© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University. Photo by Michael McKelvey.

ClassificationsAfrican Art

Figure Group

Place CreatedNigeria, Africa

CultureIbibio or Ogoni

Dateafter 1940

MediumWood, paint, sacrificial material

Credit LineGift of William S. Arnett

Dimensions24 x 13 5/8 x 10 7/16 in. (61 x 34.6 x 26.5 cm)

Object number1994.003.008

Label TextThis enigmatic group of figures was inspired by color prints of south Indian Hindu shrine sculpture depicting the simian deity Hanuman. The British traded Indian Madras cloth into Nigeria during the colonial period, and this became a route by which such prints travelled. Hanuman was praised in India for his superhuman strength, ability to perform magical acts, and protect his patrons from the forces of evil. In this sculpture, the human male figure with monkey-like face is carrying, and therefore protecting, two small figures while appearing to overpower the lower figure. The specific use, significance, and meaning of this piece remains obscure. However, local healers in southern Nigeria make use of many types of imported imagery including Hindu material. The figures themselves are likely to have originated in Nigeria, and were quite possibly employed in a similar fashion to Mami Wata images. They may also have been intended for use in Ibibio puppet plays.
Exhibition HistoryThree Rivers of Nigeria: Art of the Lower Niger, Cross, and Benue from the Collection of William and Robert Arnett, The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, 1978
Art of Nigeria from the William S. Arnett Collection, Michael C. Carlos Museum, October 15, 1994 - January 2, 1995
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, Rotation 1, December 15, 1995 - February 1997
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, Rotation 2, February 1997 - July 1998
Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and the African Atlantic World (travelling show), Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, California, March 1 - July 2008; Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, October 18, 2008 - January 11, 2009; National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, April - July 2009; Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, Stanford, California, August 4, 2010 - January 2, 2011
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, August 6, 2016 - Present
Published ReferencesMarcilene K. Wittmer and William Arnett, Three Rivers of Nigeria: Art of the Lower Niger, Cross, and Benue (Atlanta: The High Museum of Art, 1978), 60-61, number 142.
Dana Rush, "Eternal Potential: Chromolithographs in Vodunland," African Arts 32 (Winter 1999): 65, figure 7.
Henry John Drewal, "Introduction: Sources and Currents," in Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas, ed. Henry John Drewal (Los Angeles, Fowler Museum at UCLA, 2008), 60, figure 44.
MCCM Newsletter, September - November 2009.

ProvenanceEx coll. William Arnett (1939-2020), Atlanta, Georgia, from at least 1978.

Status

On view

Collections