Male figure
date: label: Date
content: Possibly 16th-17th century
name: label: Maker
content: Kissi artist
notes: label: Label Text
content: Kissi, Mende and other peoples living in Guinea and Sierra Leone unearth several styles of stone figures and heads from their fields, streams and wells. They attribute these figures to the former inhabitants of the land or to spirits and reuse them in ancestral or agricultural shrines. Although dates have been proposed by stylistically comparing the figures and heads with export ivories and a few carbon-dated wood figures, their original makers and uses are unknown.
label: Description
content: Stone standing male figure with a central crest hairstyle, protruding almond eyes, broad nostrils and an open mouth with teeth. The hands meet across the torso and there is white pigment (kaolin) in the crevasses, especially the teeth, eyes and groin.
label: Exhibition History
content: African Vision: The Walt Disney-Tishman African Art Collection, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., February 15, 2007-March 31, 2009
label: Exhibition History
content: First Look: The Walt Disney-Tishman Collection of African Art, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., May 17-December 3, 2006
label: Exhibition History
content: For Spirits and Kings: African Art from the Paul and Ruth Tishman Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1981
label: Exhibition History
content: Arts connus et arts méconnus de l'Afrique noire, Collection Paul Tishman, Musee de l'Homme, Paris, 1966
label: Published References
content: Arts connus et arts méconnus de l'Afrique noire, Collection Paul Tishman. 1966. Paris: Musee de l'Homme, no. 31 (not illustrated).
label: Published References
content: Kreamer, Christine Mullen, Bryna Freyer and Andrea Nicolls. 2007. African Vision: The Walt Disney-Tishman African Art Collection. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, pp. 72-73, no. 17.
label: Published References
content: Laude, Jean. 1971. The Arts of Black Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press, p. 185.
label: Published References
content: Vogel, Susan (ed). 1981. For Spirits and Kings: African Art from the Paul and Ruth Tishman Collection. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 61, no. 28.
label: Content Statement
content: As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.
label: Image Requests
content: High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/
place: label: Geography
content: Guinea
topic: label: Topic
content: Shrine/Altar
label: Topic
content: male
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African Art Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Walt Disney World Co., a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African Art
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2005-6-55
objectType: label: Type
content: Figure
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Stone, pigment
label: Dimensions
content: H x W x D: 18.8 x 6 x 6.3 cm (7 3/8 x 2 3/8 x 2 1/2 in.)