Unidentified Kongo artist; Power Figure (nkisi nkondi) (detail), before 1908; wood, iron, porcelain, glass, resin; height: 25 1/4 in. (64.1 cm); Saint Louis Art Museum, Friends Fund 10:2016
The Saint Louis Art Museum recently acquired Power Figure (nkisi nkondi), a wood figure sculpted by a Kongo artist that significantly enhances the Museum’s collection of art from central Africa.
Kongo power figures comprise a celebrated genre of historical African art that had long been a major gap in the Museum’s collection.
Unidentified Kongo artist; Power Figure (nkisi nkondi), before 1908; wood, iron, porcelain, glass, resin; height: 25 1/4 in. (64.1 cm); Saint Louis Art Museum, Friends Fund 10:2016
Among Kongo cultures, ritual specialists employed such figures to heal, protect, and resolve problems of individuals and communities. Each iron blade or nail attests to a particular instance of implementation and activation of the figure. The specialist also applied plant, earthen, and other matter considered to be medicinal and powerful to the head and inside the sculpture’s stomach cavity. This figure demonstrates the artist’s sensitive treatment of the face through the contouring of the cheeks and chin, the fleshy nose and mouth, and the alert ceramic-inlaid eyes.
Nichole N. Bridges, the associate curator in charge of African art, will install Power Figure (nkisi nkondi) later this year, along with several other movements of African art in Galleries 102 and 117.