Kuba: Fabric of an Empire
This exhibition of dazzling Kuba textiles presented in the BMA’s Cone Collection galleries reveals how a central African kingdom independently developed a form of modernist abstraction in the 20th century. The Kuba kingdom, on the southern edge of the Congolese Rainforest in central Africa, developed one of the greatest civilizations in the history of the continent. Art and design were central to their life. In addition to an elaborate and varied masquerade tradition, Kuba men and women were prolific textile artists, even weaving houses and embroidering currency.