Couscous Platter

Description

Female potters of the Aït Bouaddou and other Imazighen groups of Algeria’s mountainous Kabylie region embellish their ceramics for storing, preparing, and serving food with a variety of painted decorations. Drawing on a rich vocabulary of checkerboards, crosses, circles, and triangles, this boldly ornamented platter is enlivened with a symmetrical composition that develops outward from a central point.

Provenance

Unknown owner, Morocco, by about 1990; sold to Joan Barist Primitive Art, New York, N.Y., about 1990; sold to Throckmorton Fine Art, New York, N.Y., about 1995; sold to Tom Alexander, New York, N.Y., about 1995; sold to Keith Achepohl, about 1995; given to the Art Institute, 2005.

Couscous Platter

Aït bou Addou

Early/mid–20th century

Accession Number

185714

Medium

Terracotta and pigment

Dimensions

45.1 × 45.1 × 7.7 cm (17 3/4 × 17 3/4 × 3 in.)

Classification

vessel

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Gift of Keith Achepohl