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Seated Officer

Photo: Paul Macapia

Seated Officer

Congolese

Kongo

"Such men cannot be fully accepted: they are bats, birds that seem like animals and yet they fly." (Fu Kiau Bunseki, 2001)

A white officer wearing a tuxedo has been embellished with bilongo (effective materials) that cause his shoulders to swell into enormous epaulets. Reeds, which may contain gunpowder, are plastered onto the stomach with a resinous mass. Sealed with a mirror, this gland indicated the ritual expert's power to see beyond common surfaces and to penetrate secrets.

Wood, mirror, glass, chalk, camwood powder, and clay
9 1/2 x 5 3/16 x 4 1/2 in. (24.2 x 13.1 x 11.5 cm)
Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
81.17.835
Provenance: [Gallery K, Los Angeles, California]; purchased from gallery by Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1978; bequeathed to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1981
Photo: Paul Macapia
location
Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, 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. 23, pp. 54-55, reproduced (as Power figure (nkisi)).

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, The Museum: Mixed Metaphors, Fred Wilson, Jan. 28 - June 13, 1993.

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., p. 157, reproduced pl. 76.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Emblems of Encounter: Europe and Africa over 500 Years, Jan. 23, 2016 - Jan. 29, 2023.

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.

Learn more about Equity at SAM