Female Figure: Kaponya wa Mwana Pwo
early 20th century
Awkward angularity infects this portrayal of a Chokwe spirit woman. Chokwe sculptors are far better known for a court art that depicts ancestors in naturalistic terms. This figure with elongated limbs and slightly tilted torso is likely to have been kept by a person of high social status, or by a diviner who sought the insight of a female ancestor. Drawn upright, shoulders down, and seeming to concentrate with her eyes shut, this figure achieves balance despite her extraordinarily elongated limbs.
Wood
27 x 5 1/2 x 3 in. (68.6 x 14 x 7.6 cm)
Gift of Mark Groudine and Cynthia Putnam
2014.30.1
Provenance: [Papa Alle Gueye, Paris]; acquired in exchange from Mr. Gueye by Mark Groudine and Cynthia Putnam, Seattle, July 2013
Photo: Elizabeth Mann