Female Figure: Kaponya wa Mwana Pwo

early 20th century

Democratic Republic of the Congo , Chokwe

Awkward angularity infects this portrayal of a Chokwe spirit woman. Chokwe sculptors are far better known for a court art that depicts ancestors in naturalistic terms. This figure with elongated limbs and slightly tilted torso is likely to have been kept by a person of high social status, or by a diviner who sought the insight of a female ancestor. Drawn upright, shoulders down, and seeming to concentrate with her eyes shut, this figure achieves balance despite her extraordinarily elongated limbs.

Wood

27 × 5 1/2 × 3 in. (68.6 × 14 × 7.6 cm)

Gift of Mark Groudine and Cynthia Putnam

2014.30.1

Provenance: [Papa Alle Gueye, Paris]; acquired in exchange from Mr. Gueye by Mark Groudine and Cynthia Putnam, Seattle, July 2013

Photo: Elizabeth Mann

Not currently on view

Resources

Published ReferencesRodrigues de Areia, M.L., et al. Chokwe and Their Bantu Neighbours. Zürich: Jean David & Gerhard Merzeder, 2003, fig. 109

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