Collection record · Objects & craft
Male Figure
The collection record classifies this work as sculpture. It is dated by 1931. Recorded culture or place: Africa, West Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, Baule peoples.
Explore the object recordOBJECT RECORD
A closer look at the details.
- Museum title
- Male Figure
- Date
- by 1931
- Culture / origin
- Africa, West Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, Baule peoples
- Materials and technique
- wood
- Dimensions
- Overall: 44.8 x 9.3 x 7.7 cm (17 5/8 x 3 11/16 x 3 1/16 in.)
- Artist / maker
- Totokro Master
- Museum
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Accession number
- 1931.204
FROM THE MUSEUM
In the museum’s words
The following description is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s original English record.
Purported to be the earliest surviving work by a Baule carver who art historians have dubbed the "Totokro Master," this Male Figure typically comes as a pair of male and female sculptures, and serves as a bridge between the spirit (asye usu) and human worlds in the hand of Baule diviners. Representing idealized humans in their prime, the diviners consider them suitable forms used to cast out disruptive spirits. It is featured here without the female example. The African Art Sponsors—a group of donors associated with Cleveland’s Karamu House, the oldest African American theater group in the country—purchased this Baule male figure in 1929 and donated it to the museum in 1931.
FOLLOW THE SOURCE
Text and image sources
The Cleveland Museum of Art · Gift of the African Art Sponsors of Karamu House · CC0
The summary is based on public collection data. Refer to the museum’s latest record for the title, date and attribution.
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