This figurative weight of a man carrying a load on his head illustrates the proverb, "As long as the head remains, one cannot avoid carrying loads about." One interpretation of the proverb is, "as long as people live, they never stop worrying."
Copper alloy
2 3/8 x 1 x 3/4 in. (6.1 x 2.6 x 1.9 cm)
Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection
51.183
Provenance: Purchased from Altman Antiques; Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection, 1951
Now on view at the
Seattle Art Museum
Resources
Exhibition HistorySeattle, 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. 20, 2005 - Jan. 1, 2006; Nashville, Tennessee, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Jan. 27 - Apr. 20, 2006 [as African Art, African Voices: Long Steps Never Broke a Back]).
Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Lessons from the Institute of Empathy, Mar. 31, 2018 - ongoing.
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.
