Ring

20th century

Asante instill meanings in what can seem to be mundane objects: the forms of peanuts, grubs, porcupines, knots and seed pods appear in golden splendor. Proverbs behind the rings suggest the wisdom in the ordinary.

A peanut refers to: "If you want to plant something for me, plant peanuts, not corn." This is a wish for a permanent relationship-peanuts remain in the ground and form vines, whereas corn is uprooted and destroyed every season.

Gold

1 1/8 x 1 1/8 x 1 5/8 in. (2.9 x 2.9 x 4.1 cm)

Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company

81.17.406

Photo: Paul Macapia

Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, African Panoplies: Art for Rulers, Traders, Hunters, and Priests, Apr. 21 - Aug. 14, 1988.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Museum of Art, African Art, African Voices: Long Steps Never Broke a Back, organized by the Seattle Art Museum, 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). Text by Pamela McClusky. No cat. no., pp. 78-79, reproduced pl. 39 (as Peanut ring, misnumbered as 81.17.400).

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Lessons from the Institute of Empathy, Mar. 31, 2018 - ongoing.

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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