A triptych ( /ˈtrɪptɪk/ TRIP-tik; (from the Greek adjective τρίπτυχοs ("three-fold"), from tri-= "three" + ptysso= "to fold") is a work of art (usually a panel painting) which is divided into three sections, or three carved panels which are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all multi-panel works. The middle panel is typically the largest and it is flanked by two smaller related works, although there are triptychs of equal-sized panels.

While the root of the word is the ancient Greek "triptychos", the word arose into the medieval period from the name for an Ancient Roman writing tablet, which paired hinged panels flanking with a larger central one. The form can also be used for pendant jewelry.

In art[link]

The Verdun Altar in Klosterneuburg Monastery

The triptych form arises from early Christian art, and was a popular standard format for altar paintings from the Middle Ages onwards. Its geographical range was from the eastern Byzantine churches to the English Celtic churches in the west. Renaissance painters and sculptors such as Hans Memling and Hieronymus Bosch used the form. Triptych forms also allow ease of transport.

From the Gothic period onward, both in Europe and elsewhere, altarpieces in churches and cathedrals were often in triptych form. One such cathedral with an altarpiece triptych is Llandaff Cathedral. The Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, Belgium, contains two examples by Rubens, and Notre Dame de Paris is another example of the use of triptych in architecture. One can also see the form echoed by the structure of many ecclesiastical stained glass windows. Although most famous as an altarpiece form, triptyches outside that context have been created, most prominently by Hieronymus Bosch, Max Beckmann, and Francis Bacon.

Examples[link]

• The Annunciation and Two Saints - Simone Martini
• The Merode Altarpiece - Robert Campin
• The Garden of Earthly Delights and The Haywain Triptych - Hieronymus Bosch
• The Portinari Altarpiece - Hugo Van Der Goes
• The Raising of the Cross - Peter Paul Rubens
• Departure - Max Beckmann
• Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion - Francis Bacon
• The pioneer (painting) - Frederick McCubbin
• Compton Triptych sculpture

See also[link]

• Category:Triptychs
• Diptych
• Triptychs of Francis Bacon
• Polyvision

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Triptychs

• metmuseum.org image of tablet
• More on as writing instrument
• Artwork and photographs as Triptychs
• Example of a triptych reredos, features and restoration.

Philip Sparke

This biographical article is written like a résumé. Please help improve it by revising it to be neutral and encyclopedic. (November 2011)

This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources. (November 2011)

Philip Sparke (born 1951 in London) is a British composer and musician.^[1] He is noted for his concert band and brass band music.^[2]

Works[link]

Music for Wind Band & Brass Band[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Philip Sparke's Homepage

Max Roach
Max Roach, Amsterdam 1979
Background information
Birth name	Maxwell Lemuel Roach
Born	(1924-01-10)January 10, 1924
Origin	Township of Newland, North Carolina, United States
Died	August 16, 2007(2007-08-16) (aged 83)
Genres	Jazz
Occupations	Musician, composer
Instruments	Drums, percussion
Years active	1944–2002
Associated acts	M'Boom

Maxwell Lemuel "Max" Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.

A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered alongside the most important drummers in history.^[1][2] He worked with many famous jazz musicians, including Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Billy Eckstine, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, Clifford Brown, Eric Dolphy and Booker Little.

Roach also led his own groups, and made numerous musical statements relating to the civil rights movement of African Americans.

Biography[link]

Early life and career[link]

Roach was born in the Township of Newland, Pasquotank County, North Carolina, which borders the southern edge of the Great Dismal Swamp, to Alphonse and Cressie Roach. Many confuse this with Newland Town in Avery County. Although Roach's birth certificate lists his date of birth as January 10, 1924,^[3] Roach has been quoted by Phil Schaap as having stated that his family believed he was born on January 8, 1925. Roach's family moved to the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York when he was 4 years old. He grew up in a musical home, his mother being a gospel singer. He started to play bugle in parade orchestras at a young age. At the age of 10, he was already playing drums in some gospel bands. As an eighteen year-old fresh out of Boys High School in Brooklyn, (1942) he was called to fill in for Sonny Greer, and play with the Duke Ellington Orchestra performing at the Paramount Theater.

In 1942, Roach started to go out in the jazz clubs of the 52nd Street and at 78th Street & Broadway for Georgie Jay's Taproom (playing with schoolmate Cecil Payne).^[4]

Roach's most significant innovations came in the 1940s, when he and jazz drummer Kenny Clarke devised a new concept of musical time. By playing the beat-by-beat pulse of standard 4/4 time on the "ride" cymbal instead of on the thudding bass drum, Roach and Clarke developed a flexible, flowing rhythmic pattern that allowed soloists to play freely. The new approach also left space for the drummer to insert dramatic accents on the snare drum, "crash" cymbal and other components of the trap set.

By matching his rhythmic attack with a tune's melody, Roach brought a newfound subtlety of expression to his instrument. He often shifted the dynamic emphasis from one part of his drum kit to another within a single phrase, creating a sense of tonal color and rhythmic surprise.^[1] The idea was to shatter musical conventions and take full advantage of the drummer's unique position. "In no other society", Roach once observed, "do they have one person play with all four limbs."^[5]

While that approach is common today, when Clarke and Roach introduced the new style in the 1940s it was a revolutionary musical advance. "When Max Roach's first records with Charlie Parker were released by Savoy in 1945," jazz historian Burt Korall wrote in the Oxford Companion to Jazz, "drummers experienced awe and puzzlement and even fear." One of those awed drummers, Stan Levey, summed up Roach's importance: "I came to realize that, because of him, drumming no longer was just time, it was music."^[1]

He was one of the first drummers (along with Kenny Clarke) to play in the bebop style, and performed in bands led by Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Coleman Hawkins, Bud Powell, and Miles Davis. Roach played on many of Parker's most important records, including the Savoy November 1945 session, a turning point in recorded jazz.

Max Roach, Three Deuces, NYC, ca. October 1947. Photography by William P. Gottlieb.

1950s[link]

Roach studied classical percussion at the Manhattan School of Music from 1950–53, working toward a Bachelor of Music degree (the School was to award him an Honorary Doctorate in 1990).

In 1952, Roach co-founded Debut Records with bassist Charles Mingus. This label released a record of a May 15, 1953 concert, billed as 'the greatest concert ever', which came to be known as Jazz at Massey Hall, featuring Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Mingus and Roach. Also released on this label was the groundbreaking bass-and-drum free improvisation, Percussion Discussion.^[6]

In 1954, he formed a quintet featuring trumpeter Clifford Brown, tenor saxophonist Harold Land, pianist Richie Powell (brother of Bud Powell), and bassist George Morrow, though Land left the following year and Sonny Rollins soon replaced him. The group was a prime example of the hard bop style also played by Art Blakey and Horace Silver. Tragically, this group was to be short-lived; Brown and Powell were killed in a car accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in June 1956. The first album Roach recorded after their deaths was Max Roach + 4. After Brown and Powell's deaths, Roach continued leading a similarly configured group, with Kenny Dorham (and later the short-lived Booker Little) on trumpet, George Coleman on tenor and pianist Ray Bryant. Roach expanded the standard form of hard-bop using 3/4 waltz rhythms and modality in 1957 with his album Jazz in 3/4 time. During this period, Roach recorded a series of other albums for the EmArcy label featuring the brothers Stanley and Tommy Turrentine.^[7]

In 1955, he was the drummer for vocalist Dinah Washington at several live appearances and recordings. Appearing at the Newport Jazz Festival with her in 1958 which was filmed and the 1954 live studio audience recording of Dinah Jams, considered to be one of the best and most overlooked vocal jazz albums of its genre.^[8]

1960s-1970s[link]

In 1960 he composed the We Insist! - Freedom Now suite with lyrics by Oscar Brown Jr., after being invited to contribute to commemorations of the hundredth anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. In 1962, he recorded the album Money Jungle, a collaboration with Mingus and Duke Ellington. This is generally regarded as one of the very finest trio albums ever made.^[9]

In 1966, with his album Drums Unlimited (which includes several tracks that are entirely drums solos) he demonstrated that drums can be a solo instrument able to play theme, variations, rhythmically cohesive phrases. He described his approach to music as "the creation of organized sound."^[10]

During the 1970s, Roach formed a musical organization—"M'Boom"—a percussion orchestra. Each member of this unit composed for it and performed on many percussion instruments. Personnel included Fred King, Joe Chambers, Warren Smith, Freddie Waits, Roy Brooks, Omar Clay, Ray Mantilla, Francisco Mora, and Eli Fountain.^[10]

1980s-1990s[link]

In the early 1980s, he began presenting entire concerts solo, proving that this multi-percussion instrument could fulfill the demands of solo performance and be entirely satisfying to an audience. He created memorable compositions in these solo concerts; a solo record was released by Baystate, a Japanese label, just about impossible to obtain. One of these solo concerts is available on video, which also includes a filming of a recording date for "Chattahoochee Red," featuring his working quartet, Odean Pope, Cecil Bridgewater and Calvin Hill.

He embarked on a series of duet recordings. Departing from the style of presentation he was best known for, most of the music on these recordings is free improvisation, created with the avant-garde musicians Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, Archie Shepp, and Abdullah Ibrahim. He created duets with other performers: a recorded duet with the oration by Martin Luther King, "I Have a Dream"; a duet with video artist Kit Fitzgerald, who improvised video imagery while Roach spontaneously created the music; a classic duet with his life-long friend and associate Dizzy Gillespie; a duet concert recording with Mal Waldron.

He wrote music for theater, such as plays written by Sam Shepard, presented at La Mama E.T.C. in New York City.

He found new contexts for presentation, creating unique musical ensembles. One of these groups was "The Double Quartet." It featured his regular performing quartet, with personnel as above, except Tyrone Brown replacing Hill; this quartet joined with "The Uptown String Quartet," led by his daughter Maxine Roach, featuring Diane Monroe, Lesa Terry and Eileen Folson.

Another ensemble was the "So What Brass Quintet," a group comprising five brass instrumentalists and Roach, no chordal instrument, no bass player. Much of the performance consisted of drums and horn duets. The ensemble consisted of two trumpets, trombone, French horn and tuba. Musicians included Cecil Bridgewater, Frank Gordon, Eddie Henderson, Rod McGaha, Steve Turre, Delfeayo Marsalis, Robert Stewart, Tony Underwood, Marshall Sealy, Mark Taylor and Dennis Jeter.

Roach presented his music with orchestras and gospel choruses. He performed a concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He wrote for and performed with the Walter White gospel choir and the John Motley Singers. Roach performed with dancers: the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the Dianne McIntyre Dance Company, the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company.

Roach surprised his fans by performing in a hip hop concert, featuring the artist-rapper Fab Five Freddy and the New York Break Dancers. He expressed the insight that there was a strong kinship between the outpouring of expression of these young black artists and the art he had pursued all his life.^[11]

Not content to expand on the musical territory he had already become known for, Roach spent the decades of the 1980s and 1990s continually finding new forms of musical expression and presentation. Though he ventured into new territory during a lifetime of innovation, he kept his contact with his musical point of origin. He performed with the Beijing Trio, with pianist Jon Jang and erhu player Jeibing Chen. His last recording, Friendship, was with trumpet master Clark Terry, the two long-standing friends in duet and quartet. His last performance was at the 50th anniversary celebration of the original Massey Hall concert, in Toronto, where he performed solo on the hi-hat.^[12]

In 1994, Roach also appeared on Rush drummer Neil Peart's Burning For Buddy performing "The Drum Also Waltzes", Part 1 and 2 on Volume 1 of the Volume 2 series during the 1994 All-Star recording sessions.^[13]

Death[link]

The grave of Max Roach

Max Roach died in the early morning on August 16, 2007 in Manhattan.^[14] He was survived by five children: sons Daryl and Raoul, and daughters Maxine, Ayo and Dara. Over 1,900 people attended his funeral at Riverside Church in Manhattan, New York City on August 24, 2007. Max Roach was interred at the Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, NY.

In a funeral tribute to Roach, then-Lieutenant Governor of New York David Paterson compared the musician's courage to that of Paul Robeson, Harriet Tubman and Malcolm X, saying that "No one ever wrote a bad thing about Max Roach's music or his aura until 1960, when he and Charlie Mingus protested the practices of the Newport Jazz Festival."^[15]

Personal life[link]

Two children, son Daryl Keith and daughter Maxine, were born from his first marriage with Mildred Roach. In 1956 he met singer Barbara Jai (Johnson) and had another son, Raoul Jordu. He continued to play as a freelance while studying composition at the Manhattan School of Music. He graduated in 1952. During the period 1962–1970, Roach was married to the singer Abbey Lincoln, who had performed on several of Roach's albums. Twin daughters, Ayodele Nieyela and Dara Rashida, were later born to Roach and his third wife, Janus Adams Roach. He has four grandchildren, Kyle Maxwell Roach, Kadar Elijah Roach, Maxe Samiko Hinds and Skye Sophia Sheffield. Long involved in jazz education, in 1972 he joined the faculty of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in Amherst. In the early 2000s, Roach became less active from the onset of hydrocephalus-related complications.

From the 1970s through the mid-1990s Roach taught at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.^[16]

Honors[link]

He was given a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant in 1988, cited as a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters in France (1989),^[17] twice awarded the French Grand Prix du Disque, elected to the International Percussive Art Society's Hall of Fame and the Downbeat Magazine Hall of Fame, awarded Harvard Jazz Master, celebrated by Aaron Davis Hall, given eight honorary doctorate degrees, including degrees awarded by Medgar Evers College, CUNY, the University of Bologna, Italy and Columbia University.^[18] While spending the later years of his life at the Mill Basin Sunrise assisted living home, in Brooklyn, Max was honored with a proclamation honoring his musical achievements by Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz.^[19]

In 1986 the London borough of Lambeth named a park in Brixton after him.^[20][21] - Roach was able to officially open it when he visited the UK that year.

Discography[link]

As leader[link]

• 1953 : Max Roach Quartet (Fantasy)
• 1953 : Max Roach and his Sextet (Debut)
• 1953 : Max Roach Quartet featuring Hank Mobley (Debut)
• 1956 : Max Roach + 4 (EmArcy)
• 1957 : Jazz in ¾ Time
• 1958 : Max Roach/Art Blakey (with Art Blakey)
• 1958 : Max Roach Plus Four on the Chicago Scene (Mercury)
• 1958 : Max Roach Plus Four at Newport (Mercury)
• 1958 : Max Roach with the Boston Percussion Ensemble (EmArcy)
• 1958 : Deeds not Words (aka Conversation) (Riverside)
• 1958 : Max Roach/Bud Shank - Sessions (with Bud Shank)
• 1958 : The Defiant Ones (with Booker Little)
• 1958 : Deeds, Not Words (with all new cast Ray Draper, Booker Little, George Coleman)
• 1959 : Rich Versus Roach (with Buddy Rich)
• 1961 : Percussion Bitter Sweet (Impulse! Records)(with Mal Waldron)
• 1962 : Speak, Brother, Speak!
• 1962 : It's Time (Impulse! Records)(with Mal Waldron)
• 1964 : Live in Europe: Freedom Now Suite (with Abbey Lincoln)
• 1964 : The Max Roach Trio Featuring the Legendary Hasaan (with Hasaan ibn Ali)
• 1966 : Drums Unlimited (Atlantic) (Leader, with James Spaulding, Freddie Hubbard, Ronnie Mathews, Jymie Merritt, Roland Alexander)
• 1968 : Sound as Roach (Atlantic)
• 1968 : Members, Don't Git Weary (Atlantic)
• 1971 : Lift Every Voice and Sing (with J.C. White Singers)
• 1976 : Force: Sweet Mao-Suid Afrika '76 (duo with Archie Shepp)
• 1976 : Nommo (Victor)
• 1977 : Max Roach Quartet Live in Tokyo (Denon)
• 1977 : The Loudstar (Horo)
• 1977 : Max Roach Quartet Live In Amsterdam - It's Time (Baystate)
• 1977 : Solos (Baystate)
• 1977 : Streams of Consciousness - duo with Dollar Brand
• 1978 : Confirmation (Fluid Records)
• 1978 : Birth and Rebirth - duo with Anthony Braxton (Black Saint)
• 1979 : The Long March - duo with Archie Shepp (Hathut)
• 1979 : Historic Concerts - duo with Cecil Taylor (Black Saint)
• 1979 : One in Two - Two in One - duo with Anthony Braxton (Hathut)
• 1979 : Pictures in a Frame (Soul Note)
• 1980 : Chattahoochee Red (Columbia)
• 1982 : Swish - duo with Connie Crothers (New Artists)
• 1982 : In the Light (Soul Note)
• 1983 : Live at Vielharmonie (Soul Note)
• 1984 : Scott Free (Soul Note)
• 1984 : It's Christmas Again (Soul Note)
• 1984 : Survivors (Soul Note)
• 1985 : Easy Winners (Soul Note)
• 1986 : Bright Moments (Soul Note)
• 1989 : Max + Dizzy: Paris 1989 - duo with Dizzy Gillespie (A&M)
• 1989 : Homage to Charlie Parker (A&M)
• 1991 : To the Max! (Enja)
• 1995 : Max Roach With The New Orchestra Of Boston And The So What Brass Quintet (Blue Note)
• 1999 : Beijing Trio (Asian Improv)
• 2002 : Friendship - with Clark Terry) (Columbia)

With Clifford Brown

• 1954 : Brown And Roach Incorporated
• 1954 : Clifford Brown and Max Roach
• 1954 : Study in Brown
• 1954 : More Study in Brown
• 1955 : Clifford Brown with Strings
• 1956 : Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street
• 1957 : Clifford Brown with Strings
• 1979 : Live at the Bee Hive (Columbia Records)

With M'Boom

• 1973 : Re: Percussion (Strata-East Records)
• 1979 : M'Boom (Columbia)
• 1984 : Collage (Soul Note)
• 1992 : Live at S.O.B.'s New York (Blue Moon Records)

As sideman[link]

• 1944 : Rainbow Mist (with Coleman Hawkins)
• 1944 : Coleman Hawkins and His All Stars (with Coleman Hawkins)
• 1945 : Town Hall, New York, June 22, 1945 (with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker)
• 1945 - 1948: The Complete Savoy Studio Recordings (with Charlie Parker)
• 1946 : Mad Be Bop (with J.J. Johnson)
• 1946 : Opus BeBop (with Stan Getz)
• 1946 : Savoy Jam Party (Don Byas Quartet)
• 1946  : The Hawk Flies (with Coleman Hawkins)
• 1947 : The Bud Powell Trip (with Bud Powell)
• 1947 : Lullaby in Rhythm (with Charlie Parker)
• 1947 : Charlie Parker on Dial (with Charlie Parker)
• 1948 : The Band that Never Was (with Charlie Parker)
• 1948 : Bird on 52nd Street (with Charlie Parker)
• 1948 : Bird at the Roost (with Charlie Parker)
• 1949 : Birth of the Cool (with Miles Davis)
• 1949 - 1953: Charlie Parker – Complete Sessions on Verve (with Charlie Parker)
• 1949 : Charlie Parker in France (with Charlie Parker)
• 1949 : Genesis (with Sonny Stitt)
• 1949 : The Stars of Modern Jazz at Carnegie Hall
• 1950 : The McGhee-Navarro Sextet (with Howard McGhee)
• 1951 : The Amazing Bud Powell (with Bud Powell)
• 1951 : The George Wallington Trip and Septet (with George Wallington)
• 1951 : Conception (with Miles Davis)
• 1952 : New Faces, New Sounds (with Gil Melle)
• 1952 : The Complete Genius (with Thelonious Monk)
• 1952 : Live at Rockland Palace (with Charlie Parker)
• 1953 : The Metronome All Starss. MGM (with Billy Eckstine)
• 1953 : Mambo Jazz (with Joe Holiday)
• 1953 : Yardbird: DC-53 (with Charlie Parker)
• 1953 : Cohn's Tones (with Al Cohn)
• 1953 : Diz and Getz (with Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz)
• 1954 : Daahoud (Mainstream Records)
• 1954 : Dinah Jams Featuring Dinah Washington
• 1955 : Relaxed Piano Moods (with Hazel Scott)
• 1955 : Introducing Jimmy Cleveland And His All Stars (EmArcy)
• 1955 : New Piano Expressions (with John Dennis)
• 1955 : Herbie Nichols Trio (with Herbie Nichols)
• 1955 : Work Time (with Sonny Rollins)
• 1955 : The Charles Mingus Quartet plus Max Roach (with Charles Mingus)
• 1956 : Sonny Rollins Plus 4 (with Sonny Rollins)
• 1956 : Introducing Johnny Griffin (with Johnny Griffin)
• 1956 : The Magnificent Thad Jones (with Thad Jones)
• 1956 : Brilliant Corners (with Thelonious Monk)
• 1956 : Tour de Force (with Sonny Rollins)
• 1956 : The Music of George Gershwin: I Sing of Thee (with Joe Wilder)
• 1956 : Rollins Plays for Bird (Sonny Rollins Quintet)
• 1956 : Saxophone Colossus (with Sonny Rollins)
• 1957 : First Place (with J.J. Johnson)
• 1957 : Sonny Clark Trio
• 1957 : Jazz Contrasts (with Kenny Dorham)
• 1958 : Freedom Suite (with Sonny Rollins)
• 1958 : Shadow Waltz (with Sonny Rollins)
• 1958 : Award-Winning Drummer (Time T)
• 1959 : A Little Sweet (aka. The Many Sides of Max )(Mercury)
• 1959 : Moon-Faced and Starry-Eyed (Mercury)
• 1960 : Quiet as it's Kept (Mercury)
• 1960 : Tommy Turrentine (with Tommy Turrentine)
• 1960 : Stan 'The Man' Turrentine
• 1960 : Again! (Affinity)
• 1960 : Parisian Sketches (Mercury)
• 1960 : We Insist! - Freedom Now (Candid)
• 1960 : Long as You're Living (Enja)
• 1960 : Uhuru Afrika (with Randy Weston)
• 1960 : Sonny Clark Trio (with Sonny Clark)
• 1961 : Straight Ahead (with Abbey Lincoln)
• 1961 : Out Front (with Booker Little)
• 1961 : Paris Blues (with Duke Ellington)
• 1962 : Money Jungle (with Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus)
• 1962 : Drum Suite (with Slide Hampton)
• 1966 : Stuttgart 1963 Concert (with Sonny Rollins)
• 1972 : Newport in New York ‘72 (Roach on 2 tracks only)
• 1975 : The Bop Session (with Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Stitt, John Lewis, Hank Jones and Percy Heath)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Max Roach 1924-2007: Thousands Pay Tribute to the Legendary Jazz Drummer, Educator, Activist
• Max Roach at the Hard Bop Homepage
• Discography at Discogs
• Discography and Sessionography
• New York Times obituary
• New York Sun Obituary
• Obituary and Public Tributes
• Slate Magazine Article
• Max Roach Multimedia Directory

Wangechi Mutu (June 25, 1972 Nairobi, Kenya) is an artist and sculptor who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Early life[link]

Originally from the Kenyan Kikuyu tribe, she was educated in Nairobi at Loreto Convent Msongari (1978-1989) and later studied at the United World College of the Atlantic, Wales (I.B., 1991). Mutu moved to New York in the 1990s, focusing on Fine Arts and Anthropology at The New School for Social Research and Parsons School of Art and Design. She earned a BFA from Cooper Union for the Advancement of the Arts and Science in 1996, and then received an MFA from Yale University (2000).

Career[link]

Mutu’s work has been exhibited at galleries and museums worldwide including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Miami Art Museum, Tate Modern in London, the Studio Museum in Harlem in New York, Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf, Germany, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Her first solo exhibition at a major North American museum opened at the Art Gallery of Ontario in March 2010.^[1]

She participated in the 2008 Prospect 1 Biennial in New Orleans and the 2004 Gwangju Biennale in South Korea. Her work has been featured in major exhibitions including Greater New York at the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York and the Barbican Centre in London, and USA Today at the Royal Academy in London.

On February 23, 2010, Wangechi Mutu was honored by Deutsche Bank as their first "Artist of the Year". The prize included a solo exhibition at the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin. Titled My Dirty Little Heaven, the show traveled in June 2010 to Wiels Center for Contemporary Art in Brussels.

She is represented by Barbara Gladstone in New York, Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects in Los Angeles and Victoria Miro Gallery in London.

Works[link]

Mutu's works often make the female body central, and confront the viewer with "plant-like or animal-like elements and intertwined abstract patterns" ^[2] that merge the organic and the surreal with human forms. She has predominantly used watercolour and collage on paper. Her collage A'Gave You (2008) is a collage over 2 metres in height, representing a female figure beside a large tentacled monster, and surrounded by serpentine creatures.

More recently, Mutu has exhibited sculptural installations. Suspended Playtime (2008) is a series of bundles of garbage bags, wrapped in gold twine as if suspended in spiders' webs, all suspended from the ceiling over the viewer. The installation makes reference to the common use of garbage bags as improvised balls and other playthings by African children.

Literature, reviews and criticism[link]

• Resonant Surgeries: The Collaged World of Wangechi Mutu, Interview by Robert Enright, Border Crossings Magazine, February 2008
• Interview with Wangechi Mutu by Aimée Reed, Daily Serving, April 12, 2010
• Cut & Paste by Okwui Enwezor, Arise Magazine, February 2011
• We categorize what we’re afraid of: An encounter with Wangechi Mutu by Matthew Evans, Deutsche Bank Artworks ArtMag, #59, 2010
• Wangechi Mutu by Alpesh Kantilal Patel, Artforum, November 17, 2010
• Wangechi Mutu: Hunt Bury Flee by Karen Rosenberg, The New York Times, November 12, 2010

External links[link]

• Wangechi Mutu Studio, New York
• Wangechi Mutu at the Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin
• Wangechi Mutu This You Call Civilization? at Art Gallery of Ontario. Online resources include video and and audio.
• CNN African Voices special on Wangechi Mutu