H x W x D: 17.5 x 7 x 5 cm (6 7/8 x 2 3/4 x 1 15/16 in.)
Type:
Figure
Geography:
Congo
Date:
Early 20th century
Label Text:
Seated on an animal, this Bembe figure is posed as a powerful chief. The combination of a leopard's spotted fur with a horned face also suggests extraordinary forces. The pith helmet atop the figure's head is an emblem of European colonial authority that the Bembe peoples incorporated into their own set of symbols expressing rank. While not visible, spiritual power is infused by religious specialists who breathe the spirit of the ancestor--and also in this case, the animal--into holes cut into the underside of the carving.
Description:
Wood male figure wearing a pith helmet sitting crosswise on a horned spotted animal. The figure has glass inlaid eyes and a hole for medicinal substances in the bottom of the figure and the stomach of the animal.
Provenance:
Paul and Ruth Tishman, New York
Exhibition History:
The Walt Disney-Tishman African Art Collection Highlights, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., May 21, 2009-June 4, 2014
African Vision: The Walt Disney-Tishman African Art Collection, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., February 15, 2007-March 31, 2009
First Look: The Walt Disney-Tishman Collection of African Art, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., May 17-December 3, 2006
For Spirits and Kings: African Art from the Paul and Ruth Tishman Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1981
Sculpture of Black Africa: The Paul Tishman Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, October 16, 1968-January 5, 1969; The High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, August 31-November 1, 1970; University of Texas College of Fine Arts, Austin; City Art Museum, St. Louis, August 20-October 17, 1971; Des Moines Art Center; Huntington Galleries, Huntington, WV
Published References:
Kreamer, Christine Mullen, Bryna Freyer and Andrea Nicolls. 2007. African Vision: The Walt Disney-Tishman African Art Collection. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, pp. 52, 61, 92-93, fig. 21, no. 27.
Sieber, Roy and Arnold Rubin. 1968. Sculpture of Black Africa: The Paul Tishman Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, no. 137 (not illustrated).
Vogel, Susan (ed). 1981. For Spirits and Kings: African Art from the Paul and Ruth Tishman Collection. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 210-211, no. 125.
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