Reliquary guardian figure (Eyema Bieri)

Contradictions seem to be captured in this figure. Do his muscles strain with energy, or are they bulging from plumpness? Is the face concentrating or is it remote and passive? Fang religious philosophy acts as a guide to the construction of the figure. Successful byeri figures were expected to hold opposing forces in balance, just as a man must be mature but vital. At birth, men inherit a duality of male sperm (action) and female blood (reflection). Through life, the ideal person is able to combine youthful vigor with wise restraint. This state can be seen in a face which has the sternness of an ancestor, but is on the over scale head of a young child. It is also implied in swollen arms and legs that have muscular strength but also look like the fleshy bulges of a baby's body. The byeri figure holds its hands together with a remarkable tension and served as a guardian sitting on top of a cylindrical box containing sacred relics.

Wood

20 1/8 x 5 5/8 x 6 3/8 in. (51.12 x 14.29 x 16.19 cm)

Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company

81.17.783

Provenance: Collection of John Wise (1902-1981), New York; sold to Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1961; 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., pp. 18-19, reproduced pl. 20 (as "bieri" figure).

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. 13, pp. 34-35, reproduced (as Reliquary figure (eyima)).

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. 38-39, reproduced pl. 14.

Published ReferencesBaldwin, James, Romare Bearden, Ekpo Eyo, Nancy Graves, Ivan Karp, Lela Kouakou, Iba N'Diaye, David Rockerfeller, William Rubin, Robert Farris Thompson, Fang Reliquary Guardian, in Perspectives: Angles on African Art, The Center for African Art: New York and Harry N. Abrams Inc.

Christie's Auction Catalogue: African Art from the Collection of the late Josef Mueller of Solothurn, Switzerland, London, June 13, 1978, p. 48-49, illus no. 135.

Dieterlen, Germaine, Textes sacres d'Afrique Noire, in Collection Unesco D'oeuvres Representatives Serie africaine, p. 238-239.

Fernandez, James, The Exposition and Imposition of Order: Artistic Expression in Fang Culture, in The Traditional Artist in African Soieties, ed. by W. d'Azevedo, Bloomington, 1973, p. 197-206.

Fernandez, James W., Principles of Opposition and Vitality in Fang Aesthetics, in the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticisms, Vol. 25 No. 1 (1996), p. 55-64.

Lamp, Frederick, African Art at the Baltimore Museum of Art, in African Arts, Vol. 17 No. 1 (Nov 1983), p. 32-46+88.

Perrois, Louis, La statuaire des Fang du Gabon, in Arts d'Afrique Noire, 7.15, (Autumn 1973), p. 22-39.

ed. Ross, Doran H., Standing Male (Desexed) Figure, probably Fang People; Okak or Ntumu Subgroup with stong Mabea influence; Equatorial Guinea, in Visions of Africa: The Jerome L. Joss Collection of African Art at UCLA, p. 100-101+105.

Sotheby's Tribal Art, Fang Male Reliquary Guardian Figure, November 15, 1988, illus no. 71.

Sotheby's: Tribal Art, A Fang Male Reliquary Guardian Figure, July 2, 1990, illus no. 122.

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