Tusk with relief carving

ca. 1850

"Her hands are disposed differently; one is placed upon the breast, the other upon the vagina. Possibly she bestows a powerful blessing, swearing on her total role as sustainer and creator of life, but this particular piece of sculpture is an example of 'seaport art,' designed for export, and her pose in this case may be purely ornamental, albeit possibly derived from sacred archetypes." (Robert Farris Thompson, 1974)

This ivory tusk is the early work of a prestigious carving "guild" on the Loango coast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As many as six hundred of these carvings are believed to have been produced during the second half of the nineteenth century, primarily as souvenirs commissioned by employees of European trading companies.

Ivory

6 1/8 x 1 in. (15.6 x 2.5 cm)

Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company

81.17.832

Provenance: [Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, Massachusetts]; purchased by Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1953; bequeathed to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1981

Photo: Paul Macapia

Not currently on view

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. 82-83, reproduced pl. 110 (as carving).

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. 46-47, reproduced pl. 24.

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.

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