Tapestry

Object Details

Papa Ibra Tall, Senegal, 1935-2015

Label Text

A harmonious world order is conceived through the intermingling of human and floral imagery in a brightly hued tapestry created by the Senegalese modernist Papa Ibra Tall. As founder and lead artist at the National Tapestry Center in Dakar, Senegal, in the early years following independence, Tall produced highly decorative, monumental tapestries dedicated to the celebration of a jazzy African modernism based on pan-Africanist ideals.

At first it is hard to discern the human forms amid the highly decorative vegetation that dominates this composition. Then the eyes adjust to the ways that the central figure's head and hands, and the smaller heads to either side, are composed of the surrounding flora--a visualization suggestive of intellectual engagement in perfect balance with the natural world.

Description

Tapestry featuring an abstract woman's head and hands, flanked on either side by other female faces looking away from the central figure, amidst a richly decorative floral, leaf/vegetation and spiderweb pattern in bright hues.

Provenance

Robert S. McNamara, Washington, D.C. - to 1984

Exhibition History

Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue - From the Collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and Camille O. and William H. Cosby, Jr., National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, November 7, 2014-January 24, 2016

Encounters with the Contemporary, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., January 7, 2001-January 6, 2002

Published References

Kreamer, Christine Mullen and Adrienne L. Childs (eds). 2014. Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue from the Collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and Camille O. and William H. Cosby, Jr. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, pp. 203, 212, no. 98, pl. 111.

Content Statement

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Image Requests

High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/

Credit Line

Gift of Robert S. McNamara

1964

Object number

84-7-1

Restrictions & Rights

Usage conditions apply

Type

Textile and Fiber Arts

Medium

Cotton, wool, dye

Dimensions

H x W: 157.5 x 226.0 cm (62 x 89 in.)

Geography

Senegal

See more items in

National Museum of African Art Collection

National Museum of African Art

Topic

Plant

female

floral

Record ID

nmafa_84-7-1

Metadata Usage (text)

Not determined

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ys7d9e22149-92db-4246-b00b-cbde82e6e195