Reliquary

Art of Africa, Oceania, and Tribal Worlds - Dave DeRoche

Since the 19th Century, the Kota and Mahangwe peoples made reliquaries to stand guard over bark boxes that contained the bones and remains of important ancestors.

This sculpture's top flange represents a popular 19th c. coiffure or hairstyle, and the bottom lozenge represents and abstracted body. The large central head is fabulously stylized in a way that influenced the modern artists beginning with Picasso. Its concavity and its ringlets may reveal this ancestor was a female.

$24,000.00

Artwork details