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Fang
Gabon
Reliquary Head, Mid-/late 19th century
Wood and copper
H. 39.4 cm (15 1/2 in.)
Frederick W. Renshaw Acquisition Fund; Robert Allerton and Ada Turnbull Hertle endowments; Robert Allerton Income Fund; Gladys N. Anderson Endowment, 2006.127
Communion with the ancestral dead is an important focus of art and ritual for the Fang people of southern Cameroon and northern Gabon. This large, beautiful head was made to sit with its neck inserted into the lid of a bark reliquary box that held the selected remains, most often skull fragments, of an honored ancestor. Kept in a dark corner of a man’s sleeping room, the head and box protected the remains and embodied the deceased, keeping his or her force available to the living. This reliquary head’s almond-shaped eyes were embellished with copper-alloy inserts, one now missing, that would have reflected light in a startling manner, adding to the work’s mysterious aura. The wide-eyed stare also lends an infantile quality to the ancestral likeness that would have been appreciated by the Fang. Within their worldview, the balance of opposing elements—infant and ancestor, birth and death—is considered a fundamental aspect of human existence. The sleek and refined features of this sculpture, including a high domed forehead, a jutting chin, and an elongated nose that is visually balanced by a plaited coiffure, highlight classic qualities of Fang abstraction that likewise embody opposition. These stylistic elements had a strong influence on the work of early-twentieth-century artists such as Paul Klee, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso.
— Entry, Essential Guide, 2009, p. 15.
This head was formerly in the private collection of Pierre Vérité, a famed Parisian dealer of African art. Vérité began selling what was then called “primitive art” in the 1920s and quickly became known among members of the Parisian and international avant-garde, including artists and writers, collectors, curators, and dealers.
—Revised from, Kathleen Bickford Berzock, “Reliquary Head (Nlo Bieri),” Notable Acquisitions at the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Studies, 34, 1 (2008), pp. 10-11.
Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories
Exhibition History
Paris, France, Galerie Leleu, Chefs-d’oeuvre de l’Afrique Noire, June 12-29, 1952, no. 92.
Paris, France, Cercle Volney, Les Arts Africains, June-July 1955, no. 229.
Publication History
Bernard Champigneulle, J. Leleu présente "Chefs d'oeuvre de l'Afrique noire" sous le haut patronage de M. Albert Sarrault (Paris: Hôtel J. Leleu, June 12-29, 1952), p.? ill.?
Cercle Volney, Les Arts Africains, exh. cat. (Paris: Les Amis de l’Art, 1955), p. 61, no. 229.
Rene Huyghe and Jean Rudel, L’Art et le Monde Moderne, Vol. 1 1880-1920 (Paris: Editions Larouse, 1969), p. 317.
Louis Perrois, “The Art of Gabon in the Vérité Collection,” Tribal Art, no. 40 (Spring 2006), p. 40, fig. 5.
Enchères Rive Gauche & Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Arts primitifs: Collection Vérité, sale cat. (Hôtel Drouot , June 17-18, 2006), pp. xxxv, 218-19, lot 197.
Art Institute of Chicago, Annual Report 2005-2006 (Art Institute of Chicago, 2006), pp. cover, 112.
Simon Hewitt, “Moment of Truth,” Art & Auction 28, 10 (June 2006), p. 61 (ill.).
Kathleen Bickford Berzock, “Reliquary Head (Nlo Nieri),” Notable Acquisitions at the Art Institute of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 34, 1 (2008), pp. 10-11 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago Pocket Guide (Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), p. 2 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago: The Essential Guide (Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), p. 15 (ill.).
Ownership History
Unknown owner, Paris, France, by 1948; sold to Pierre Vérité (1900-1993), Paris, France, 1948 [according to Janine Vérité in Hôtel Drouot, Arts primitifs, 2006, pp. ix, xxxv]; by descent to Claude Vérité, Paris, France, 1993; sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, France, June 17, 2006 (Arts Primitifs: Collection Vérité), lot 197, to the Art Institute.
