Stool

"Always a favorite of mine is a stool from the Mambila people of Cameroon. The stool was used when a woman was having difficulty in childbirth, and it was believed that perhaps there were things that were done in the past that ought not to have been done that they ought to be confessed before God in order to purify the situation so that a birth would be possible. It was upon this very stool that the woman would confess her sins, and the stool is supported by ancestors with spectral heads staring like skulls from the other worlds. When she confessed, the release of tension after the admission of guilt would unlock a difficult delivery. When the woman in labor confessed and told exactly what she had done, figurations on the stool were like witnesses to her actions, witnesses to something that is powerful in any of the religions of the world- Muslim, Jewish, or Christian-that there is nothing more healing, nothing more efficacious, than the truth." (Robert Farris Thompson, 2002)

Wood

8 11/16 x 18 3/16 in. (22.1 x 46.2 cm)

Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company

81.17.724

Provenance: Collection of Gilbert Schneider (1920-1999), Athens, Ohio; sold to Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1967; bequeathed to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1981

Photo: Paul Macapia

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistoryCleveland, Ohio, Cleveland Museum of Art, African Tribal Images: The Katherine White Reswick Collection, July 10 - Sept. 1, 1968 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania Museum, Oct. 10 - Dec. 1, 1968). Text by William Fagg. Cat. no. 188.

Los 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. 91, reproduced pls. 120a, 120b.

African Furniture and Household Objects, organized by the American Federation of Arts, New York (Indianapolis, Indiana, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Apr. 9 - May 25, 1980; Kansas City, Missouri, Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, July 3 - Aug. 3, 1980; San Francisco, California, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, Sept. 21 - Nov. 9, 1980; Memphis, Tennessee, Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, Mar. 1 - Apr. 19, 1981; Brooklyn, New York, Brooklyn Museum, June 30 - Sept. 7, 1981).

Washington, D.C., National Museum of African Art, African Emblems of Status, Oct. 1982 - Apr. 1983.

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. 4, pp. 18-19, reproduced (as Stool (ko)).

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, The Table and Chair: A Study in Form and Style, May 28 - Aug. 9, 1987.

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. 51-52, reproduced pl. 29.

Published ReferencesTong, James Y. African Art in the Mambila Collection of Gilbert D. Schneider. Athens, Ohio: 1967; reproduced.

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