H x W x D: 150.3 x 21.5 x 17 cm (59 3/16 x 8 7/16 x 6 11/16 in.)
Type:
Figure
Geography:
Burkina Faso
Date:
19th to mid-20th century
Label Text:
Professor Christopher Roy has researched Mossi figures created for the ruling elite. He describes this male figure as being the male of a male and female pair that stood at the entrance to a chief's compound. The figures would have been placed about six inches from the mud wall of the house, males to the left of the door, females to the right. Between the figures and the wall stood a decorative straw mat placed so that it can slide across the opening and close off the entrance at night. The figures both hold the mat in place, and show any visitors that they are entering the chief's house. They also have a spritually protective function.
Description:
Wood standing male figure with a round head, concave face, deep-set eyes and attenuated torso and legs, and arms at his sides. Overall grey, eroded surface.
Provenance:
Paul and Ruth Tishman, New York, before 1966 to 1984
Walt Disney World Co., 1984 to 2005
Exhibition History:
Selections from the Paul Tishman Collection of African Sculpture, Haden Galley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, May 20 to June 20, 1969, no. 8
Masterpieces of African Art: Tishman Collection, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Spring-Summer 1967, no. 42
Arts Meconnus de l'Afrique Noire: Collection de Paul Tishman, Musee de l'Homme, Paris, 1966
Published References:
Arts connus et arts méconnus de l'Afrique noire, Collection Paul Tishman. 1966. Paris: Musee de l'Homme, no. 22.
Muze'on Yisra'el. 1967. Masterpieces of African Art: Tishman Collection. Jerusalem: The Israel Museum, no. 42.
Sieber, Roy and Arnold Rubin. 1968. Sculpture of Black Africa: The Paul Tishman Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, no. 21.
Vogel, Susan (ed). 1981. For Spirits and Kings: African Art from the Paul and Ruth Tishman Collection. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 35, no. 16.
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