Whenever sharp metal and skin connect in the line of duty, Ogun is paid tribute. Blacksmiths, truck drivers, mechanics, barbers and warriors all honor his discovery of iron, which enabled tools like this axe to be made. However, iron also made weapons possible-Ogun worshippers wave axes as they explore the role of violence in human experience.
Wood, iron
19 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 in. (49.5 x 6.4 x 8.9 cm)
Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
81.17.603
Now on view at the
Seattle Art Museum
Resources
Exhibition HistoryLos Angeles, California, Frederick S. Wight Art Gallery, University of California, African Art in Motion: Icon and Act, Jan. 20 - Mar. 17, 1974 (Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, May 5 - Sept. 22, 1974). Text by Robert Farris Thompson. No cat. no., pp. 96-97, reproduced pl. 132 (as "shango" axe).
Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.
