All Baule human-figure sculptures are made for private shrines that belong to and serve single individuals. Spirit spouse figures such as this help their human partners broadly in their lives, and can spread their good will to the children or spouse of their partner. More rarely, a spirit spouse will help a clairvoyant or diviner to foretell the future for clients, or will produce some other specialized talent or activity, such as singing or dancing skills.
Wood
26 1/4 x 5 15/16 x 7 11/16 in. (66.7 x 15.1 x 19.5 cm)
Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
81.17.232
Provenance: [J. J. Klejman Gallery, New York]; purchased from gallery by Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1964; bequeathed to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1981
Now on view at the
Seattle Art Museum
Resources
Exhibition HistoryCleveland, Ohio, Cleveland Museum of Art, African Tribal Images: The Katherine White Reswick Collection, July 10 - Sept. 1, 1968 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania Museum, Oct. 10 - Dec. 1, 1968). Text by William Fagg. Cat. no. 82.
Los 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. 68-69, reproduced pl. 91 (as seated male figure with drum).
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.
