Staff for Esu (Ogo Elegba)

1920-75

Nigerian, Yoruba, Kwara State, Kajola, 1885 - 1975

Esu is a catalyst whose presence as an intermediary of fate can be traced all over the African Atlantic world. Here, he plays a flute, perhaps to announce a message from other gods or using it to blow unexpected sounds in one of his many acts of irreverence. His hair is groomed in a long arc that ends in an elder's face to remind us of his dual nature: erratic and wise.

Possibly ire (rubber tree) and twine

16 13/16 x 3 1/4 x 9 9/16 in. (42.7 x 8.2 x 24.3 cm)

Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company

81.17.598

Provenance: {Unknown auction (sale of anonymous collection), Chicago, Illinois}; purchased at auction by Ross Widen, Cleveland, Ohio; sold to Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1967; bequeathed to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1981

Photo: Paul Macapia

Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

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. 108, reproduced fig. F-2 (as "elegba" staff).

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Praise Poems: The Katherine White Collection, July 29 - Sept. 29, 1984 (Washington, D.C., National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Oct. 31, 1984 - Feb. 25, 1985; Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, Apr. 6 - May 19, 1985; Fort Worth, Texas, Kimbell Art Museum, Sept. 7 - Nov. 25, 1985; Kansas City, Missouri, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Mar. 8 - Apr. 20, 1986). Text by Pamela McClusky. Cat. no. 25, pp. 58-59, reproduced (as Staff (Eshu)).

New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University Art Gallery, Bámigbóyè: A Master Sculptor of the Yorùbá Tradition, Sept. 9, 2022 - Jan. 8, 2023. Text by James Green, et al. No cat. no., p. 79, reproduced fig. 48.

Published ReferencesBrodd, Jeffrey, World Religions: A Voyage of Discovery, pg. 27

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