Skip to main content
Collections Menu
SAM'S collection
Photo: Paul Macapia
Figurative Weight (abrammuo): Men Meeting
Photo: Paul Macapia

Figurative Weight (abrammuo): Men Meeting

Label TextTwo men lean back to greet each other in this weight that evokes the proverb, "They have ended up like Amoako and Adu." This proverb is an expression about wasted opportunities: Amoaku and Adu parted in their youth and meet again in old age to discover they are both as poor as when they started.
Object number81.17.361
Provenance[Julius Carlebach Gallery, New York]; purchased from gallery by Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1961; bequeathed to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1981
Photo CreditPhoto: Paul Macapia
Exhibition HistoryCleveland, Ohio, Cleveland Museum of Art, African Tribal Images: The Katherine White Reswick Collection, July 10 - Sept. 1, 1968 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania Museum, Oct. 10 - Dec. 1, 1968). Text by William Fagg. Cat. no. 105. Los 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. 20-21, reproduced pl. 22 (as goldweight). 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. 81-82, reproduced pl. 45. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Lessons from the Institute of Empathy, Mar. 31, 2018 - ongoing.
Credit LineGift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
Dimensions1 3/8 x 1 1/16 x 13/16 in. (3.5 x 2.7 x 2.1 cm)
MediumCopper alloy
Photo: Paul Macapia
Ghanaian
Object number: 81.17.362
Photo: Paul Macapia
Ghanaian
Object number: 81.17.394
Photo: Paul Macapia
Ghanaian
Object number: 81.17.390
Photo: Paul Macapia
Ghanaian
Object number: 81.17.396
Photo: Paul Macapia
Ghanaian
Object number: 81.17.397
Figurative Weight (abrammuo): Shield
Ghanaian
Object number: 67.150
Gold weight
Ghanaian
Object number: 68.72
Gold weight:  sandals
Ghanaian
Object number: 81.17.1185
Gold weight:  geometric
Ghanaian
Object number: 81.17.1190
Gold weight
Ghanaian
Object number: 81.17.1206