By Carl Hartman

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) — A new show of 73 African masks and sculptures claims boldly to fulfill the standards of beauty in the west as well as those in Africa.

It also marks the 25th anniversary of the National Museum of African Art as part of the Smithsonian Institution.

The exhibit starts with a life-size statue, 5 feet 3 inches tall, made of wood, cloth and brass, and almost completely covered with colored glass beads. The gift of a king of the Bamum people of Cameroon to a German army captain in 1908, the statue came into the museum’s possession in 1985.

Near it, the museum has posted a proverb of the Yoruba people of Nigeria: “Anyone who meets beauty and does not look at it will soon be poor.’’ Many westerners would agree — but some might find the statue grotesque rather than beautiful.

The meaning of the figure is unknown, curators say. One hand touches the bearded chin and the other rests on the belt of the loincloth, “Gestures of deference and respect typically assumed by the Bamum in the presence of a king,’’ according to senior curator David A. Binkley.

Some western artists of the early Twentieth Century, including Pablo Picasso, pioneered an interest in African art. They used elements from it at least in part to shock western art lovers into realizing that people elsewhere in the world had different ways of representing the world.

The museum calls the exhibit simply “Treasures.’’

“It lets the art speak for itself,’’ museum director Sharon F. Patton said in announcing the show, and leaves visitors “feeling visually engaged in discovering the art of Africa as well as the creative genius and skillful technique of the African artists who made it.’’

There are unusual objects, such as the two parts of a carved palace door, one belonging to the museum and the other borrowed from a private collector. Some of the figures are guardians of reliquaries, boxes of ancestors’ bones, venerated by the Fang peoples of Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

One mask, made by the Nuna people of Burkina Faso, stretches more than five feet in width.

The head of a young man from Benin in southern Nigeria, known to the west as an art center for hundreds of years, was molded half a millennium ago but could be the work of an admired sculptor’s studio in France or Italy.

At a news conference, Patton explained that many of the objects on show, unlike the production of western artists, are not complete works of art in themselves. They are often only part of an event including dance, music, costumes and narrative that cannot be transported to a museum.

John Keats, the English poet, said that beauty is truth. Brynn Freyer, a curator of the exhibit, suggested that some Africans might say that art is morality, a representation of the world as it ought to be.

“Treasures’’ will be on view through August 15.

Frank Lloyd Wright home demolished

By James Prichard

Associated Press Writer

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Fallingwater it was not: From its wind-stripped shingles to an embarrassing overgrowth of weeds and bramble, the erstwhile beach house on Lake Michigan’s shore did little to declare itself a creation of the architectural luminary Frank Lloyd Wright.

But that was no reason, say those who would preserve all of Wright’s structures, to smash it into oblivion.

The 88-year-old beach house came tumbling down in early November — the first Wright building to meet such a fate in more than 30 years — to make way for a four-bedroom home with a two-car garage. The last Wright structure to come down was Milwaukee’s Arthur Munkwitz Apartments in 1973.

While there are those who maintain the ramshackle summer cottage in the village of Grand Beach was beyond meaningful repair, to destroy it was akin to shredding a sketch or lesser work of a great painter, said Ron Scherubel, executive director of The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy. The group saved one of Wright’s prefabricated homes in April.

“You want to preserve the entire body of work of a great artist,’’ Scherubel said.

Scherubel said his group would have fought the demolition had they known it was coming. Although rumors swirled about the property changing hands, the conservancy did not hear about the demolition plans until after they were carried out November 8.

Given some warning, Scherubel said he would have tried to talk the new owners into other options, such as renovating or moving the home elsewhere.

“One of our restoration architects said even as bad as this one was, if somebody really wanted to, it could have been restored ... to its original appearance,’’ Scherubel said.

Wright was born in 1867 in Richland Center, Wis., and designed more than 1,000 structures, about half of which were built. When he died in 1959, Wright was America’s most-celebrated architect.

About 350 of the 400 Wright-designed homes still exist, Scherubel said. Some have been lost to fire or natural disasters while others, such as the Grand Beach summer cottage originally built for someone named W.S. Carr, have been demolished. Over the years, a number of changes were made to the Carr house, and it fell into disrepair.

Scherubel agreed that it would have been a major renovation.

William Allin Storrer, adjunct professor of architecture at the University of Texas at Austin and author of The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion and The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright: A Complete Catalog, was even more blunt in his assessment.

“The building deserved to be torn down, and crying over its destruction brings to mind the story of the shepherd boy who cried ‘wolf’ once too often,’’ Storrer said. “We must preserve that of Wright which truly represents his organic architectural principles, and the W.S. Carr house did not even when built, though it had the master’s signature on the plan.’’

Thousands of visitors view New York’s reopened Museum of Modern

By Desmond Butler

Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK CITY (AP) — Thousands of people waited in a line that wrapped around a city block Saturday, November 20, to file into the reopened doors of the renovated and expanded Museum of Modern Art.

The museum opened for a free viewing after a 2½-year renovation. While much of the collection was on display at a former staple factory in Queens during that time, the $425 million reconstruction nearly doubled the museum’s gallery space.

“I missed it,’’ said Ellen Hofstatter, 55, who waited more than an hour to get in before heading straight for her favorite painting, Vincent van Gogh’s “The Starry Night.’’

Many arrived hours before the 10 am opening to be among the first to see the museum’s collection of world class modern and contemporary art. At 10 sharp, the doors swung open to cheers.

Tad Davis and Susan Vosburgh, a couple from Atlantic Highlands, N.J., celebrating their tenth wedding anniversary, received a lifetime membership for being the first new visitors.

Others waiting near the end of the long line of thousands said they expected the wait to be worth it.

“I would rather be at the front, but I wanted to come today because I am poor and can’t afford $20 to get in,’’ said Suzanne Velovic, 61, referring to the new adult admissions price, which The New York Times has labeled “an appalling and cynical figure.’’

Inside, museum director Glenn D. Lowry defended the new prices, $20 for adults, $16 for seniors and $12 for students. Many school groups will be invited without charge and admission will be free to all on Fridays from 4 to 8 pm, Lowry said.

“We have endeavored to balance our financial needs with obligations to run a balanced budget,’’ he said. The increases are blamed in part on increased insurance fees and other fixed costs, Lowry said.

The museum’s new design by Japanese architect Yushio Taniguchi retains architectural elements of the old building while transforming the galleries.

“I hope we have accomplished creating an entirely new museum, rooted in the old museum, where the collection shines as never before,’’ Lowry said.

Dozens of visitors expressed satisfaction with the effort and the layout, which groups most artwork in chronological order.

“They have improved the clarity,’’ said Warren Walker, 60, while admiring Henri Matisse’s painting “The Moroccans.’’

Gaetan Gauvin, 54, a fashion designer visiting from Quebec, said he was last at the old MoMA ten years ago.

“I’ve seen this art before,’’ he said. “But this is new. It’s wonderful.’’

FOR 12/3

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NORWICH, CONN. — Robert H. Glass Auctions will present a three-day auction for collectors on Friday–Sunday, December 10–12, at the Ramada Hotel.

“It’s a collector’s dream auction,” said Robert Glass, auctioneer, who inventoried, photographed and listed the more than 2,000 items crammed into a two-bedroom estate in southeastern Connecticut. “Never before and possibly never again in my lifetime will I see such an amazing collection in one estate,” said Glass.

On Friday, there will be three auctions — estate jewelry, diamonds, watches, rings and silver at 4 pm; old radios and children books from the estate’s 1930s library at 5 pm; and antiques, collectibles, furniture, Roseville, Northwood carnival glass, milk glass, Lesney toy cars, Steiff animals, Lenox, Limoges, Pairpoint, Wedgwood, Nippon china at 6 pm. Preview begins at 11 am.

Saturday and Sunday will be in catalog order, with live bidding on eBay. Both days start at 1 pm, with a preview time of 11 am. Saturday features more than 500 Hummels, 150 Bing and Grondahl Christmas plates, Mother’s Day plates, animals and figurines; 30 Staffordshire plates, Royal Bayreuth, 25 Royal Copenhagen animals and figurines, eight Rosenthal cats, 15 Beswick character cats, six Stangl birds, eight Bossons animals and heads, 75 Royal Doulton statues and character mugs, 100 Lladro statues, Lalique glass, 12 Irish Belleek and more. Sunday features more than 300 early phonographs, including Victor, Edison, Columbia, as well as horns and cylinder records.

The Ramada Hotel can be reached by taking Exit 80 off I-395. For information, 860-564-7318.