H x W x D: 25 x 6.8 x 6 cm (9 13/16 x 2 11/16 x 2 3/8 in.)
Type:
Figure
Geography:
Côte d'Ivoire
Date:
ca. 1950
Label Text:
A Baule person would have recognized this figure as a waka sran, a "person in wood." For the Baule, every successful sculpted figure necessarily conveys a sense of individuality, as in the approbation "o fa sran!"--"it resembles a person!" Whether carved to represent one's otherworld mate--the "otherworld woman" (blolo bla) of a man, or the "otherworld man" (blolo bian) of a woman--or a bush-spirit familiar, the sculpted Baule figure is a stand-in interlocutor for an unseen spirit.
A Baule woman probably commissioned this male figure as a portrayal of her otherworld mate, following the instructions of a diviner and his revelation that the particular problem the woman faced stemmed from the jealousy of her neglected mate in the otherworld. To picture his identity and also to ultimately please him, the sculptor set out to carve a person as defined by Baule notions of attractiveness--the length and strength of the neck, the length of the torso, the rounded calves. Yet it is a notion that has literally been given modern dress, as the ideal modern man is successful in an urban context, perhaps a government worker or a thriving businessman.
Description:
Wood standing male figure wearing a yellow cap, a yellow short sleeved shirt with a red collar and tie and red shorts.
Provenance:
Philip L. Ravenhill and Judith Timyan, Washington, D.C., -- to 1993
Exhibition History:
Pavilion: A New Look, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., October 9, 2019–ongoing
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
The Self and the Other, Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California, Los Angeles, October 2, 1994-April 9, 1995
Dreaming the Other World: Figurative Art of the Baule, Côte d'Ivoire, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., June 9-November 30, 1993
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, p. 82, pl. 21.
Ravenhill, Philip L. 1993. Dreaming the Other World: Figurative Art of the Baule, Côte d'Ivoire. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, p. 4, no. 3.
Ravenhill, Philip L. 1996. Dreams and Reverie: Images of Otherworld Mates Among the Baule, West Africa. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 12-13, no. 4.
Turner, Jane (ed). 1996. "Africa." The Dictionary of Art, Vol. 1. New York: Grove, p. 233, no. 11.
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