10/04/09 Adornments Wrought From Liquid Gold

The Bruce Museum in Greenwich has come up with some refreshingly different shows this year. In addition to an exhibition of European masterpieces from the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico, it is offering two shows of works from the collection of Olga Hirshhorn: “West African Gold from the Ivory Coast,” the smaller but in certain ways more impressive of the two shows, and “The Mouse House” (reviewed in the Sept. 4 Weekend section of The Times), which contains some 200 small-scale artworks and artifacts that Ms. Hirshhorn used to decorate her 500-square-foot pied-à-terre in Washington.

Hirshhorn, 89, grew up in Greenwich but now lives most of the year in Florida and on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. She is the widow of the art collector and philanthropist Joseph Hirshhorn, who, in 1974, founded the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden on the mall in Washington. Like her husband, Ms. Hirshhorn is an avid collector — not only of art but also of toasters, hats, even pencil sharpeners.

She began her African gold collection in the 1970s, focusing on the very finely wrought ornaments and pendants made by skilled goldsmiths of the Baule and Lagoon peoples of Ivory Coast, especially those of the Akye, Kyaman and Adjukru communities. About 90 of these objects make up the current display, arranged in cases and dramatically lighted in a darkened room......

Full story: www.nytimes.com

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