Seated male figure

All Baule human-figure sculptures (waka sran or "person of wood") 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)." (Susan Vogel, 1997)

Spirit spouse shrines are established in the corner of the sleeping room of the spirit's human partner. The sculptures contained in these shrines were meant for private contemplation. Prominent display of these sculptures in art museums and collections is far different from the intimate context in which they were once seen.

Wood

30 1/2 x 8 x 8 1/4 in. (77.5 x 20.3 x 21 cm)

Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company

81.17.233

Provenance: [Ed Primus, Los Angeles, California]; sold to Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1961; bequeathed to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1981

Photo: Paul Macapia

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. 83.

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. 90.

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. 36-37, reproduced pl. 11.

Published ReferencesMcClusky, Pamela. African Art: From Crocodiles to Convertibles in the Collection of the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1987; cat. no. 8, pp. 16-17, reproduced.

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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