‘COLLECTING AFRICAN AND OCEANIC ART’ AT MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON

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BOSTON, MASS. — The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, presents  “Material Journeys: Collecting African and Oceanic Art, 1945–2000: Selections from the Geneviève McMillan Collection,” on view through September 2 in the Japanese Painting Galleries.

Collector Geneviève McMillan was born in the French Pyrenees and studied political science in Paris during World War II. She was intrigued by the beauty of African and Oceanic sculpture in the galleries of the famous Rive Gauche district. This was the beginning of McMillan’s lifelong passion for African and Oceanic art.

In 1946, she moved to the United States with several pieces — the core of a collection that now comprises more than 1,500 objects. This exhibition, featuring 100-plus selections from her collection, focuses on objects created by artists in workshop settings in Africa and the Pacific. It also illuminates the processes of production, trade, changing taste, and collecting of objects from Africa and Oceania in the second half of the Twentieth Century.

The museum is at 465 Huntington Avenue. For information, www.mfa.org or 617-267-9300.