Zanzibar / Gold #2

Description

In Zanzibar / Gold #2 cold, hard metal contrasts with soft, flowing fiber to upend the typical balance of a sculpture: The silk appears to support the heavy bronze. The artist used lost-wax casting, a process invented thousands of years ago, to create the ribbons of bronze. This is one of six works by Chase-Riboud named after her poem “Why Did We Leave Zanzibar?,” a complex meditation on the consequences of the transatlantic slave trade and forced migration.

Provenance

The artist. Sold to Le Miroir d’Encre, Brussels; sold Du Vuyst Auctions, Belgium, Oct. 2021, lot 400, to private collection, Zurich; sold through Ortuzar Projects, New York, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Sept. 10, 2024.

Zanzibar / Gold #2

Barbara Chase-Riboud

1977

Accession Number

267438

Medium

Polished bronze and silk

Dimensions

137.2 × 55 × 25.1 cm (54 × 21 5/8 × 9 7/8 in.)

Classification

sculpture

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Through prior purchase from the Mary and Leigh Block Endowment Fund