Vessel

Date2001

Maker Magdalene Anyango Namakhiya Odundo Kenyan, born 1950

Label TextAn Offering: Vessels and Votives in Contemporary Ceramics Shaping humble clay into transcendent forms fit for the divine is a tradition as old as ceramics themselves. Drawing inspiration from the ancient vernacular of forms and techniques, contemporary artists work with clay to create sculpture that, to our eyes, is both instinctively familiar and unexpectedly fresh. Hidden within the form of an amphora, a silhouette of a woman’s head materializes in Magdalene Odundo’s Vessel. Using shapes and hues reflecting Egyptian and Greek precedents, Odundo eschews the wheel in favor of hand-building her vessels.

Object number2002.41

ProvenanceThe artist; [Anthony Slater-Ralph Fine Art, Santa Barbara, California]; purchased from gallery by Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2002

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. 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]). Tacoma, Washington, Museum of Glass, What Are You Looking At?, Sept. 26, 2021 - Jan. 22, 2023.

Credit LineGeneral Acquisition Fund

Dimensions21 x 12 x 12 1/2 in. (53.3 x 30.5 x 31.8 cm)

MediumPolished and carbonized terracotta