Dogs can make good detectives, with acute senses to follow the path of an enemy. This dog's front legs have been lengthened to emphasize his state of readiness. Such an nkisi (protective image) may have been provided to remind someone to be more decisive.
Wood, cloth, resin, camwood powder
14 1/4 x 2 15/16 x 6 7/8 in. (36.2 x 7.5 x 17.5 cm)
Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
81.17.840
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., p. 73, reproduced pl. 100 (as seated dog).
San Francisco, California, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, Kongo Power Figures, Nov. 15, 1989 - Jan. 21, 1990.
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.
