Wood, pigment, antelope horn, cloth, glass beads, cowrie shells, metal
Dimensions:
H x W x D: 36.5 x 11.5 x 10.7 cm (14 3/8 x 4 1/2 x 4 3/16 in.)
Type:
Figure
Geography:
Angola
Zambia
Date:
Mid-20th century
Label Text:
This female figure is in what is often described as the classic Lwena style. The figure stands in a restrained pose with arms drawn in over the waist, framing the naval. The delicate, serene facial features are surmounted by a flat-topped cushion-shaped coiffure. Small almond-shaped eyes are covered with metal inlay. The beads and textile skirt worn by the figure are rare survivors, as is the antelope horn inserted into the crown of the head. Often such additions were removed by art dealers or collectors as elements that obscured the basic sculptural form.
The inverted horn and the cloth bundles on the upper left arm and back of this figure strongly suggest a protective or medicinal role, and it may have a connection to honoring female ancestors or a diviner's tutelary spirits. The figure's costume, hairstyle and general appearance seem to be associated with female initiation. This transferred a girl's affiliation from her parents to her husband. Particularly detailed documentation about the process comes from the Lunda peoples. The development of breasts is the criterion for their ceremony, and the small breasts of the figure seem to be that of a young girl. After a period of seclusion, varying in length and featuring instruction in traditional dances and sexual matters, the girl emerges. She has scarification, thought to be sexually attractive, which was created during initiation; a shaved hairline; and hair rubbed with red clay and castor oil to form a caplike coiffure. She wears a wrap skirt, and her chest is crossed with beads, including the white beads she received on beginning the period of seclusion. Medicine-filled rattles take the form of little bundles that are worn on her legs and at the small of her back. Another source writes of a Luvale (Lwena peoples living in Zambia) coming out and wedding in which the young woman is similarly treated: her head is shaved and the remaining hair plaited, her body and hair oiled and colored with red clay, and she is adorned with beads around her neck and between her breasts. Both the Lunda and Lwena occasions emphasize the importance of fertility as the defining distinction between child and adult. While not used in this transitional ceremony, this type of figure may very well have had some role in promoting and protecting a woman's fertility, perhaps during childbirth.
Description:
Standing female figure with hands on stomach, a cushion hairstyle with linear incised decoration, inverted horn inserted on top, brass tack front center, slit eyes with metal inlay, slightly open mouth, small breasts and an umbilical hernia. Multiple strands of multicolor seed beads adorn the neck, baldrick and waist. The figure wears a red cotton skirt with square print, adn there are cloth bundles attached to the proper left upper arm and back beads.
Provenance:
Gaston de Havenon, New York, after 1970, before 1988
Tambaran Gallery, New York, ca. 1991 to 1996
Exhibition History:
Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue - From the Collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and Camille O. and William H. Cosby, Jr., National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, November 7, 2014-January 24, 2016
Art and Power in the Central African Savanna: Luba, Songye, Chokwe, Luluwa, The Menil Collection, Houston, September 26, 2008-January 4, 2009; Cleveland Museum of Art, March 1-June 7, 2009; de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, June 27-October 11, 2009
Published References:
Christie's. 1970. Primitive Art, Antiquities and Islamic Works of Art. Auction catalogue(December 2). London, no. 263.
Kreamer, Christine Mullen and Adrienne L. Childs (eds). 2014. Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue from the Collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and Camille O. and William H. Cosby, Jr. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, pp. 66-67, 76, no. 50, pl. 14.
National Museum of African Art. 1999. Selected Works from the Collection of the National Museum of African Art. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, p. 129.
Petridis, Constantine. 2008. Art and Power in the Central African Savanna. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art; Brussels: Mercatorfonds, pp. 102-103, no. 70.
Sotheby's Parke Bernet. 1982. Fine African and Oceanic Art. Auction catalogue, 4735Y (January 20). New York, no. 291.
Zarember, Maureen and Alfred Scheinberg. 1991. Woman Eternal: The Female Image in African Art. New York: Tambaran Gallery, no. 17.
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