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Photo: Paul Macapia
Throne
Photo: Paul Macapia

Throne

Label TextCarvers of the Grasslands watched British and French colonial officers preside from armchairs imported from Europe. They created versions for their own royal leaders, imbued with ominous intensity. Above, chameleons are symbolic of the ruler's ability to transform into other creatures and to dwell in alternate levels of reality. Below, a figure extends a neck of large proportions to peer over a skull. The European chair has been infused with subtle rebellion to make its loyalties clear.
Object number81.17.721
Photo CreditPhoto: Paul Macapia
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. 86-87, reproduced pl. 116. 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. 51, reproduced pl. 28.
Credit LineGift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
Dimensions36 1/2 x 20 3/4 in. (92.7 x 52.7 cm)
MediumWood
Photo: Paul Macapia
Cameroonian
20th century
Object number: 81.17.720
Photo: Paul Macapia
Nigerian/Cameroonian
Object number: 81.17.507
Photo: Paul Macapia
Cameroonian
Object number: 81.17.723
Ngunja (throne)
Object number: 81.17.915
Chief's throne
19th or early 20th century
Object number: 81.17.916
Photo: Paul Macapia
Cameroonian
20th century
Object number: 81.17.755
Single-faced Crest mask
Nigerian/Cameroonian
Object number: 81.17.508
Figure (Tadep)
Cameroonian
Object number: 81.17.712
Photo: Paul Macapia
Cameroonian
19th century
Object number: 81.17.718
Cameroonian
early 20th century
Object number: 2010.45.2
Imperial throne
Chinese
18th century
Object number: 33.1086.1