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Lion Stool

Photo: Paul Macapia

Lion Stool

after 1957

To sit on top of this lion may be read as a symbolic slap in the face of colonial rule. British colonial governors often sat on thrones adorned with lions that had been imported from England. Lions and unicorns were common as insignia of power-images carved into the top of thrones, on flags, and on commercial packaging. In this stool, the independence of Ghana from the British crown is made evident. It recalls a proverb, "Obi te obi so" ("there is always somebody sitting on somebody else").



Wood and paint
16 9/16 x 20 13/16 x 11 7/8 in. (42.1 x 52.9 x 30.2 cm)
Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
81.17.545
Photo: Paul Macapia
location
Not currently on view

Resources

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

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Documents International: Reflections in the Mirror: A World of Identity, Apr. 23, 1998 - June 20, 1999.

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. 96-97, reproduced pl. 97.


Published ReferencesMcClusky, Pamela. African Art: From Crocodiles to Convertibles in the Collection of the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1987; cat. no. 9, pp. 18-19, reproduced and on cover.

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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