Created in Central Africa over the course of some five hundred years, the works presented in this exhibition reveal the grandeur, dynamism, and resilience of a society and its artistic tradition. These Kongo masterpieces constitute responses to critical developments that unfolded in the region and were inspired by the need to meet the challenges experienced by their communities. They acted as diplomatic salvos, prayers for new life, and, ultimately, defensive shields.

The mighty Congo River extends some three thousand miles from the Atlantic Ocean to the highlands of northeastern Zambia. The surrounding region—spanning portions of Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Angola—was settled by Kongo peoples as early as the seventh century. In 1483 the navigator Diogo Cão reached the mouth of the Congo River on a mission of discovery sponsored by King João II of Portugal. At the time, the Kongo populace was governed by a series of two hundred principalities, the most influential being the kingdoms of Kongo, Loango, and Tio.

The natural resources of Central Africa's Lower Congo region are abundant. From the first moment of contact with Europe, exploitation of its wealth ushered in foreign intervention on a massive scale that has continued unabated into the present. The tenor of the earliest exchanges between Kongo monarchs and their European counterparts was that of a respectful interaction of peers. Exceptionally refined Kongo artistic creations were prized additions to princely collections from the Renaissance through the Enlightenment.

Initially, trade with Portugal expanded existing commercial networks controlled by regional leaders, augmenting their power and influence. Yet not long after the arrival of state-sponsored delegations from Lisbon to Mbanza Kongo (capital of the Kingdom of Kongo), European traders exploited the region for labor needed in New World territories. The transatlantic slave trade introduced a tragic, fundamentally destabilizing influence.

Until the nineteenth century, regional leaders jockeyed to maintain political autonomy and control of their commercial arteries. Local traders relayed people and goods to and from the interior, while Europeans were confined to the coast. By 1884 intense rivalries with and among European powers resulted in the subdivision of the broader Kongo region into three arbitrarily drawn colonies claimed by Portugal, France, and King Leopold II of Belgium: Angola, Moyen Congo, and the Free State (in 1908, the Belgian Congo). During this time, thousands of Kongo artifacts acquired by European colonial officials and traders entered newly formed ethnographic collections in the West.

The legendary brutality of the colonial experience is the lens through which our understanding of this region has been filtered. Kongo: Power and Majesty is a tribute to the enduring contributions of Kongo artists who, in the face of insurmountable odds, responded valiantly and with unparalleled vision.