Images(2)

Female Figure: Kaponya wa Mwana Pwo

Dateearly 20th century

Maker Democratic Republic of the Congo , Chokwe

Label TextAwkward 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.

Object number2014.30.1

Provenance[Papa Alle Gueye, Paris]; acquired in exchange from Mr. Gueye by Mark Groudine and Cynthia Putnam, Seattle, July 2013

Photo CreditPhoto: Elizabeth Mann

Published ReferencesRodrigues de Areia, M.L., et al. Chokwe and Their Bantu Neighbours. Zürich: Jean David & Gerhard Merzeder, 2003, fig. 109

Credit LineGift of Mark Groudine and Cynthia Putnam

Dimensions27 x 5 1/2 x 3 in. (68.6 x 14 x 7.6 cm)

MediumWood