Standing male ancestor figure

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Description

wood, reddish brown patina, traces of black paint, loincloth of fine raffia bast, a bearded face rising from a long neck, chignon coiffure with diadem-like headband, slightly dam., cracks, missing parts through insect caused damage (base), pedestal;
the Kusu live in the eastern central Democratic Republic of the Congo. Their art is strongly influenced by the Hemba and the Luba in the south. Masks are rare, only the monkey mask borrowed from the Hemba (“soko mutu”) is known to have been used. Sculpture focusses on ancestor figures, which clearly remind of the “singiti” ancestor figures of the Hemba.

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Comparing literature

Schädler, Karl-Ferdinand, Encyclopedia of African Art and Culture, Munich 2009, p. 357

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