Olumeye or "one who knows honor" are often filled with kola nuts that a king gives to his guest as an expression of hospitality. This woman exemplifies Yoruba ideals of beauty-her hairstyle indicates she is married to a deity and she manifests an inner beauty as she bears gifts with an enigmatic smile.
Wood, encrustations, and pigment
13 5/16 x 4 1/16 x 6 in. (33.8 x 10.3 x 15.2 cm)
Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
81.17.604
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.
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. 45-46, reproduced pl. 20.
Published ReferencesMcClusky, Pamela. African Art: From Crocodiles to Convertibles in the Collection of the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1987; cat. no. 2, pp. 8-9, reproduced (as Figure with bowl).
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.
