to nature and the elements, and sustain the Acoma way of life. Free. American Indian Museum, 12:30-1:30 PM.

For updates on all exhibitions an events, visit our companion site goSmithsonian.com

Enjoy readings from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass at the National Portrait Gallery's Hide/Seek Family Fun Day. Walt Whitman (1891, printed 1979) by Thomas Eakins. Image courtesy of the Natonal Portrait Gallery.

Friday, November 19: Jason Hwang’s Edge Quartet

An award-winning violinist, composer, and jazz artist, Hwang returns to the Freer with his latest project, Burning Bridge, commissioned by Chamber Music America’s New Jazz Works program. His Edge Quartet is joined by guest artists on erhu (Chinese fiddle), pipa (Chinese lute), trombone, and tuba. Free, but tickets are required. Tickets may be reserved through Ticketmaster by phone at (202) 397-7328, (410) 547-7328, or (703) 573-7328; at www.ticketmaster.com; or at Ticketmaster walk-up locations. Please be aware that there are service fees. Tickets will also be distributed for free outside the Meyer Auditorium one hour prior to showtime. Click here for additional ticketing information and a Meyer Auditorium seating chart. Freer, 7:30 PM.

Saturday, November 20: Fashionable Gods and Goddesses

Everybody needs to change and update their wardrobe from time to time. As you explore the show “Gods of Angkor,” discover the changing fashions, crowns, jewels and objects associated with Buddha and Hindu gods as their influence spread from India to Cambodia. Afterward, go back to the classroom where all you aspiring Coco Chanels and Bob Mackies can decorate a traditional image or whip up more fashion-forward attire for the gods. This event is ideal for persons ages eight to fourteen. Space is limited and is available on a first-come, first-served basis. This event repeats on November 21 at the same time. Free. Freer, 2:00 PM.

Sunday, November 21: Hide/Seek Family and Friends Day

Come enjoy a day chock full of family-friendly fun inspired by the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture. Come enjoy music, hands-on art activities, readings from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, and guided tours of the show. Free. National Portrait Gallery, 11:00 AM-3:00 PM.

For updates on all exhibitions and events, visit our companion site goSmithsonian.com