Art Institute of Chicago

Headrest (Musawu)

Yaka · Late 19th to early 20th century

Provenance

Ownership history

Raoul Blondiau, Brussels, Belgium, by 1925 [acquired between 1900 to 1925 according to Blondiau-Theatre Arts Collection, exh. cat. 1927]; sold to Theatre Arts, Inc. (Theatre Arts Monthly), New York, N.Y., Nov. 1926 [according to Blondiau-Theatre Arts Collection, exh. cat. 1927; Deacon 1981]; sold to the Art Institute, 1928.

Recorded by Art Institute of Chicago.

Exhibitions

New York, The New Art Circle, Bondiau-Theatre Arts Collection of Primitive African, Feb. 7-March 5, 1927, cat. no. 180 (illustrated).
Children’s Museum at the Art Institute of Chicago, The Negro in Art Week: Primitive and Modern, lent by Harlem Museum of African Art [Blondiau Collection of African Art], Nov. 16-Dec. 1, 1927, cat. 22 (not illustrated); traveled to Rochester, N.Y., the Memorial Art Gallery.
Iowa, Junior Art Museum of Des Moines, Baga to Batabwo: Safari in Art, Oct. 19–Dec. 9, 1958.
New York, N.Y., The American Federation of Arts, African Furniture and Household Objects, April 1980–Sep. 1981, cat. p. 120
Art Institute of Chicago, Africa: Heads of State, Seats of Power, Sep. 2–Nov. 17, 1995, no cat.
Knoxville, Tenn., Frank H. McClung Museum, The World Moves, We Follow: Celebrating African Art, Jan. 10–May 18, 2003, cat. plate 38.

Literature

Alain Locke. 1927. Blondiau-Theatre Arts Collection of Primitive African Art (introduction), exh. cat (New York: The New Art Circle/Theater Arts Monthly), cat. no. 180 (ill.).
Harlem Museum of African Art, The Negro in Art Week: Nov. 16 -23, exh. cat (Art Institute of Chicago, 1927), no. 22 (listed in checklist, not illustrated).
Helen F. MacKenzie. “A Group of Primitive Carvings in Wood and Horn,” in Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 24, 1 (Jan. 1930.) p. 8-9 (object mentioned, not illustrated).
Roy Seiber, African Furniture and Household Objects, exh. cat. (American Federation of Arts, 1980), p. 120 (ill.).
Arthur P. Bourgeois, Art of the Yaka and Suku (Meudon, France: Edition Alain & Françoise Chaffin, 1984), p. 71, fig. 49.
Kathleen Bickford, "Foreword," The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 23: 2 (1997), p. 101, fig. 1.
Kathleen Bickford Berzock, "African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago," African Arts 32:4 (Winter 1999), p. 24, fig.7.
William J. Dewey, The World Moves, We Follow: Celebrating African Art, exh. cat. (Frank H. McClung Museum, University of Tennessee, 2003), p. 39, pl. 38.
William J. Dewey, The World Moves, We Follow: Celebrating African Art, exh. cat. (Knoxville, Tenn.: Frank H. McClung Museum, University of Tennessee, 2003), p. 39, pl. 38.
Constantine Petridis et al., Speaking of Objects: African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2020), cat. no. 57, pp. 144-145 (ill.).

Comparables