The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 23, 2024

Head of a Hobbyhorse (korèdugaso)

Head of a Hobbyhorse (korèdugaso)

late 1800s–early 1900s
Wood and iron
Overall: 14 x 13.8 x 40.8 cm (5 1/2 x 5 7/16 x 16 1/16 in.)
James Albert Ford Memorial Fund 1935.307
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

This is one of the best-known examples of a korèdugaso. It was featured on the catalogue cover for a 1935 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, one of the first on African arts in the US. It traveled to the CMA that same year.

Description

Pertaining to the male initiation society called Korè, this sculpture from the Koulikoro region represents the head of an aardvark and is part of a wooden hobbyhorse that is mounted by a ritual buffoon. The Korè initiates are divided into different classes, each having a designated mask. The ritual buffoons appear in pantomimes on different public occasions and poke fun at village authorities and other high-ranking individuals.
  • by 1935
    (Louis Carré, Paris, France, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1935-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 White sticker marked "Louis Carré No. 14" on interior of object neck; white sticker marked "imported from France"
  • Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.), and James Johnson Sweeney. African Negro Art. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1935. Mentioned p. 31; Reproduced pl. 10
    Flint Institute of Arts. Art Marches on!: The Opening and Dedicating Exhibition of the New Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan, November 14-December 13, 1941. Flint, Mich: The Institute, 1941. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 25
    Radin, Paul, and James Johnson Sweeney. African Folktales & Sculpture. New York: Pantheon Books, 1952. Mentioned p. 343; Reproduced pl. 36
    Radin, Paul, and James Johnson Sweeney. African Folktales & Sculpture. New York: Pantheon Books, 1952. Mentioned: p. 343; Reproduced: pl. 36
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 385 archive.org
    Plass, Margaret. The African Image: A New Selection of Tribal Art : the Toledo Museum of Art ... February 1 Through 22, 1959 : Introduction and Catalogue. [Toledo, Ohio]: The Museum, 1959. Reproduced: p. 10, no. 25
    New York (N.Y.), and Robert Goldwater. Bambara Sculpture from the Western Sudan. New York: distributed by University Publishers, 1960. Mentioned p. 20; Reproduced p. 33, pl. 37
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 302 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 302 archive.org
    Sweeney, James Johnson. African Sculpture. [Princeton, N.J.]: Princeton University Press, 1970. Mentioned: p. 186; Reproduced: pl. 36
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 410 archive.org
    Webb, Virginia-Lee, and Walker Evans. Perfect Documents: Walker Evans and African Art, 1935. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. Reproduced p. 95, no. 57
    Petridis, Constantijn. South of the Sahara: selected works of African art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003. Reproduced: p. 12; cat. 4, p. 38 - 39
    Petridis, Constantine, "Celebrating Bamanaya", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 46 no. 02, February 2006 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 10-11 archive.org
    Petridis, Constantine. "A World of Great Art for Everyone." In Representing Africa in American Art Museums: A Century of Collecting and Display. Kathleen Bickford Berzock and Christa Clarke, 104-121. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011. Mentioned: p. 111-112; Reproduced: p. 112, fig. 5.6
    Rondeau, James, Constantijn Petridis, Yaëlle Biro, Herbert M. Cole, Kassim Kone, Babatunde Lawal, Wilfried Van Damme, and Susan Mullin Vogel. The language of beauty in African art. 2022.
  • The Language of Beauty in African Art. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX (April 3-July 31, 2022) https://kimbellart.org/exhibition/language-beauty-african-art; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (November 20, 2022-February 27, 2023) https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/9344/the-language-of-beauty-in-african-art.
    Perfect Documents: Walker Evans and African Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (February 1-September 3, 2000).
    NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Perfect Documents: Walker Evans and African Art, 2/1/00 - 9/3/00, exh. cat. no. 18, p. 68.
    NY: Museum of Primitive Art, 1960: Bambara Sculpture from the Western Sudan, cat. no. 53, repr. pl. 37.
    Toledo, OH, Toledo Museum of Art, 1959: The African Image, cat. no. 25, repr. p. 30.
    Primitive to Contemporary Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 6-October 31, 1956).
    Exhibition of the Month: Design in Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 31, 1946-February 10, 1947).
    Flint, MI, Flint Institute of Arts, 1941: Art Marches On!, November 14-December 31, 1941, cat. no. 43, repr.
    The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).
    NY, Museum of Modern Art, 1935-1936: African Negro Art, cat. no. 10, repr. pl. 10, (also to CMA 9/27 - 10/27, 1935), and tour.
  • {{cite web|title=Head of a Hobbyhorse (korèdugaso)|url=false|author=|year=late 1800s–early 1900s|access-date=23 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1935.307