Female Headdress (Nimba, D'mba, or Yamban)

1. Reportedly acquired in Guinea, about 1955 [unattributed statement documented in curatorial object file]. John J. Klejman (died 1995), Klejman Gallery, New York, N.Y., by 1957 [possibly purchased in London according to correspondence with Susanne Klejman Bennet, 2013, as recorded in curatorial object file]; sold to the Art Institute, 1957.

Recorded by Art Institute of Chicago.

• Montreal International and Universal Exposition, International Fine Arts Exhibition, Terre des Hommes: Man and his World, Apr. 28–Oct. 27, 1967, cat. 151.
• New York, N.Y., Museum for African Art, Art of the Baga: A Drama of Cultural Reinvention, Oct. 4, 1996–Jan. 5, 1997, cat. 250; traveled to the Baltimore Museum of Art, Jan. 29–Apr. 20, 1997.

• C.H. Long, Alpha: The Myths of Creation (New York: George Braziller, 1963), pl. 17.
• Allen Wardwell, Primitive Art in the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1965), p. 51, pl. 50.
• Pavel Eisner, Gabrielle Roy, and Guy Robert, eds. Terre des Hommes: Man and his World, exh. cat. (Canadian Coporation for the International Fine Arts Exhibition, 1967), pp. 318-319, cat. 151.
• Frederick Lamp, Art of the Baga, exh. cat. (Museum for African Art and Prestel Verlag, 1996), pp. 259-260, no. 250.
• Marie Yvonne Curis and Ramon Sarro, “The Nimba Headdress: Art, Ritual, and History of the Baga and Nalu Peoples of Guinea,” The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 23, 2 (1997), pp. 120-133, cat. no. 13.
• Kathleen Bickford Berzock, “African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” African Arts 32, 4 (Winter 1999), pp. 18-35, 93, fig. 1.
• Larry Shiner, The Invention of Art: A Cultural History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001), p. 271, fig. 77.
• Richard F. Townsend and Kathleen Bickford Berzock, “The Art Institute of Chicago New Galleries for African Art and Indian Art of the Americas,” in Tribal Arts 16-1, no. 62 (Winter 2011), p. 60, fig. 1 (installation photo).
• Constantine Petridis et al., Speaking of Objects: African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2020), cat. no. 18, pp. 68-69 (ill.).

D’mba (great mother) headdress

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

a-Mantsho-ña-Tshol (master of medicine) headdress

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

D’mba (great mother) figure

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Zigiren-wöndë (young bride) headdress

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

a-Mantsho-ña-Tshol (master of medicine) headdress

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

a-Tshol (medicine) shrine figure and headdress

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

a-Bil-ña-Tshol (medicine canoe) headdress

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

A-ndëf

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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