The first major exhibition of African art at the Kimbell in twenty-five years, The Language of Beauty in African Art encouraged visitors to consider how African language is used to describe concepts of beauty in African art.1 More than 200 works, representing fifty-six sub-Saharan countries, were gathered from over sixty collections around the world Seven years in the making, the exhibition was organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and curated by Constantine Petridis in collaboration with Jennifer Casier Price, the Kimbell's curator of Asian, African, and Ancient American Art. Price commented that the exhibition focused on “looking at African art through the aesthetics of the indigenous people” rather than through a lens rooted in Western art history.2
The exhibition occupied eight galleries in the Renzo Piano Pavilion and focused on specific cultural themes and artistic conventions. Gracing the entrance were larger-than-life photographs of Igbo Maiden Spirit maskers...