Art Institute of ChicagoPublic domain

Male Figure (Nkisi Nkondi)

Vili · Probably early to mid-19th century

Provenance

Ownership history

Klaus Clausmeyer (died 1968), Düsseldorf, Germany, by 1958. Ludwig Bretschneider (died 1987), Galerie Ludwig Bretschneider, Münich, Germany, by 1959; sold to Ulfert Wilke (died 1987), New York, N.Y. and Iowa City, Iowa, from 1960 [see Ulfert Wilke, an Artist Collects and Wilke correspondence with Bretschneider in curatorial file]. Merton Simpson (died 2013), Merton D. Simpson Gallery, New York, N.Y., by 1971; sold to Armand Arman (died 2005), New York, N.Y., 1974 [Pace Gallery, African Accumlative Sculpture, 1974, pp. 51 and 67, no. 103]; sold by the Donald Morris Gallery, New York, N.Y. and Birmingham, Mich. to the Art Institute, 1998.

Recorded by Art Institute of Chicago.

Exhibitions

Exhibition history

Rochester, N.Y., Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, Traditional Art of Black Africa, Nov. 14–Dec. 28, 1969., cat. 62.
New York, N.Y., Pace Gallery, African Accumulative Sculpture: Power and Display, Sep. 21–Oct. 19, 1974, pp. 51, 67, fig. 103.
New York, Museum for African Art, Western Artists/African Art, May 6-Aug. 7, 1994 cat. 5; traveled to Knoxville Museum of Art, 1994-1995, Newport Beach, Calif., Newport Harbor Art Museum, July 1-Sept. 10, 1995, Sacramento, Calif., Crocker Art Museum, Oct. 27-Dec. 31, 1995.
Marseille, France, Musée d'Arts Africains, Oceaniens, et Amerindiens de Marseille, Arman et l'Art Africain, June 23, 1994–Oct. 30, 1994, cat. 55; traveled to Paris, Musée National des Arts d'Afrique et d'Oceanie, Dec. 3, 1996–Feb. 17, 1997, Cologne, Germany, Rautenstraucht-Joest-Museum für Völkerkunde, Mar.–Aug. 1997, New York, N.Y., Museum for African Art, Oct. 7, 1997–April 17, 1998 [as African Faces, African Figures: the Arman Collection, cat. 147].

Literature

Published references

Rochester, N.Y., Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, Traditional Art of Black Africa, Nov. 14–Dec. 28, 1969, cat. 62.
Merton D. Simpson Gallery, Inc., advertisement, African Arts 4, 2 (1971), p. 61 (ill.).
Arnold Rubin, African Accumulative Sculpture: Power and Display, exh. cat. (New York: Pace Gallery, 1974), pp. 51, 67, fig. 103.
An Artist Collects, Ulfert Wilke, Selections from Five Continents, (University of Iowa, 1975), pp. 8-9. [non-traveling exhibition; mentions piece in introduction, but according to curator at U. of Iowa Art Museum, the work was not displayed in show].
Raoul Lehaurd, "Art Bakongo: Les Centres de Style," Arts d"afrique Noire 1 (1989), pp. 218-20, fig. D 1-1-2.
Warren M. Robbins and Nancy Ingram Nooter, African Art in American Collections (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989), pp. 366–67, fig. 954.
Jack D. Flam and Daniel Shapiro, Western Artists/African Art (New York: Museum for African Art, 1994), p. 16, cat. 5.
Alain Nicolas and Marianne Sourrieu, Arman et l'Art Africain, exh. cat. (Paris: Reunion des Musées Nationaux, 1996), p. 106, fig. 55.
Frank Herreman, ed., African Faces, African Figures: The Arman Collection, exh. cat. (New York: Museum for African Art, 1997), p. 158, fig. 157.
Kathleen Bickford Berzock, "African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago," African Arts 32, 4 (Winter 1999), p. 32, fig. 19.
Kathleen Bickford Berzock, "Male Figure (Nkisi Nkondi)," Art Institute of Chicago, Art Insights postcard (Art Institute of Chicago, 1999).
Kathleen Bickford Berzock, "Power Figure (Nkisi Nkondi)," Notable Acquisitions at the Art Institute of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 29, 2 (2003), pp. 14-15, 94 (ill.).

Comparables