Description
Among the Fang people, figures that serve as guardians of ancestral remains often conflate features of infants and the elderly, combining the wide-eyed stare and rounded arms and hands of a child with the sunken cheeks and drawn mouth of an old man. These visual oppositions infuse a figure with the vitality and animation that are crucial to its ongoing role as an intermediary with the ancestors.
Provenance
Ladislas Segy (L. Szecsi; died 1988), Segy Art Gallery, New York, N.Y., by 1952 [published in Segy 1952, fig. no. 80 and documented in Affinities of Form, 1996, p. 216]; sold to Raymond Wielgus (died 2010) and Laura Wielgus (died 2003), Chicago, Ill., from 1955 [Affinities of Form, 1996, pg. 216]; given to the Art Institute, 1958.
Accession Number
8027
Medium
Wood with oil
Dimensions
50.2 × 14.6 × 14.9 cm (19 3/4 × 5 3/4 × 5 7/8 in.)
Classification
sculpture
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Wielgus
