The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 28, 2024

Figure

Figure

possibly early 1400s

Description

The most varied group of soapstone figures and heads has been found in the homelands of the Kissi. Calling them pomda ("images of the dead"), the Kissi placed them in ancestral shrines, offering them the last seeds at sowing times and the first fruits of the harvest. However, the sculptures are believed to have been made centuries ago by the ancestors of the Kissi, the so-called Sapi people.
  • Heim, Paris
    Heim, Paris; Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Munro
  • 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
    Petridis, Constantijn. South of the Sahara: selected works of African art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003. Reproduced: cat. 10, p. 50 - 51
    William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, and Ralph T. Coe. The Imagination of Primitive Man: A Survey of the Arts of the Non-Literate Peoples of the World. Kansas City, Mo: The Museum, 1962. Mentioned: p. 20, cat. no. 25; reproduced: p. 21
    Robbins, Warren M., and Nancy Ingram Nooter. African Art in American Collections, Survey 1989. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989. Reproduced: p. 153, fig. 280
  • African Art: Permutations of Power. Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art (organizer) (October 13, 1997-February 1, 1998).
    Gainesville, FL: Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, 10/13/97 - 2/1/98 African Art: Permutations of Power (no catalogue)
    Year in Review, 1976. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 1-March 6, 1977).
    CMA 1977: "Year in Review 1976," Bulletin LXIV (February 1977), cat. no. 36, p. 74, repr. p. 72.
    Washington, DC: National Gallery, African Sculpture, cat. no. 3, repr.
    International Exhibition Foundation
    Kansas City, MO: Nelson Atkins Museum, The Imagination of Primitive Man, 1962 cat. no. 25
  • {{cite web|title=Figure|url=false|author=|year=possibly early 1400s|access-date=28 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1976.29