Heddle pulley with anthropomorphic head "kono"

Thomas L. McNemar (1931-2020), Lexington, Virginia, USA

McNemar came into contact with African art by chance when he was doing research for his doctoral thesis at the British Museum in London. It was here that he met William Fagg, “the man who was to change his life”. From then on, he became intensely involved with African art. In the late 1960s, he ran a gallery in New York and later in San Francisco. He spent twenty years in West Africa and amassed an extensive collection of African art. 150 African sculptures from his collection were donated to the North Dakota Museum of Art (2012-2013).