Male Figure
by 1931
Totokro Master
Totokro Master
African Art
Male Figure, by 1931. Totokro Master. Wood; overall: 44.8 x 9.3 x 7.7 cm (17 5/8 x 3 11/16 x 3 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the African Art Sponsors of Karamu House 1931.204 Purported to be the earliest surviving work by a Baule carver who art historians have dubbed the "Totokro Master," this Male Figure typically comes as a pair of male and female sculptures, and serves as a bridge between the spirit (asye usu) and human worlds in the hand of Baule diviners. Representing idealized humans in their prime, the diviners consider them suitable forms used to cast out disruptive spirits. It is featured here without the female example. The African Art Sponsors—a group of donors associated with Cleveland’s Karamu House, the oldest African American theater group in the country—purchased this Baule male figure in 1929 and donated it to the museum in 1931. In Baule society, the name of the artist who made a sculpture is not always public knowledge. In 1999, art historian Susan Vogel gave the sculptor of this work and others similar in style the nickname "Totokro Master" for the geographic region they came from.
- Maker/Artist
- Totokro Master
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Formatted Medium
- wood
- Medium
- wood
- Dimensions
- Overall: 44.8 x 9.3 x 7.7 cm (17 5/8 x 3 11/16 x 3 1/16 in.)
- Departments
- African Art
- Accession Number
- 1931.204
- Credit Line
- Gift of the African Art Sponsors of Karamu House
- Exhibitions
- The Silver Jubilee Exhibition, Primitive to Contemporary Sculpture, African Master Carvers: Known and Famous, Second Careers: Two Tributaries in African Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art (3/26/2017-7/16/2017); “African Master Carvers: Known and Famous”.
- Rights Statement
- CC0
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