Male figure

Object Details

Kissi artist

Label Text

Kissi, Mende and other peoples living in Guinea and Sierra Leone unearth several styles of stone figures and heads from their fields, streams and wells. They attribute these figures to the former inhabitants of the land or to spirits and reuse them in ancestral or agricultural shrines. Although dates have been proposed by stylistically comparing the figures and heads with export ivories and a few carbon-dated wood figures, their original makers and uses are unknown.

Description

Stone standing male figure with a central crest hairstyle, protruding almond eyes, broad nostrils and an open mouth with teeth. The hands meet across the torso and there is white pigment (kaolin) in the crevasses, especially the teeth, eyes and groin.

Exhibition History

African Vision: The Walt Disney-Tishman African Art Collection, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., February 15, 2007-March 31, 2009

First Look: The Walt Disney-Tishman Collection of African Art, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., May 17-December 3, 2006

For Spirits and Kings: African Art from the Paul and Ruth Tishman Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1981

Arts connus et arts méconnus de l'Afrique noire, Collection Paul Tishman, Musee de l'Homme, Paris, 1966

Published References

Arts connus et arts méconnus de l'Afrique noire, Collection Paul Tishman. 1966. Paris: Musee de l'Homme, no. 31 (not illustrated).

Kreamer, Christine Mullen, Bryna Freyer and Andrea Nicolls. 2007. African Vision: The Walt Disney-Tishman African Art Collection. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, pp. 72-73, no. 17.

Laude, Jean. 1971. The Arts of Black Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press, p. 185.

Vogel, Susan (ed). 1981. For Spirits and Kings: African Art from the Paul and Ruth Tishman Collection. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 61, no. 28.

Content Statement

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Credit Line

Gift of Walt Disney World Co., a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company

Possibly 16th-17th century

Object number

2005-6-55

Restrictions & Rights

CC0

Type

Figure

Medium

Stone, pigment

Dimensions

H x W x D: 18.8 x 6 x 6.3 cm (7 3/8 x 2 3/8 x 2 1/2 in.)

Geography

Guinea

See more items in

National Museum of African Art Collection

National Museum of African Art

Topic

Shrine/Altar

male

Record ID

nmafa_2005-6-55

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ys78ccba99f-0c75-42d9-9c7a-4d3086701b1d