Female Figure (Ntkekpe)

Description

Among the Igbo, women are typically responsible for making pottery and other ceramic sculpture. Terracotta figures like this example would have been part of a shrine or placed in a domestic garden or at the entrance of a compound. The figure is seated on a traditional three-tiered Igbo stool and wears anklets, bracelets, and thick coils of waist beads, all indicators of her high status and wealth.

Provenance

Unknown owner, Nigeria, by 2002; sold to Douglas Dawson Gallery, Chicago, Ill., 2002; sold to the Art Institute, 2003.

Female Figure (Ntkekpe)

Igbo

Mid–20th century

Accession Number

180969

Medium

Terracotta and iron

Dimensions

76.2 × 35.6 × 49.6 cm (30 × 14 × 19 1/2 in.)

Classification

sculpture

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Samuel P. Avery Endowment and Edward E. Ayer Endowment in memory of Charles L. Hutchinson