Despite his small stature, this figure is a watchful guardian. Wide-eyed, his legs are crouched and arms cocked, ready to fend off any harmful agents. He was created to stand outside a sacred storehouse filled with ritual materials.
Wood, pigment, feathers, metal
2 9/16 x 1 1/16 x 1 1/16 in. (6.5 x 2.75 x 2.75 cm)
Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
81.17.712
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., pp. 56-57, reproduced pl. 66 (as standing male figure).
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.
