The William W. Brill Collection of African Art

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Lot 130
  • 130

A Tshokwe wood and fibre figure

Estimate
7,000 - 10,000 USD
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Description

the wooden figure with bent legs, elongated torso and short arms supporting the upturned head; the whole covered with woven fiber, with an antelope fur skirt and rooster feathered crown and wearing a mask with circular eyes and mouth.

Provenance

Acquired from Stolper Galleries, Amsterdam, Morton Lipkin and Robert Stolper, 1969

Exhibited

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Milwaukee Public Museum, Selections from the William W. Brill Collection of African Art, May 5 – August 31, 1969 (for additional venues see bibliography, Milwaukee 1969)
Birmingham, Alabama, Birmingham Museum of Art, Chokwe: Art and Initiation Among Chokwe and Related Peoples, November 1, 1998 - January 3, 1999 (for additional venues see bibliography, Jordán 1998)

Literature

Jordán 1998: plate 97

Catalogue Note

Among the Tshokwe and the related Luvale and Lunda peoples, figures such as the offered Brill work served a didactic function, and were used to instruct initiates as to the different types of ancestral spirits and dance skills.

This figure in particular with its rounded eyes and feather headdress is 'characteristic of Katotola, an ancestral mask from northwestern Zambia. Katotola possesses extraordinary supernatural powers, which are generally employed to protect the mukanda male initiation camp' (Jordan 1998: figure 97).