exhibition preview - Recherche en IA spécialisée au MIT

exhibition preview

The Inner Eye
Vision and Transcendence in African Arts

Mary Nooter Roberts

“THE INNER EYE:
VISION AND TRANSCENDENCE IN AFRICAN ARTS”
CURATED BY MARY NOOTER ROBERTS
LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART
RESNICK PAVILION, FEBRUARY 26—JULY 9, 2017

Oro, the essence of communication, takes place in the eyes.
(Yoruba axiom cited in Abiodun 1994:77)

The Inner Eye: Vision and Transcendence in

African Arts” features a cross-cultural con-
stellation of sculptures—many of them iconic
in the corpus of African art—and eye-catching
textiles. The exhibition explores how works of
art and the visual regimes through which they
have been created and performed enable transitions from one
stage of life to the next and from one state of being to another.
Themes address diverse ways of seeing: “Envisioning Origins”
to “Maternal Gaze,” “Insight and Education” to “Beholding
Spirit,” “Patterning Perception” to “Visionary Performance,»
and “Vigilant Sentinels” to “Seeing Beyond.” These groupings
will encourage viewers to notice how works were made to look
upon, gaze within, and see beyond in myriad ways that signal
transitions of identity, experience, and perception. The exhibi-
tion’s figures and masks, initiation objects and royal emblems,
reliquary guardians and commemorative posts from west, cen-
tral, and eastern Africa and spanning from the thirteenth to the
twentieth centuries ce, have guided humans to spirit realms, à
the afterlife, and to the highest levels of esoteric wisdom.

Mary (Polly) Nooter Roberts is Professor in UCLA’s Department of
World Arts and Cultures/Dance, Consulting Curator for African Art at
LACMA, and a co-editor of African Arts. She was Senior Curator at the
Museum for African Art in New York until 1994 and Deputy Director and
Chief Curator of UCLA’s Fowler Museum until 2008. Her award-winning
works include Memory: Luba Art and the Making of History (1996) et
A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal (with Allen F. Roberts,
2003). Dans 2007, she was decorated by the Republic of France as a Knight of
the Order of Arts and Letters. proberts@arts.ucla.edu

60 | african arts SPRING 2017 VOL. 50, NON. 1

“The Inner Eye” draws attention to African individuals, tel que
rulers, mothers, and healers, as well as spirit beings who exhibit
heightened senses of awareness, while acknowledging artists and
performers as visionaries who bring works to life. A number of
artists are identifiable master hands, and in some cases sculptures
are shown in clusters to appreciate the remarkable ingenuity that
each artist brings to a single genre. Finalement, in their own set-
tings and, one can hope, museum spaces as well, these objects
empower people to transcend human limitations and boundaries
and envision their own potentialities and possibilities (figue. 1).

Most works of art encourage viewers to gaze upon them in all
their multidimensionality. En fait, museum experience is predi-
cated upon looking. When we see art in most Western museum
settings, the assumption is that objects are meant to be scruti-
nized and beheld, and in a sense consumed by visitors’ eyes and
caressed by their gaze. Encore, looking is a culturally determined
activity of visuality with its own expectations, limitations,
capabilities, and epiphanies varying from one community to
another.1 In many cases, staring at works is not the intended
experience for which they were produced and used in original
settings. Looking directly at something or into its eyes (if an
object has them) may be discouraged, and in many contexts,
direct eye contact is regarded as impolite, inappropriate, et
perhaps even perilous.

As Rowland Abiodun discusses in a seminal article on Yoruba
art and aesthetics, “because ase [vital force] is believed to emanate
from oju [eyes/face], children and young people are forbidden to
look straight into their parents’ or elders’ faces. It is even more
dangerous to stare at the face of an oba [king], which is usually
veiled” (1994:77). Somewhat similarly, Susan Vogel holds that

in Baule visual practice, the act of looking at a work of art, ou
at spiritually significant objects, is for the most part privileged
and potentially dangerous. Even an inadvertent glimpse of a for-
bidden object can make a person sick, can expose them to huge
fines or sacrifices, or can even be fatal. The power and danger of
looking lie in a belief that objects are potent … [and so] there is an
explicit etiquette of the gaze. Younger people do not look directly
at their elders—it is disrespectful (1998:110).

D
o
w
n
o
un
d
e
d

F
r
o
m
h

t
t

:
/
/

d
je
r
e
c
t
.

je
t
.

e
d
toi
un
un
r
/
un
r
t
je
c
e
–
p
d

F
/

5
0
1
6
0
1
7
3
7
5
1
5
un
un
r
_
un
_
0
0
3
3
2
p
d

b
oui
g
toi
e
s
t

o
n
0
8
S
e
p
e
m
b
e
r
2
0
2
3

1 Ngi mask
Gabon, Fang peoples, 1850
Wood, kaolin and ﬁber; 62.2 cmx 29.5 cmx
20.3 cm
Private collection

possess piercing power and offer pro-
tection; and multiplicities of eyes may
extend the ken beyond ordinary human
perception (Figs. 2–3). These manifes-
tations of vision are produced for and
by objects in a broad range of contexts
that this exhibition explores. In each
contexte, the eyes are at work, enabling,
energizing, and effecting transitions
from one state of being to another.

Vision may be understood in most
African art contexts as more active
than static, with emphasis on locally
inflected vocabulary for both casual
seeing and careful looking. The idea
that with many African arts, process is
privileged over product, has been bril-
liantly demonstrated by Herbert M.
Cole (1969) through his case studies
of Igbo mbari shrines and masquerade
arts. Following his reasoning, aesthet-
ics may be understood as “a verb”—as
an action, c'est, that informs notions
of culturally determined visuality. Dans
this exhibition, emphasis is given to
how looking can provoke and promote
transitions and transcendence from
human to spirit realms, this world to
the next. Visuality often has multiple
levels of philosophical articulation,
alors, whether directed from inside out
or from outside in; in most cases, ce
kind of distinction is blurred and mul-
tidimensional as reflected by the echo-
ing forms of a Kwele mask whose, eyes,
eyebrows, head, and horns all share the
same arcs in their radiating and retract-
ing visual play (figue. 4).
“The Inner Eye”

invites contem-
plation and consideration of how seeing is defined differently
in diverse contexts, emphasizing that vision and visuality are
culturally specific constructions with very particular mean-
ings and potentialities. Among Baule people of Côte d’Ivoire,
for example, Susan Vogel finds four modalities of vision. Le
first is expressed by a word meaning “to look” and “to watch”
in casual observation of an entertaining dance, soccer match,
or television program. This term is not restricted in its use and
is associated with mundane things and circumstances. Deux
other types of vision are related to glimpses that people may
steal of objects possessing efficacy and meaning, and implies a

VOL. 50, NON. 1 SPRING 2017 arts africains | 61

Abiodun, Vogel, and a number of other scholars of African art
histories (see Nooter 1993) have expounded upon the intricacies
of culturally specific notions of seeing, alors, and have elucidated
the paradox that while works may be made by artists with skill
and inspired brilliance, they are not necessarily for human eyes
alone, or even primarily so. Toujours, the natural human inclination
when we look at other living beings is to look into their eyes (cf.
Lacan 2007). What is the magnetic force that links eye to eye, gaze
to gaze? The works in this exhibition possess many approaches
to the gaze: downcast or indirect eyes of inward contemplation
may be associated with spiritual reverence; projecting eyes may

D
o
w
n
o
un
d
e
d

F
r
o
m
h

t
t

:
/
/

d
je
r
e
c
t
.

je
t
.

e
d
toi
un
un
r
/
un
r
t
je
c
e
–
p
d

F
/

5
0
1
6
0
1
7
3
7
5
1
5
un
un
r
_
un
_
0
0
3
3
2
p
d

b
oui
g
toi
e
s
t

o
n
0
8
S
e
p
e
m
b
e
r
2
0
2
3

D
o
w
n
o
un
d
e
d

F
r
o
m
h

t
t

:
/
/

d
je
r
e
c
t
.

je
t
.

e
d
toi
un
un
r
/
un
r
t
je
c
e
–
p
d

F
/

5
0
1
6
0
1
7
3
7
5
1
5
un
un
r
_
un
_
0
0
3
3
2
p
d

b
oui
g
toi
e
s
t

o
n
0
8
S
e
p
e
m
b
e
r
2
0
2
3

2 Mask
Liberia, Grebo/Kru Peoples, 19th century
Wood and pigment; 88.9 cmx 23.8 cmx 18.4 cm
Private collection

3 Mask
Liberia, Grebo/Kru Peoples, mid 19th century
Wood, blue, black and white pigments; 50.8 cmx
20.6 cmx 13.7 cm
Private collection

kind of trespassing into private spaces with one’s eyes. A fourth
mode refers to seeing things never meant to be discussed, tel
as potent masks, ancestral or spirit figures, funeral rooms, ou
objects in gold. In such contexts, “seeing should be discreet, it
should not be the result of deliberate looking, and it should not
be mentioned as such…. [pour] reticence expresses respect for the
gods …, the dead, and the bereaved” (Vogel 1998:91–92).

In addition to cultivating an appreciation for culturally spe-
cific notions of vision such as these, the exhibition asks if the
action of seeing is really about what we see, or rather what we
could see, might see, and what we cannot physically see but can
only imagine in the mind’s eye. As Jonathan Unglaub (2012)
writes, ways of seeing may invoke a “tripartite sequence and
hierarchy of vision …: the physical vision of sensible phenom-
ena through the bodily eyes; the imaginative vision based on
mnemonic and fantastic images lodged in the mind; [et] le
intellectual vision that conjures and perceives abstract con-
cepts.” These and other distinctions may “correlate to different
levels of spiritual knowledge and visionary enlightenment," et
one of the key goals of “The Inner Eye” exhibition is to consider
how artists may reify the “invisible divine” (Unglaub 2012),
even as works of art assist the viewer to experience spiritual
contemplation.

Each work in “The Inner Eye” has been selected for the depth
of meaning and philosophical insight it can impart about par-
ticular African visual epistemologies. From serene Dogon ori-
gin figures with eyes directed to the past (Figs. 9-dix) to Kongo
protective power figures with assertive stares (figue. 29), et de
Lega initiation objects with multiple eyes for all-seeing vigilance
(Figs. 13–15) to the downcast eyes of female Luba spirit recep-
tacles that look inward rather than out (Figs. 16–18), objects in
the exhibition demonstrate how art is created and rendered, pas
just as highly innovative forms, but to permit original artists,
les propriétaires, and users to transcend states of being and bridge among
realms of perception. The exhibition will have ramifications for
many fields of cultural study that seek to understand visual and
performative regimes from culturally specific points of view.

“The Inner Eye” also acknowledges synaesthetic dimensions
of visual and performance arts. Tactility and tonality, olfac-
tory and gustatory dimensions of the arts are central to aes-
thetic intentionalities.2 Valuing sight as associated with other
senses is crucial to a more informed understanding of visual
experience (Jay 1988), as provocatively expressed by a Yoruba
aphorism, “What do we call food for the eyes? What pleases
the eyes as prepared yam flour satisfies the stomach? The eyes
have no food other than spectacle” (Lawal 2001:517). Given such

62 | african arts SPRING 2017 VOL. 50, NON. 1

4 Beete mask: Ram (Bata)
Gabon, Kwele peoples, early–mid 19th
siècle
Wood and pigments; 38.1 cmx 44.8
cmx 5.4 cm
Private collection

SEEING FROM THE INSIDE OUT: “THE
INNER EYE”
It is rare to see a mask from the back,
and yet, when a spirit appears as a
masked dancer, or when such an acro-
batic young performer takes to the
dance arena, what is behind the mask
informs what gods and actors see as they
look through the eyes of the mask itself
(figue. 8). This hidden interior connects
the performer and his material accou-
terments referred to so reductively as “a
mask” in the West.3 The material object
that covers the face is only one element
of a persona performing, and some-
times a minor one at that. “Masks” must
be understood as synaesthetic totalities
of wooden sculpture or other materials
(fiber or basketry, cloth, leather, metal)
worn on the face or atop the head; care-
fully constructed dress and props; vir-
tuosic choreographies, song lyrics, rhythmic accompaniments,
and audience participation; and keen attention to local-level
politics according to which dramas are adapted (Cole 1969:36).4
Masks are donned in many circumstances, and much of
what can be said of African practices can be extended to soci-
eties around the world and across great stretches of time. Many
masked performances dramatize philosophical and some-
times poetic relationships and intentions, often as they insti-
gate reflection upon contemporary political economy. Également
important is that the capacity for sight is not just a question of
the eye slits permitting dancers to see their audience and, même
more important, where to put their feet; instead, what matters
most is that through the mask’s and the masker’s experience,
spirit is made manifest. Many works of African art come into
being through inspirational dreams, par exemple. Among Dan
peoples of Liberia, artists create masks for the Poro men’s asso-
ciation through guidance from spirits called du, who visit the
sculptors in their dreams. Forest spirits must be given tangible
form through masking so that they can participate in commu-
nity life, and “the maskers … are the spirits and not merely their
impersonations” (Fischer 1978:18–19).

While a mask’s agency may be oneiric and transmitted to an
artist from the spirit world, the capacity for vision is understood
in different cultures through language and practice. For Yoruba
peoples of Nigeria, an artist with enhanced perceptual capabil-
ities is said to possess ojú inú, or “the inner eye” (figue. 5). Those
with such a gift have the capacity to see the most essential qual-
ity or iwa, the essence or character of a thing or person, aussi
as to grasp deep senses of poetry called oriki, which gives the

VOL. 50, NON. 1 SPRING 2017 arts africains | 63

perceptiveness, it is critical to understand cultural construc-
tions of African visuality from nuanced African perspectives
(see Abiodun 2014).

The gaze of many African sculptures is indicative of the effi-
cacy of such objects—that is, they may be imbued with life and
possess their own abilities to look at viewers as viewers look
to them—as well as complex philosophical and cosmologi-
cal approaches to understanding one’s place in the universe.
Through such expressive vehicles, the gaze to and from African
masks and figures links us to our mothers and other kin, opens
access to our ancestors, and enables us to envision and expand
human capacity through spiritually charged forms of perfor-
mative virtuosity. En outre, in all their cultural and aes-
thetic diversity, the works in “The Inner Eye” celebrate the many
vantage points from which they may be appreciated: those of
beholders, both in earlier circumstances and museum contexts;
of the artists and performers as visionary agents of creativity
and transformation; and of those who owned and used the
objects and often exhibited heightened senses of spiritual aware-
ness and intellectual capacity. Through conceptualizing, creat-
ing, possessing, deploying, consecrating, activating, beholding,
and appreciating, these works transcend human limitations
to envision and materialize potentiality and possibility. These
same objects encourage museum visitors to contemplate acts of
seeing and looking as they observe the formal integrity of the
travaux, challenging themselves to extend their own perception
beyond the visible as so many of these works are intended to do,
and so to reach beyond the readily grasped to engage diverse
modes of being and becoming.

D
o
w
n
o
un
d
e
d

F
r
o
m
h

t
t

:
/
/

d
je
r
e
c
t
.

je
t
.

e
d
toi
un
un
r
/
un
r
t
je
c
e
–
p
d

F
/

5
0
1
6
0
1
7
3
7
5
1
5
un
un
r
_
un
_
0
0
3
3
2
p
d

b
oui
g
toi
e
s
t

o
n
0
8
S
e
p
e
m
b
e
r
2
0
2
3

other aspects of Yoruba culture, the eyeball is thought to have
two aspects, an outer layer (literally external eye) or naked eye,
which has to do with normal, quotidian vision, and an inner one
called ojú inú (literally, internal eye) or mind’s eye. The latter is
associated with memory, intention, intuition, insight, thinking,
imagination, critical analysis, visual cognition, dreams, trances,
prophecy, hypnotism, empathy, telepathy, divination, healing,
benevolence, malevolence, extrasensory perception, and witch-
craft, entre autres. For the Yoruba, these two layers of the eye
combine to determine ìwòran, the specular gaze of an individual
(Lawal 2001:516).

Lawal continues that “what we see (animate or inanimate) aussi
‘sees’ us and has a particular way of relating to our eyes.” As
tel, a portrait can stare back at the viewer, turning him or her
into someone seen, and even into a representation in her or his
own right. Enfin, “what attracts and nourishes the eyes is the

5 Mask for the Gelede ceremony
Nigeria, Yoruba peoples, 19th century
Wood and polychrome; 31.8 cmx 18.4 cmx 24.1 cm
Private collection

6 Eshubiyi Akinyode (Nigeria, b. ca. 1840)
Female ﬁgure with child
Nigeria, Yoruba peoples, late 19th–early 20th century
Wood and glass beads; 23.9 cmx 11.4 cmx 14.2 cm
National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institu-
tion, Gift of Walt Disney World Co., a subsidiary of The
Walt Disney Company
Photo: courtesy of National Museum of African Art,
Institution Smithsonian

artwork “the power to respond.” Only with the inner eye can
an artist master a special aesthetic consciousness that imbues
his creations with the life force called ase, thus fulfilling “the
artistic intention with precision” (Abiodun 1994:73).

Yoruba scholars explain how their culture’s approaches to
vision are enlightening and ennobling. The word in Yoruba for
bringing a work of art into being is àwòrán, yet, due to the tonal-
ity of Yoruba language, the same term pronounced with differ-
ent tones can mean “the beholder of the beheld” (awòran). Le
term refers to the creative act of representation and to an object’s
beholder and that person’s experience of response. Looking is an
act of creation. En effet, as Babatunde Lawal explains (2001:513),
when an individual passes away, it is said that s/he becomes a
beautiful sculpture—a person without the blemishes real peo-
ple always are prone to manifest. And when someone dies, fam-
ily members may implore the deceased’s soul not to stay in the
afterlife for too long before agreeing to become reincarnated as
a new human being (Lawal 2001:517). In other words, the life
cycle itself is embodied in art, with sculptures as evocations of
departed ones, and childbirth as the rebirth of ancestors (figue. 6).

Lawal further explains the concept of the inner eye:

Since the face is the seat of the eyes, no discussion of representa-
tion, especially portraiture, would be complete without relating
it to the act of looking and being looked at, otherwise known as
the gaze. To begin with, Yoruba call the eyeball a refractive “egg”
empowered by àse, … enabling an individual to see. As with

64 | african arts SPRING 2017 VOL. 50, NON. 1

D
o
w
n
o
un
d
e
d

F
r
o
m
h

t
t

:
/
/

d
je
r
e
c
t
.

je
t
.

e
d
toi
un
un
r
/
un
r
t
je
c
e
–
p
d

F
/

5
0
1
6
0
1
7
3
7
5
1
5
un
un
r
_
un
_
0
0
3
3
2
p
d

b
oui
g
toi
e
s
t

o
n
0
8
S
e
p
e
m
b
e
r
2
0
2
3

beauty, creativity, or tour de force manifested in a given specta-
clé, portrait, or a work of art in general. Any striking evidence of
the beautiful or the virtuosic is said to magnetize the eyes, fit the
eyes, becoming that which compels repeated gaze, or that which
moors the gaze” (Lawal 2001:516).

While the inner eye as ojú inú is a concept specific to Yoruba
culture, the concept nevertheless resonates across many African
aesthetic idioms with their own nuances of meaning and refer-
ence. The inner eye sees not what is plainly in sight, nor what is
apparent to the ordinary human eye, mais, rather, that which is
interior and inherent. In other words, to possess an inner eye
is to possess insight as expressed in a variety of ways by differ-
ent peoples (see Pemberton 2000). Par exemple, in cultures that
have blended with Muslim traditions, the concept of batin refers
to the hidden side of every visible reality (Laibi 1998; UN. Roberts
and M. Roberts 2003). For everything that we see clearly before
us, discrete yet powerful dimensions exist within. Batin may
refer to the baraka holy blessing energy that resides within and
is conveyed by the portrait of a Sufi saint (UN. Roberts and M.
Roberts 2003), or it may manifest more tangibly as mystical
writing on the inside of a Poro men’s association dance mask to
enhance the potentialities of the dancer and to offer protection
to the community for whom the mask performs (Seligman 1980;
M.. Roberts and A. Roberts 1997:68) (Figs. 7–8).

7 Hornbill mask for Poro Society
Liberia, Mano peoples, 19th century
Wood, metal, cloth, vegetable ﬁber, and ink; 30.5
cmx 14.6 cmx 38.1 cm
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisico, Museum
purchase, gift of the Museum Society Auxiliary
Photo: © Fine Arts Museums of San Francisico

Interior of Figure 7

Made and performed by Mano men, a remarkable mask
called Kpala displayed in “The Inner Eye” was collected in
northeastern Liberia. The mask is an event unto itself, insofar
as it combines references to Mano cosmogony with the bless-
ing protections of Muslim devices inscribed on its inner sur-
face that only the performer will see or even know about. Le
mask depicts a ground hornbill (Bucorvus abyssinicus), a species
of large birds that stride about the forest with an oddly human
gait, emitting uncanny lion-like calls. In Poro, as a society that
“educates and trains young men in the skills and demeanor
expected of adults” (Kreamer 2007:135), hornbill masks bring
raw powers of the wilderness to bear upon local-level politics
during given performances. Inside the mask, khatem numer-
ological squares and invocations in Arabic (or pseudo-Arabic,
which bears the same intentions) are inscribed that “increased
the mask’s already considerable mystical and protective prop-
erties” (Kreamer 2007:135). As René Bravmann has written of
a different inscribed mask of the same genre, “whatever else is
expected of this Poro mask, it surely stands as an obdurate sen-
tinel ever ready to defend the organization and its members”
(1983:44).

Seeing from the inside out reinforces how important it is
to understand visuality from African perspectives (Abiodun
1994:69), for doing so can offer deep comprehension of the aes-
thetic principles underlying particular works of art. Even in
contexts where less research has been undertaken, rules and
regulations always guide the act of seeing, and one must not
assume that the ways of looking in which most museum visitors
engage are the norm for all cultures or that seeing is in any way
a “natural” or “universal” act. Culturally determined philos-
ophies inform all aesthetic phenomena in ways that implicate
vision and its relationships to transcendence.

D
o
w
n
o
un
d
e
d

F
r
o
m
h

t
t

:
/
/

d
je
r
e
c
t
.

je
t
.

e
d
toi
un
un
r
/
un
r
t
je
c
e
–
p
d

F
/

5
0
1
6
0
1
7
3
7
5
1
5
un
un
r
_
un
_
0
0
3
3
2
p
d

b
oui
g
toi
e
s
t

o
n
0
8
S
e
p
e
m
b
e
r
2
0
2
3

VOL. 50, NON. 1 SPRING 2017 arts africains | 65

D
o
w
n
o
un
d
e
d

F
r
o
m
h

t
t

:
/
/

d
je
r
e
c
t
.

je
t
.

e
d
toi
un
un
r
/
un
r
t
je
c
e
–
p
d

F
/

5
0
1
6
0
1
7
3
7
5
1
5
un
un
r
_
un
_
0
0
3
3
2
p
d

b
oui
g
toi
e
s
t

o
n
0
8
S
e
p
e
m
b
e
r
2
0
2
3

ENVISIONING ORIGINS
“Envisioning Origins” is the first theme of “The Inner Eye.”
How do art forms render distant pasts as visible realities to be
revered and performed? (see LaGamma 2002). One artistic tradi-
tion through which such a question is approached is that of Dogon
peoples of Mali as well as their regional predecessors, the Djenne
and Tellem. In the rocky outcrops of the Bandiagara Escarpment,
Dogon have perpetuated a culture of rich philosophical foun-
dations, often expressed through an astonishing array of sculp-
tural genres.5 Acknowledging the dynamic meaning-making and
constantly changing adaptation of stories to meet circumstances
of the moment (cf. M.. Roberts and A. Roberts 1996), shared ref-
erences to mythico-historical themes underscore a strong sense
of origins among Dogon peoples. Such accounts describe the
descent of an ark and eight proto-human beings called Nommo
who brought life to earth.

Iconic figural representations characterize the Dogon sculp-
tural repertoire. The ambiguous hermaphrodite with both
male and female attributes is a hallmark of Dogon art and aptly
embodies visions of blurred beginnings, and the figure seen

66 | african arts SPRING 2017 VOL. 50, NON. 1

9 Hermaphrodite ﬁgure
Mali, Dogon peoples, 18th–early 19th century
Wood; 69.9 cmx 15.2 cmx 16.2 cm
Private collection

10 Horse and rider
Mali, Dogon peoples (Soninke), ca. 1400
Wood; 54.3 cmx 16.5 cm
Private collection

here is physically supported by founding ancestors who brought
humanity to the Earth (figue. 9). With beard and breasts and
incised marks around the neck and arms, the figure seems to
gaze far beyond this world, as if to another place and time and
a world apart. Dogon also depict equestrians (figue. 10). Quand
the Supreme Being sent an ark from the heavens to establish
humanity on earth, a horse was the first beast to exit the ark,
thus introducing the animal’s exceptional abilities and prestige
to the world (Kreamer 2012). Equestrian figures may repre-
sent village priests, mythical characters, primordial beings, ou
agents of historical change (Nooter 1993:209). Such works envi-
sion mythico-historical origins and show how the beginnings of
humankind can be made present through spiritual connections.

THE MATERNAL GAZE
Many African works of art depict mother and child as the
most essential relationship of human engagement and inti-
macy (Cole 1990). For many rural peoples, there is no wealth
greater than a child, for when infant mortality rates are high,
birth is a gift of the gods. In the sculptures chosen for “The Inner
Eye,” artists have emphasized the maternal gaze to express the
potency of this bond. From the deeply moving relationship of a
Bamana mother and child (figue. 11) to the otherworldly medita-
tive demeanor of a Mbembe muse (figue. 12), and from a Yoruba
mother’s protective eyes of life force (figue. 6) to a Yombe mother’s
eyes of reflective impenetrability, mother-and-child are insepa-
rable, as reflected in gazes of nurturing love.

With monumentality, engaging presence, and a demeanor
of dignity and maternal dedication, an ancient West African
sculpture embodies the continuity of generations. Gwan figures
made by Bamana peoples of Mali (figue. 11) possess exceptional
attributes of fertility and force and have long helped women
through the physical challenges of conception and childbirth
(see Ezra 1986). “Gwan” alludes to ardent will and supernatu-
ral powers and was the name also given to the tall furnaces in
which iron was smelted and “born” to provide raw metal forged

into essential tools and weapons (see McNaughton 1993). At an
annual Day of Gwan, public displays of sculpture greet the new
agricultural season. Women promise to dedicate their children
to Gwan should they be so fortunate as to give birth safely in the
year to come.

Gwan figures are imposing presences, and like all African art,
they are conceptual rather than simply naturalistic, for their
forms offer an aesthetic of ideas and efficacy. This figure incar-
nates strength and pride in its upright bearing, elegantly elon-
gated neck, broad shoulders, and lithe torso to which a newborn
eagerly clings. Downcast eyes and sublime composure bespeak
spiritual grace, while an offered breast and the slightest tilt of
the head toward the infant lend palpable humanity. A knife
strapped to the upper arm and an amulet-studded headdress
convey physical and mystical capacities: She is the mother of
and for all.

11 Mother and child ﬁgure for the Gwan Association
Mali, ca. 1279–1395
Wood; 96.5 cm × 29.2 cm × 30.5 cm
Gift of the 2013 Collectors Committee, with additional
funds provided by Kelvin Davis and Bobby Kotick
Photo: © Museum Associates/LACMA

12 Mother and child ﬁgure
Nigeria, Cross River, Mbembe peoples, 1744–1788
Wood: Apa tree; 88.9 cmx 59.7 cmx 73.7 cm
Private collection

D
o
w
n
o
un
d
e
d

F
r
o
m
h

t
t

:
/
/

d
je
r
e
c
t
.

je
t
.

e
d
toi
un
un
r
/
un
r
t
je
c
e
–
p
d

F
/

5
0
1
6
0
1
7
3
7
5
1
5
un
un
r
_
un
_
0
0
3
3
2
p
d

b
oui
g
toi
e
s
t

o
n
0
8
S
e
p
e
m
b
e
r
2
0
2
3

VOL. 50, NON. 1 SPRING 2017 arts africains | 67

INSIGHT AS EDUCATION
One of the most potent ways that works of African art con-
vey insight is through their use in educational contexts. Parmi
Lega peoples of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, life is
understood as stages of learning. An association called Bwami
is dedicated to teaching moral codes and ethical standards by
which behavior and integrity are judged.6 However, unlike many
initiation associations that bridge from childhood to adulthood,
Bwami never ends. It is a lifelong learning association, avec
five levels for men and three for women, and death and afterlife
provide ultimate erudition (Biebuyck 1973:136). The older one
becomes, the higher one ascends through the ranks of Bwami,
affirming the extraordinary respect and love that community
members have for their elders.

Lega sculptures that teach initiates moral precepts through
verbal arts are carved from wood and ivory, with natural objects
included in object displays to enrich meaning-making. Human
and animal forms are the most prominent subject matter, avec
human figures, busts, and masks emphasized in “The Inner
Eye.” The goal of such works is to envision philosophical con-
cepts. Par exemple, figures known in Lega proverbs as “Mr.
Many Heads” (figue. 13) allude to the all-seeing powers of those
who have ascended the stages of Bwami and whose acquisition
of knowledge enables them to remain wise and fair-minded
(Biebuyck 1973:220–21).

Great elders are honored by works in ivory, and busts with
eyes alluding to or set with cowrie shells portray the extended
ken of those whose age and experience bring them profun-
dity (figue. 14). As Elisabeth Cameron writes, “of all the initia-
tion objects, the Lega consider maginga (ivory busts) to have
the strongest innate power, and they often use bits of the ivory

13 Multi-headed ﬁgure
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lega Peoples,
late 19th–early 20th century
Wood and paint; 31.5 cm × 14.5 cm × 13 cm
Fowler Museum at UCLA, Gift of Jay T. Last
Photo: © Fowler Museum at UCLA

14 Bousiller
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lega Peoples,
late 19th–early 20th century
Ivory and cowrie shell; 17.7 cm × 8.1 cm × 8 cm
Fowler Museum at UCLA, Gift of Jay T. Last
Photo: © Fowler Museum at UCLA

Nearby sits an equally regal mother and child, its wood deeply
weathered and worn from generations of outdoor use as the insig-
nia of a monumental slit drum once employed by Mbembe peo-
ples of southeastern Nigeria (figue. 12). As documented by Alisa
LaGamma (2013), fewer than twenty such figures are known,
and while most depict men, several are mother-and-child fig-
ures. Of these, this sculpture presents a most commanding
female, with upward gaze and a profoundly introspective visage.
The upright pose befits her role as the spouse who gave birth to
the first male descendent of the lineage, and her simultaneous
pride in and protection of her infant are expressed by the artist’s
brilliantly sensitive approach. The vertical emphasis of her torso
merges with the horizontality of the baby, as LaGamma points
dehors, softening the evocatively eroded representation of maternal
amour. The baby suckles her mother’s breast as she sits at the ready,
contemplative yet dynamically sure in her courage and purpose.

68 | african arts SPRING 2017 VOL. 50, NON. 1

D
o
w
n
o
un
d
e
d

F
r
o
m
h

t
t

:
/
/

d
je
r
e
c
t
.

je
t
.

e
d
toi
un
un
r
/
un
r
t
je
c
e
–
p
d

F
/

5
0
1
6
0
1
7
3
7
5
1
5
un
un
r
_
un
_
0
0
3
3
2
p
d

b
oui
g
toi
e
s
t

o
n
0
8
S
e
p
e
m
b
e
r
2
0
2
3

15 Mask
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lega Peoples,
late 19th–early 20th century
Wood and pigment; 26.4 cm × 15.5 cm × 6.8 cm
Fowler Museum at UCLA, Gift of Jay T. Last
Photo: © Fowler Museum at UCLA

features sometimes realized in such streamlined elegance as to
avoid rendering eyes altogether (figue. 15). Such masks may illus-
trate the saying, “Big-One of the men’s house, the guardian, a
no eyes” (Biebuyck 1986:77), and “although this important high-
level Bwami member does not see with his eyes, he sees with
his heart and guards the affairs of the community” (Cameron
2001:209). In other words, introspective wisdom results from
“inner eyes,” as Yoruba might say.

BEHOLDING SPIRIT
In cultures of southeastern DRC, many sculptural works
envision interaction with the spirit world. Par exemple, objets
associated with Luba kingship such as thrones, scepters, cere-
monial axes, and female figures, are embodiments of spiritual
capacity that empower the ruler and the community as a whole
(Figs. 16–17). Female images attract spirits to reside within
eux, and their gazes are not intended for human eyes so much
as the otherworldly eyes of the bavidye—twinned tutelary spirits
who regulate the human realm and oversee the doings of kings
(M.. Roberts 2013). Kings join the bavidye at death, but they are
also incarnated by sacred women who assume the title of the

scraped from these figures to mix in a drink intended for medic-
inal purposes” (2001:120–25, citing Biebuyck 1973:174). Many
Lega masks convey similarly heightened perception through
their chalk-laden faces that manifest the spirit world, and with

D
o
w
n
o
un
d
e
d

F
r
o
m
h

t
t

:
/
/

d
je
r
e
c
t
.

je
t
.

e
d
toi
un
un
r
/
un
r
t
je
c
e
–
p
d

F
/

5
0
1
6
0
1
7
3
7
5
1
5
un
un
r
_
un
_
0
0
3
3
2
p
d

b
oui
g
toi
e
s
t

o
n
0
8
S
e
p
e
m
b
e
r
2
0
2
3

16 Female ﬁgure
Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Luba peoples, 18th to
19th century
Wood, textile remains, and met-
al projection at the back of the
head, plant ﬁber cordage and
metal beads at waist, traces of
red pigment on the headdress;
31 cm × 11 cm × 12 cm
Fowler Museum at UCLA, Gift
of The Wellcome Trust
Photo: © Fowler Museum at
UCLA

17 Female ﬁgure
Democratic Republic of the Con-
go, Luba peoples, ca. 1820–1850
Wood; 25.7 cmx 9.5 cmx 9.8 cm
Private collection

VOL. 50, NON. 1 SPRING 2017 arts africains | 69

18 Royal throne
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Luba peoples,
18th–19th century
Wood, glass, and ﬁber; 42.4 cm × 23.2 cm × 21.4 cm
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and
Anthropology, Philadelphia
Photo: courtesy of Penn Museum

19 Male commemorative ﬁgure
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Hemba peoples,
18th–19th century
Wood; 67.3 cmx 22.9 cmx 19.1 cm
Private collection

PATTERNS OF PERCEPTION
Approaches to inner eyes and outward gazes are not restricted
to sculpture in the arts of Africa. Textiles are a most dynamic
artistic expression that may convey perception through vision-
ary patterns. “The Inner Eye” features a display of fourteen
woven and embroidered panels made by Kuba artists of the DRC.
This group, of which a selection is shown here (Figs. 20–21),
was chosen from an outstanding collection of 117 Kuba textiles
acquired by LACMA in 2009. These striking works represent
the visionary versatility of Kuba artists, for their designs are
not only aesthetically brilliant, they are embedded with secret
knowledge and esoteric wisdom. Used for trade and tribute in
precolonial times, such panels were objects of transaction and

D
o
w
n
o
un
d
e
d

F
r
o
m
h

t
t

:
/
/

d
je
r
e
c
t
.

je
t
.

e
d
toi
un
un
r
/
un
r
t
je
c
e
–
p
d

F
/

5
0
1
6
0
1
7
3
7
5
1
5
un
un
r
_
un
_
0
0
3
3
2
p
d

b
oui
g
toi
e
s
t

o
n
0
8
S
e
p
e
m
b
e
r
2
0
2
3

deceased king and ensure that his memory is perpetuated.7 A
Luba throne depicts a woman who peers into another realm and
is a connecting point between the living ruler and his ancestors
(figue. 18). Her inward gaze is one of transcendence as she ensures
the continuity of the kingdom and upholds the realm as the seat
of power. Many such thrones were rarely if ever shown in public
and were kept swathed in white cloth and hidden in an adjacent
village in reverence and to protect them from theft by political
adversaries (M.. Roberts and A. Roberts 1996).

Regal male figures made by Hemba peoples are evocations of
heroic leaders of society and lineage heads who guided people
through the challenges of everyday existence while providing
their communities with nurturing, protective care (Neyt 1977,
LaGamma 2011). The stance of hands to abdomen is a sign that
these figures are gesturing to the memory of their mothers
(figue. 19). Hemba and related groups such as Kusu remember
their maternal ancestors with downcast eyes and contemplative
demeanors and reinforce the powerful connection between rul-
ers and their predecessors that is the lifeline to human survival
and continuity.

70 | african arts SPRING 2017 VOL. 50, NON. 1

D
o
w
n
o
un
d
e
d

F
r
o
m
h

t
t

:
/
/

d
je
r
e
c
t
.

je
t
.

e
d
toi
un
un
r
/
un
r
t
je
c
e
–
p
d

F
/

5
0
1
6
0
1
7
3
7
5
1
5
un
un
r
_
un
_
0
0
3
3
2
p
d

b
oui
g
toi
e
s
t

o
n
0
8
S
e
p
e
m
b
e
r
2
0
2
3

20 Textile panel
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kuba Culture,
Shoowa people, late 19th to early 20th century
Rafﬁa palm plain weave; cut pile and embroidery;
70.8 cmx 67 cm
Gift of the 2009 Collectors Committee
Photo: © Museum Associates/LACMA

21 Textile panel
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kuba Culture,
Shoowa people, late 19th to early 20th century
Rafﬁa palm plain weave; cut pile and embroidery;
59 cmx 56 cm
Gift of the 2009 Collectors Committee
Photo: © Museum Associates/LACMA

transfer central to securing alliances, creating affiliations, et
expanding the influence of the kingdom (Binkley and Darish
2010:127).

Such cut-pile cloths combined Kuba men’s and women’s labor
and creativity (M.. Adams 1978). Men wove the cloth of raffia
fiber, and then women embroidered the remarkably complex
designs. “To create the velvety effect, the seamstress drew a
strand of fiber through the already woven cloth, and then cut
and brushed the ends so that short tufts were formed” (M.J..
Adams 1981:232, verb tense changed). As women executed the
designs, they did not strive for regularity, but instead achieved
astonishing asymmetrical alternations of tone, pattern, and tex-
ture. Names for the designs known only to women made eso-
teric and gendered symbolic references. These striking works
are related to other types of Kuba skirts and panels, some long
and used for status and prestige, tribute, dowries, funerals, et
other ceremonial occasions.

While these exhibited examples date from the late nine-
teenth to early twentieth centuries, they have a contemporary
spirit of design and a dazzling geometry resonant with jazz as
an idiom of purposeful dissonance, improvisation, and virtuos-
ville (Thompson 1974:10–11). The renown of Kuba textile panels

in the West has grown because of their Escher-like compo-
sitions, and they have become an inspiration for a wide range
of manufactured fabrics and domestic products such as sheets,
pillows, and garments. In such non-African contexts, designs
are esteemed, copied, and adapted, yet the profound landscapes
of pattern conjoined with layers of perceptive knowledge that
informed the visuality of Kuba cloths are specific to the textiles
made for use and display in Kuba contexts of epistemological
insight.

VISIONARY PERFORMANCE
The performance of masquerades exists in many African cul-
tures historically, yet manifestation of spirit presence through
masked performances is astoundingly diverse (see A. Roberts
2016). “The Inner Eye” presents a suite of masks that represents
such aesthetic range, yet each has a particular lesson to impart
about vision (figue. 26). Masks, more than any other art form, sont
imbued with the inner eye, in the sense that masks imply a dual
identity—that of the dancer and that of the spirit or presence
that is awakened and made manifest through masquerade per-
formance. As Yoruba say, every person has an inner eye and an
outer eye, and in a sense a masquerader is the ultimate embodi-
ment of this dialectical concept.

Three female masks articulate diverse visualities, despite the
fact that all three are depictions of idealized womanhood: un
Baule Mblo portrait mask surmounted by three bird heads, un
Chokwe mask called Pwo, and a Punu mask known as mukudj.
Amidst the many mask forms of the Baule, Mblo maskers appear
in sequence toward the end of a performance, one by one. Male
dancers evoke the most beautiful female dancers of the com-
munity, and such masks are escorted by “namesake” women
whenever possible (figue. 22). The clean surfaces, embellishments
of jewelry and scarves, beautiful cloth, and fresh green leaves
of Mblo costuming announce that the best of Baule culture is
on display. Meant for entertainment, Mblo are not secret or

VOL. 50, NON. 1 SPRING 2017 arts africains | 71

D
o
w
n
o
un
d
e
d

F
r
o
m
h

t
t

:
/
/

d
je
r
e
c
t
.

je
t
.

e
d
toi
un
un
r
/
un
r
t
je
c
e
–
p
d

F
/

5
0
1
6
0
1
7
3
7
5
1
5
un
un
r
_
un
_
0
0
3
3
2
p
d

b
oui
g
toi
e
s
t

o
n
0
8
S
e
p
e
m
b
e
r
2
0
2
3

(clockwise from top left)
22 Mask with three bird heads
Côte d’Ivoire, Baule peoples, 19th Century
Wood and pigment; 25.4 cmx 15.6 cmx 10.2 cm
Private collection

23 Female mask: Pwo
Angola, Chokwe peoples, ca. 1820
Wood, metal and ﬁber; 37.5 cmx 17.1 cmx 26.7 cm
Private collection

24 Female mask
Gabon, Punu peoples, 19th century
Wood and pigment; 34 cmx 23 cm
Jerry Solomon, Les anges
Photo: © Fowler Museum at UCLA

25 Mask
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Teke/Tsaye peoples, ca. 1850
Wood with polychrome; 29.8 cmx 26.4 cmx 7.6 cm
Private collection

off-limits as many Baule sacred objects are, yet they are not dis-
played publicly between performances. As the performer Kalou
Yao explained to Susan Vogel, “If we don’t look at it, it is because
of women. It is a beautiful thing. The day it comes out .… the
woman who is its ndoma (namesake) and the other women
think how beautiful it is. I dance the mask for those women. Il
is not for yourself, a man, that you take it out” and perform it
(Vogel 1998:166).

Rapt anticipation of fleeting moments of masquerade, quand
the sequence of masks presents an orderly world and the beauty
of masks is ephemeral, is the essence of many African per-
formance idioms. Chokwe peoples of the DRC, Zambia, et
Angola also have masks that honor women, but rather than
being portraits like Mblo, these are representations of female
ancestors who incarnate ideal womanhood in Chokwe soci-
ety (Jordán 2000). Called Pwo, such masks with inward gaze
depict proud and accomplished female characters honored by
the community (Cameron 1998) (figue. 23). They are performed at

the culmination of boys’ initiation rites into adulthood and are
especially beloved, for they encapsulate the shifting relationship
of a mother to a boy as he ascends the ranks to manhood. Pwo
masks embody the beauty and integrity of women as pillars of
the community and the ancestral bedrock of society.

Mukudj masks made by Punu peoples of southwestern Gabon
are idealized portraits of beautiful women of “refined physiog-
nomy” (LaGamma 2015a:208) (figue. 24). Raised patterns of scar-
ification were once inscribed on women’s faces to denote and
enhance their charms and social standing. White clay adorning
a mukudj is associated with the spirit realm “and, in the con-
text of the dance, transforms the subjects represented from mere
mortals into transcendent beings who command formidable
powers” (LaGamma 2015a:208). Perhaps the most remarkable
aspect of such masquerades is that they are performed upon ten-
foot-tall stilts by young men who accomplish acrobatic choreog-
raphies with astounding agility.

In this, the athleticism of mukudj masquerade is somewhat

72 | african arts SPRING 2017 VOL. 50, NON. 1

D
o
w
n
o
un
d
e
d

F
r
o
m
h

t
t

:
/
/

d
je
r
e
c
t
.

je
t
.

e
d
toi
un
un
r
/
un
r
t
je
c
e
–
p
d

F
/

5
0
1
6
0
1
7
3
7
5
1
5
un
un
r
_
un
_
0
0
3
3
2
p
d

b
oui
g
toi
e
s
t

o
n
0
8
S
e
p
e
m
b
e
r
2
0
2
3

26 Face mask
Gabon, Tsogo peoples, late 19th–early 20th century
Wood and paint; 32 cmx 21.3 cmx 8.5 cm
National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institu-
tion, Gift of Walt Disney World Co., a subsidiary of The
Walt Disney Company
Photo: courtesy of National Museum of African Art, Forgeron-
sonian Institution

27 Shrine ﬁgure
Nigeria, Ijo peoples, late 19th–20th century
Wood, glass eyes and paint; 172.7 cmx 35.6 cmx 45.7 cm
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Museum purchase,
gift of Phyllis C. Wattis and the Phyllis C. Wattis Fund for
Major Accessions
Photo: © Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

VOL. 50, NON. 1 SPRING 2017 arts africains | 73

similar to that of men dancing kidumu among Teke Tsaayi peo-
ple living in the borderland between Gabon and the Republic
of the Congo (Brazzaville) (figue. 25). As observed in the 1960s,
young men wearing colorful face masks “cartwheeled many
times, turning upside down as best they could, [dans] a movement
difficult to perform because the mask is only held in place by a
string which the dancer grips tightly between his teeth” (Dupré
1991:217). Kidumu, derived from a word for “the noise of thun-
der and the fame of chiefs,” are circular, flat masks adorned with
red, blanc, and black motifs divided horizontally by a raised
line called “the roof beam.” This structure in turn divides upper
realms of human activity from a mirror spiritual plane beneath,
and the somersaults of young men wearing such masks bring
hallowed ancestral forces into dynamic visibility and to bear
upon human circumstances of the here and now.8

VIGILANT SENTINELS
The eyes perform many roles via the arts of Africa, but among
the most important are to “see” and so promote wellbeing and
protect individuals and communities from misfortune and peril.
In many instances, it is critical to call upon the spirit world for
assistance in the deflection of malevolence and the maintenance
of social harmony. Some of the most monumentally striking
sculptures are made for such purposes, and they often compel-
lingly render evident eyes complemented by “inner eyes” that
apprehend invisible forces at work for and against those devoted
to such spiritual presences.

A most commanding protective figure is a multiheaded forest
spirit figure (figue. 27) made by Ijo people of the Niger Delta. Le

28 Power ﬁgure
Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Songye peoples, ca.
1870
Wood, antelope horn and
ﬁber; 90 cmx 22.2 cmx
36.8 cm
Private collection

29 Power ﬁgure: nkisi nkond’i
Democratic Republic of
the Congo, Kongo peoples,
1850s
Wood, metal spikes, cowrie
shell, cloth and porcelain;
118.1 cmx 43.2 cmx 27.9 cm
Private collection

D
o
w
n
o
un
d
e
d

F
r
o
m
h

t
t

:
/
/

d
je
r
e
c
t
.

je
t
.

e
d
toi
un
un
r
/
un
r
t
je
c
e
–
p
d

F
/

artist has directed the capricious powers of the forest to com-
munity ends, for the imposing being with seven heads protected
a community from wilderness dangers. Militaristic themes are
depicted as an invincible warrior is equipped with weapons and
black and white paint, as well as a quadruped surmounting the
upper platform to ward away malicious forces (cf. Horton 1965).
The imposing figure’s fourteen eyes, embedded with glass,
provide haunting warning to any who would dare commit an
offense by making ever so tangible the fact that nothing escapes
this spirit’s panoptic surveillance.

Two other compelling works demonstrate how vigilance can
be expressed in the most assertive of ways. A Songye nkishi
power figure (figue. 28) is riveting for its horns extending from the
top of its head and its right eye. Such horns project strength and
authority and are widely used in central Africa to contain potent
medicinal substances for healing, but also for circumventing or
combating evil forces. For Songye peoples of southeastern DRC,
such devices further direct the arcane wisdom of elders toward
community needs (Hersak 1985:130). Songye figures of this size
and stature were not personal possessions, but rather reflected
“the collective desire” of an entire community; they had their
own houses and were cared for by designated guardians who
interpreted dreams and messages regarding threats from malev-
olent spirits or trespassers. Songye nkishi were often so laden
with powerful substances that they could not be handled with
human hands, but instead were manipulated with long wooden

74 | african arts SPRING 2017 VOL. 50, NON. 1

5
0
1
6
0
1
7
3
7
5
1
5
un
un
r
_
un
_
0
0
3
3
2
p
d

b
oui
g
toi
e
s
t

o
n
0
8
S
e
p
e
m
b
e
r
2
0
2
3

poles attached under the figure’s arms, which attendants held
as they assisted the figure to “walk” through town and confront
“malign spirit invaders” (Hersak 1985:132). Doing so emphat-
ically announced that the nkishi’s eyes were not just vigilant
but spiritually empowered and enhanced by the efficacies of
animals from which the horns and other accouterments were
derived. Like a channel for sight to travel from this world to the
next, this artist masterfully expressed the power of inner vision
through the potency of its outward manifestation of a pow-
er-packed right eye.

Extended vision is expressed by other central African soci-
eties through some of the boldest of all sculptures—the great
nkisi nkondi of Kongo and related peoples. There are few object
types in the world that have garnered as much curiosity and
inspired as much awe as these blade-studded, broad-shouldered
pronouncements of power, capacity, and transcendence. Tel
figures were communally owned if of monumental scale, et
they could “inoculate their communities from an onslaught of

threats to their well-being,” including warding off “the ravages
of colonialism” and imposing justice by punishing criminal acts
through spiritually sanctioned means (LaGamma 2015b:265).

Knowledge about these works is complex and detailed, comme
documented most recently by Alisa LaGamma (2015b) and ear-
lier by Wyatt MacGaffey (1993) in his perceptive essay on “the
eyes of understanding” and Robert Farris Thompson (1981) dans
his seminal study situating Kongo arts in cosmology. From the
specific wood used for the sculptural framework to the many
types of hand-forged blades and European nails hammered
into figures during invocations, the process of outfitting such
a spiritual presence was intense and always required an nganga
practitioner to create the medicinal bundles and consecrate the
travail. Three primary locations held such materials: an abdom-
inal cavity (figue. 29), around the chin, and within the eyes. “The
semicircular or oval eyes [of many such figures] were cut from
a buff-colored ceramic tile with lead-tin glaze … The tiles were
drilled to provide a hole for an iron-nail pupil and then cov-
ered with the resin mixture as a hermetic sealant” (LaGamma
2015b:260–61). Deposits of empowering matter were hidden
in cavities behind the reflective surfaces and within the eyes,
bestowing great visual acuity. The external eye, alors, is but a
shield for the inner eye of transformative potentialities.

SEEING BEYOND
One of the most important messages of “The Inner Eye” is
that the visual is often a conduit to the invisible, and that see-
ing implies unseen insights. The last moments of a visit offer an
eloquent statement about the power of art to transport us to the
past and to propel us toward a future. An intimate gallery space
fosters reverence and respectful viewing as a shrine of objects

that commemorate family members and loved ones who have
passed on to become benevolent ancestors. A Baule figure from
Côte d’Ivoire presents a man’s wife in the other world, alors que
reliquary guardians of Fang and Kota peoples of Gabon once
guarded the souls of the departed. Commemorative posts of
Malagasy people honored the leaders of great lineages and still
stand in testament to the immortal eye. Each speaks to the ways
that every culture cherishes those who came before, and cre-
ates a pathway between worlds that can transcend loss to restore
hope and resilience.

Works selected for this last section demonstrate how the
invisible is made visible as contact is maintained with another
monde. Baule spirit figures can sometimes be difficult to iden-
tify as there are two types: those made for nature spirits who
can disrupt peoples’ lives until divination is undertaken and a
sculpture is made, and spirit-spouse figures that give tangible
form and presence to the helpmates that every individual had
in the other world before being born into this one (Vogel 1981).
A spirit-spouse figure is commissioned from an artist when a
person is suffering marital or fertility problems that may be
attributed to the jealousy of a neglected husband or wife in the
other world. A composed and elegant figure (figue. 30) depicts a
mature woman who has borne children and acquired wealth, comme
evidenced by the bracelets she wears. These honorific criteria are
essential to placating a spirit spouse’s wrath and then “bring-
ing down” the invisible mate to tangible form (Ravenhill 1994:
27). Once ensconced in a shrine in the human spouse’s bedroom

D
o
w
n
o
un
d
e
d

F
r
o
m
h

t
t

:
/
/

d
je
r
e
c
t
.

je
t
.

e
d
toi
un
un
r
/
un
r
t
je
c
e
–
p
d

F
/

5
0
1
6
0
1
7
3
7
5
1
5
un
un
r
_
un
_
0
0
3
3
2
p
d

b
oui
g
toi
e
s
t

o
n
0
8
S
e
p
e
m
b
e
r
2
0
2
3

30 Female ﬁgure
Côte d’Ivoire, Baule peoples, 19th century
Wood, glass beads and carnelian stone beads;
44.2 cmx 10.2 cmx 10.9 cm
National Museum of African Art, Smithsonien
Institution, Gift of Walt Disney World Co., un
subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company
Photo: courtesy of National Museum of African
Art, Institution Smithsonian

31 Reliquary guardian head: byeri
Gabon, Fang peoples, 1800
Wood; 40.6 cmx 15.9 cmx 10.8 cm
Private collection

VOL. 50, NON. 1 SPRING 2017 arts africains | 75

32 Reliquary guardian ﬁgure
Gabon, Kota peoples, ca. 1860–1880
Copper, brass, iron and wood; 66 cmx 45.7
cmx 10.8 cm
Private collection

D
o
w
n
o
un
d
e
d

F
r
o
m
h

t
t

:
/
/

d
je
r
e
c
t
.

je
t
.

e
d
toi
un
un
r
/
un
r
t
je
c
e
–
p
d

F
/

5
0
1
6
0
1
7
3
7
5
1
5
un
un
r
_
un
_
0
0
3
3
2
p
d

b
oui
g
toi
e
s
t

o
n
0
8
S
e
p
e
m
b
e
r
2
0
2
3

and offered food and drink, love and attention, the spirit spouse
becomes a highly personal, discreet, and invisible object to all
but its owner. As Vogel writes, “Baule sculpture is mostly viewed
in constrained, orchestrated circumstances. The usual experi-
ence is less one of seeing the work than of apprehending it in a
multisensory way that involves what one knows as much as what
one sees” (1998:111–22).

In contrast to “bringing down” an invisible being to earthly
but, some works are concerned with keeping invisible what
should be unseen by serving as guardians of human remains—
although the examples in “The Inner Eye” are no longer asso-
ciated with ancestral relics as they once were. Fang and Kota
guardian figures provide powerful physical and metaphysical
connection between the living and the dead. As Alisa LaGamma
has eloquently expressed, “Fang believed that a ritual death

was a prerequisite for an initiate to be admitted to the ancestor
cult, for only in that way would he gain exposure to the mira-
cles … that the ancestors were capable of performing. Access
to this desired state of exalted awareness is referred to as ‘hav-
ing one’s head opened,’” and as LaGamma further states, le
lifelike sculpted heads of the Fang personify this enlightenment
(2007:190).

Fang sculpted heads and related busts and full figures (figue. 31)
are characterized by dark stained wood, often gleaming with the
residue of palm oil applications made as offerings to and bless-
ings of the deceased. The eyes were often covered with copper or
brass forms pierced with iron pupils, and even those that have
lost such features still emanate the otherworldly yet “relent-
less gaze” of eyes once inset with polished metal that flashed
from the dark corners where the figures were kept, to keep out

76 | african arts SPRING 2017 VOL. 50, NON. 1

33 Commemorative male ﬁgure
Madagascar, Vezo peoples, ca. 1800
Wood; 55.9 cmx 15.9 cmx 15.2 cm
New York private collection

34 Commemorative female ﬁgure
Madagascar, Vezo peoples, ca. 1800
Wood; 44.5 cmx 17.1 cmx 13.3 cm
New York private collection

D
o
w
n
o
un
d
e
d

F
r
o
m
h

t
t

:
/
/

d
je
r
e
c
t
.

je
t
.

e
d
toi
un
un
r
/
un
r
t
je
c
e
–
p
d

F
/

5
0
1
6
0
1
7
3
7
5
1
5
un
un
r
_
un
_
0
0
3
3
2
p
d

b
oui
g
toi
e
s
t

o
n
0
8
S
e
p
e
m
b
e
r
2
0
2
3

VOL. 50, NON. 1 SPRING 2017 arts africains | 77

intruders (Fernandez 1981). Kota reliquary figures offered sim-
ilar protection, for their lozenge-shaped forms surmounted by
a brilliantly sculpted wooden head sheathed in shining copper
or brass repelled trespassers from the shrine house while ensur-
ing harmonious interaction between the dead and their descen-
dants. A Kota mbulu commemorative figure embodies the
efficacy of dually directed vision as well as external and inner
eyes (figue. 32). “As guardians of influential ancestors, southern
Kota mbulu figures assured the happiness and well-being of
descendants that cared for them. Janus mbulu viti were consid-
ered especially efficacious given their ability to anticipate danger
from either direction …. It has been suggested that the opposi-
tions embraced by such works are meant to evoke the existential
polarities of life and death” (LaGamma 2007:252).

Enfin, life and death, this world and the other, love and loss,

are poetically and poignantly articulated in one of the most
remarkable male/female couples in African art. A pair of cho-
reographically kinetic figures made from wood that has been
weathered and washed through the sunshine and storms of every
season for generations speaks to the passing of generations and
the continuity of the Vezo peoples of Madagascar (Figs. 33–34).
Funerary practices are critically important to many peoples of
Madagascar, and links between the large Indian Ocean island
and South Asia explain a different aesthetic than is common
in much of sub-Saharan Africa (Mack 1986). Encore, while most
Malagasy tomb sculptures that are displayed in groupings on
hillsides and plateaus in the country are more frontal, monu-
mental, and static in their stances, this pair seems to envision
the dance of time’s passage and the transcendence of earthly
existence to a place apart.

Remarques

Références citées

Warm thanks are extended to Leslie Jones, editor
of African Arts, for her patient help in bringing this
exhibition preview to print; to colleagues at LACMA for
their assistance in realizing the “The Inner Eye” exhi-
bition; to the exhibition lenders for generously sharing
their works; and to Allen F. Roberts for his brilliant
editorial vision. For my parents, Nancy and Robert
Nooter, and our children.

In his landmark explanation of the heuristic

distinction between vision and visuality, Hal Foster
notes that “although vision suggests sight as a physical
operation, and visuality as a social fact, the two are
not opposed as nature to culture: vision is social and
historical too, and visuality involves the body and the
psyche” (1988:ix). Such ambiguities are to be under-
stood as both implicit to and as sources of empowering
reflection in the works presented in “The Inner Eye.”

2 Among relevant writings, see Blier 2004, Drewal
2005, Lamp 2004, M.. Roberts 2009, and Strother 2000.
3 While the great majority of masked performers
are men in sub-Saharan Africa, there are very import-
ant exceptions; see Kasfir 1998.

In a two-volume Batch from MIT Press Journals

available for e-readers (UN. Roberts 2016), theories of
masks and masquerade performances are reviewed
and case studies presented in eighteen articles
selected from the more than two hundred on the
topic presented in African Arts over its fifty years of
publication.

5 A healthy controversy exists in African Studies
regarding the documentation of Dogon origin stories
and related lore by French ethnographers beginning in
the 1930s; see Ezra 1988, Nooter 1993:205–206. More
recent scholarship has addressed the polyvalent nature
of interpretation and oral tradition via Dogon narra-
tive epistemology, stressing that diverging visions and
versions are outcomes of social organization among
dispersed, petit, acephalous communities; for an
excellent review of these matters as well as a compar-
ative study of Dogon and Yoruba “deep thought,” see
Apter 2005.

6 Tragically, Lega people live in lands long
wracked by civil strife. It is not clear what if any
Bwami practices and artistic productions mentioned
here continue in our days.

It is not clear if this practice continues; see M.

Roberts and A. Roberts 1996, 2007.

8 Teke up-and-over dancing is related to move-
ment practices of other central African peoples that
were brought to Brazil through the trans-Atlantic
slave trade, where they became capoeira; see A. Rob-
erts 2013:96–98.

78 | african arts SPRING 2017 VOL. 50, NON. 1

D
o
w
n
o
un
d
e
d

F
r
o
m
h

t
t

:
/
/

d
je
r
e
c
t
.

je
t
.

e
d
toi
un
un
r
/
un
r
t
je
c
e
–
p
d

F
/

5
0
1
6
0
1
7
3
7
5
1
5
un
un
r
_
un
_
0
0
3
3
2
p
d

b
oui
g
toi
e
s
t

o
n
0
8
S
e
p
e
m
b
e
r
2
0
2
3

Abiodun, Rowland. 2014. Yoruba Art and Language:
Seeking the African in African Art. New York: Cam-
bridge University Press.

Uppsala Studies in Cultural Anthropology, Non. 16, pp.
217–35. Uppsala: Uppsala University.

Eck, Diana. 1998. Darśan: Seeing the Divine Image in
India. New York: Columbia University Press.

_______. 1994. “Understanding Yoruba Art and Aes-
thetics: The Concept of Ase.” African Arts 27 (3):68–78,
102–103.

Ezra, Kate. 1988. Art of the Dogon: Selections from the
Lester Wunderman Collection. New York: Metropoli-
tan Museum of Art.

Adams, Marie Jeanne. 1981. “Kuba Skirt Wrapper.” In
For Spirits and Kings: African Art from the Paul and
Ruth Tishman Collection, éd. Susan Vogel, pp. 232–33.
New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Adams, oncle. 1978. “Kuba Embroidered Cloth.”
African Arts 12 (1):24–39, 106–107.

Apter, Andrew. 2005. “Griaule Legacy: Rethinking
‘la parole claire’ in Dogon Studies.” Cahiers d’Études
Africaines 45 (177):95–130.

Biebuyck, Daniel. 1986. The Arts of Zaïre, Vol. 2, East-
ern Zaïre. Berkeley: Presse de l'Université de Californie.

_______. 1973. Lega Culture: Art, Initiation and
Moral Philosophy Among a Central African People.
Berkeley: Presse de l'Université de Californie.

Binkley, David, and Patricia Darish. 2010. Visions of
Africa: Kuba. Milan: 5Continents.

Blier, Suzanne, éd. 2004. Art of the Senses: African
Masterpieces from the Teel Collection. Boston, MA:
MFA Publications, Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Bravmann, René. 1983. African Islam. Washington,
CC: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Cameron, Elisabeth. 2001. Art of the Lega. Los Ange-
les: UCLA Fowler Museum.

_______. 1998. “Potential and Fulfilled Women:
Initiations, Sculpture, and Masquerades in Kabompo
District, Zambia.” In Chokwe! Art and Initiation
Among Chokwe and Related Peoples, éd. Manuel
Jordán, pp. 76–83. Munich: Prestel for the Birming-
ham (AL) Museum of Art.

Cole, Herbert. 1990. Icons: Ideals and Power in the Art
of Africa. Washington, CC: Institution Smithsonian
Presse.

_______. 1969. “Art as a Verb in Iboland.” African
Arts 3 (1):34–41, 88.

Drewal, Henry. 2005. “First Word: Senses in Under-
standings of Art.” African Arts 38 (2):1, 4, 6, 88, 96.

Dupré, Marie-Claude. 1991. “Colours in Kidumu
Masks of the Teke Tsaayi.” In Body and Space:
Symbolic Models of Unity and Division in African
Cosmology and Experience, éd. UN. Jacobson-Widding,

_______. 1986. A Human Ideal in African Art: Bam-
ana Figurative Sculpture. Washington, CC: Smithso-
nian Institution Press.

Fernandez, James. 1981. “Reliquary Head, Gabon,
Fang.” In For Spirits and Kings: African Art from the
Paul and Ruth Tishman Collection, éd. Susan Vogel, p.
189. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Fischer, Eberhard. 1978. “Dan Forest Spirits: Masks in
Dan Villages.” African Arts 11 (2):16–23, 94.

Foster, Hal. 1988. “Preface.” In Vision and Visual-
ville, éd. Hal Foster, pp. ix–xiv. DIA Art Foundation,
Discussions in Contemporary Culture, Non. 2. Seattle,
WA: Bay Press.

Hersak, Dunja. 1985. Songye Masks and Figure Sculp-
ture. Londres: Ethnographica.

Horton, Robin. 1965. Kalabari Sculpture. Lagos: Nige-
rian Federal Department of Antiquities.

Jay, Martine. 1988. “Scopic Regimes of Modernity.” In
Vision and Visuality, éd. Hal Foster, pp. 1–23. DIA Art
Fondation, Discussions in Contemporary Culture,
Non. 2. Seattle, WA: Bay Press.

Jordán, Manuel. 2000. “Revisiting Pwo.” African Arts
33 (4):16–25, 92–93.

Kasfir, Sidney. 1998. “Elephant Women, Furious and
Majestic: Women’s Masquerade in Africa and the
Diaspora.” African Arts 31 (2):18–27, 92.

Kreamer, Christine. 2012. “African Cosmos: Perform-
ing the Moral Universe.” In African Cosmos: Stellar
Arts, pp. 114–53. New York: Monicelli Press for the
National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Insti-
tution, Washington, CC.

_______. 2007. “Inscribing Power/Writing Politics.”
In Inscribing Meaning: Writing and Graphic Systems in
African Art, éd. C. Kreamer, M.. N. Roberts, E. Harney,
et un. Purpura, pp. 126–45. Washington, CC: Forgeron-
sonian Institution Press.

Lacan, Jacques. 2007. “The Mirror Stage as Forma-
tive of the I Function as Revealed in Psychoanalytic
Experience.” In Écrits: The First Complete Edition in
English, trans. B. Fink, pp. 75–82. New York: Norton.

LaGamma, Alisa. 2015un. “Punu Mukudj Mask.” In
African Art in the Barnes Foundation, éd. Christa
Clarke, pp. 208–209. New York: Skir Rizzoli for the
Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia.

_______. 2015b. Kongo: Power and Majesty. Nouveau
Haven, CT: Yale University Press for the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York.

_______. 2013. “Silenced Mbembe Muses.” Metropol-
itan Museum Journal 48 (1). www.journals.uchicago.
edu/doi/10.1086/675318.

_______. 2011. Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders,
Iconic Sculptures. New York: Metropolitan Museum
of Art.

_______. 2007. Eternal Ancestors: The Art of the
Central African Reliquary. New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press for the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York.

_______. 2002. Genesis: Ideas of Origin in African
Sculpture. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Laibi, Shakur. 1998. Soufisme et art visuel: Iconogra-
phie du sacré. Paris: L’Harmattan.

Lamp, Frederick. 2004. See the Music, Hear the Dance:
Rethinking African Art at the Baltimore Museum of
Art. Munich: Prestel for the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Lawal, Babatunde. 2001. “Àwòrán: Representing the
Self and Its Metaphysical Other in Yoruba Art.” The
Art Bulletin 83 (3):498–526.

MacGaffey, Wyatt. 1993. Astonishment & Power: Le
Eyes of Understanding: Kongo Minkisi. Washington,
CC: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Mack, John. Madagascar: Island of the Ancestors.
Londres: British Museum Press.

McNaughton, Patrick. 1993. The Mande Blacksmiths:
Knowledge, Power, and Art in West Africa. Blooming-
ton: Presse universitaire de l'Indiana.

Neyt, François. 1977. La Grande Statuaire Hemba du
Zaïre. Brussels: Institut Supérieur d’Archéologie et
d’Histoire de l’Art.

Nooter, Mary, éd. 1993. Secrecy: African Art that Con-
ceals and Reveals. New York: Museum for African Art.

Pemberton III, John, éd. 2000. Insight and Artistry in
African Divination. Washington, CC: Smithsonien
Presse institutionnelle.

Ravenhill, Philip. 1994. The Self and the Other: Per-
sonhood and Images Among the Baule, Côte d’Ivoire.
Monograph Series No. 28. Les anges: UCLA Fowler
Museum of Cultural History.

Roberts, Allen F. 2016. African Masks and Masquer-
ades: A Batch from African Arts, Parts 1 et 2. Cam-
bridge, MA: AVEC Presse. http://www.mitpressjournals.
org/page/batches.

_______. 2013. “Histories Made by Bodies.” In A
Dance of Assassins: Performing Early Colonial Hege-
mony in the Congo, pp. 76–98. Bloomington: Indiana
Presse universitaire.

Roberts, Allen F., and Mary N. Roberts. 2003. A Saint
in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal. Les anges:
UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History.

Roberts, Mary N. 2013. “The King Is a Woman:
Shaping Power in Luba Royal Arts.” African Arts 46
(3):67–81.

_______. 2009. “Tactility and Transcendence: Episte-
mologies of Touch in African Arts and Spiritualities.”
In Religion and Material Culture: The Matter of Belief,

pp. 77–97. New York: Routledge.

Roberts, Mary N., and Allen F. Roberts. 2007. Visions
of Africa: Luba. Milan: 5Continents.

_______. 1997. A Sense of Wonder: African Art from
the Faletti Family Collection. Seattle: Université de
Washington Press for the Phoenix Art Museum.

_______. 1996. Mémoire: Luba Art and the Making of
Histoire. Munich: Prestel for the Museum for African
Art, New York.

Seligman, Thomas. 1980. “Animism and Islam:
A Mask from North-East Liberia.” Apollo 111
(216):143–45.

Strother, Z.S. 2000. “Smells and Bells: The Role of
Skepticism in Pende Divination.” In Insight and
Artistry in African Divination, éd. John Pemberton III,
pp. 99–115. Washington, CC: Institution Smithsonian
Presse.

Thompson, Robert Farris. 1981. Four Moments of the
Sun: Kongo Arts in Two Worlds. Washington, CC:
National Gallery of Art.

_______. 1974. African Art in Motion. Berkeley:
Presse de l'Université de Californie.

Unglaub, Jonathan. 2012. “Vision and the Vision-
ary in Raphael by Christian K. Kleinbub (2011)»
[book review]. CAA Reviews, www.caareviews.org/
reviews/1920, accessed November 12, 2015.

Vogel, Susan. 1998. Baule: African Art Western Eyes.
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

_______. 1981. “Female Figure, Ivory Coast, Baule.”
In For Spirits and Kings: African Art from the Paul and
Ruth Tishman Collection, éd. Susan Vogel, p. 73. Nouveau
York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.