Figure Depicting Osugbo Society Member

Place CreatedNigeria, Africa

CultureYoruba, Ijebu, Ijebu Ode

Datebefore 1940

MediumWood, pigment

Credit LineEx coll. William S. Arnett

Dimensions40 3/4 x 8 1/2 x 12 1/2 in. (103.5 x 21.6 x 31.8 cm)

Object number1994.004.727

Label TextThomas Ona Odulate is best known for the creative changes he made to Yoruba art styles and subject matter in order to suit the tastes of new colonial and expatriate patrons. He was active from the turn of the twentieth century into the late 1950s. Trained and established in Ijebu Ode, Odulate later moved to Lagos where he enjoyed noteriety amongst British colonials and tourists. Favoring light weight woods, he carved small-scale carefully observed figures and figure groups featuring the European lawyer, missionary, polo player, sergeant, British captain, tourists, and other colonial types, suitable souvenirs easily transported back to Britian or Europe.

This sculpture was likely made before Odulate moved to Lagos given its large scale, heaviness, and depiction of a Yoruba subject. The downward gaze and the leaning, almost contraposto, stance are unusual features in Yoruba art, features evident in his later Lagos era works. It depicts an Osugbo elder, his society sash (saki) on his right shoulder and bag on the left, performing the Osugbo greeting gesture. The figure may have been commissioned by colonials in Ijebu Ode, or by the Osugbo society there.
Exhibition HistoryAfrican Artistry: Technique and Aesthetics in Yoruba Sculpture, The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, April 17 - May 25, 1980
Art of Nigeria from the William S. Arnett Collection, Michael C. Carlos Museum, October 15, 1994 - January 2, 1995
The Art of Collecting: Recent Acquisitions at the Michael C. Carlos Museum, Michael C. Carlos Museum, November 8, 1997 - January 4, 1998
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, December 2010 - October 2011
Published ReferencesHenry John Drewal, African Artistry: Technique and Aesthetics in Yoruba Sculpture (Atlanta: High Museum of Art, 1980), 68, number 116.

ProvenanceEx coll. William Arnett (1939-2020), Atlanta, Georgia, from at least 1980.

Status

Not on view

Collections