Stool

Robert Farris Thompson (1999) observes that different viewers will see slightly different features in a single piece of sculpture. He asked three Africans from different cultures to comment on this stool:

Ejagham (Nigeria and Cameroon): "They seem to carry something for an important person. The way they carry it is beautiful. They hold it with both hands. The load can never fall."

Banyang (Cameroon): "This is a heavy load which cannot be carried without both hands, to reduce the weight."

Suku (Democratic Republic of the Congo): "Our ancestors carried things like that. This pleases me because I have seen my own mother carry things like that, with both hands, taking care that the water in the vessel did not spill."

Wood, metal, pigment, and glass

19 15/16 x 11 1/2 x 11 3/8 in. (50.6 x 29.2 x 28.9 cm)

Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company

81.17.907

Provenance: [Furman Gallery, New York]; purchased from gallery by Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1966; bequeathed to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1981

Photo: Paul Macapia

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistoryCleveland, Ohio, Cleveland Museum of Art, African Tribal Images: The Katherine White Reswick Collection, July 10 - Sept. 1, 1968 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania Museum, Oct. 10 - Dec. 1, 1968). Text by William Fagg. Cat. no. 264, reproduced (as Chief's Stool).

Los 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. 84-85, 116, reproduced pls. 112, III (color).

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Art from Africa: Long Steps Never Broke a Back, Feb. 7 - May 19, 2002 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Oct. 2, 2004 - Jan. 2, 2005; Hartford, Connecticut, Wadsworth Atheneum, Feb. 12 - June 19, 2005; Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Art Museum, Oct. 8, 2005 - Jan. 1, 2006; Nashville, Tennessee, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Jan. 27 - Apr. 30, 2006 [as African Art, African Voices: Long Steps Never Broke a Back]). Text by Pamela McClusky. No cat. no., pp. 48-49, reproduced pl. 25.

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.

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