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Male Figure

Photo: Paul Macapia

Male Figure

20th century

Ivorian

Kulango

Intimacy is not often conveyed in African couples' demeanor. Formal portraits of high character predominate, each partner typically posed with restraint. The specific meaning of this couple is not known, but their feet have weathered away, indicating that they may have stood upright for many years, as was often the case for figures in shrine settings.
Wood, leather, beads, and white chalk
38 x 5 1/2 x 5 in. (96.52 x 13.97 x 12.7 cm)
Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
81.17.225.1
Provenance: {Possibly collection of Georges Rodriquez (location unknown)}; sold to Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1968; bequeathed to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1981
Photo: Paul Macapia
location
Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistoryLos 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. 49-50, reproduced pl. 52 (as standing male figure).

Los Angeles, California, Frederick S. Wight Art Gallery, University of California, The Arts of Ghana, Oct. 11 - Dec. 11, 1977 (Minneapolis, Minnesota, Walker Art Center, Feb. 11 - Mar. 26, 1978; Dallas, Texas, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, May 3 - July 2, 1978). Text by Herbert M. Cole and Doran H. Ross. No cat. no., p. 229, reproduced fig. 526.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Praise Poems: The Katherine White Collection, July 29 - Sept. 29, 1984 (Washington, D.C., National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Oct. 31, 1984 - Feb. 25, 1985; Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, Apr. 6 - May 19, 1985; Fort Worth, Texas, Kimbell Art Museum, Sept. 7 - Nov. 25, 1985; Kansas City, Missouri, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Mar. 8 - Apr. 20, 1986). Text by Pamela McClusky. Cat. no. 15, p. 38, reproduced (with 81.17.225.2).

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. 26-27, reproduced pl. 3.

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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