The rider of this horse made the most of its absurd proportions by acting as a ritual buffoon, mocking a warrior's bravado before a crowd that enjoyed parodies of powerful leaders. Shooting with a wooden machine gun or brandishing a toy sword in the air, the warrior was one of several characters subjected to the satire of Bamana actors. Collector Katherine White (who bought the horse from a Malian trader) envisioned a lively counterpart in Spanish literature: "This is the horse that an African Don Quixote would ride."
Wood, fabric, metal, string, and hair
12 3/8 x 5 1/4 in. (31.5 x 13.3 cm)
L.: 28 1/2 in.
Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
81.17.28
Provenance: [Sulaiman Diané, New York]; purchased from gallery by Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1972; bequeathed to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1981
Not currently on view
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., p. 79, reproduced fig. C-1.
Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Five Installations on the Fourth Floor: Horses, June 26, 1997.
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.
