Clues to Seeing - African Sculptures

Pair 1: Power Figure & Bowl Bearer

The two selected sculptures Bowl Bearer (African, Luba peoples, late 19th - early 20th century) and Power Figure (African, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 20th century) are historic pieces and created for communicative purposes. They are the result of more than 100 years of tradition and must be understood within a historical and cultural context. They were originally functional items produced for very concrete every-day purposes. Today we purely see them as art.

Both the Bowl Bearer and the Power Figure are figurative sculptures of humans. They are represented as frontal work at the Museum of Fine Arts, but can also be categorized as full round sculptures because of the details on their backs.

Bowl Bearer

The Bowl Bearer depicts a woman who is carrying a child in a bowl. The woman/mother is sitting down with protruding buttocks, nude bulging breasts and is holding the bowl very close to her body. The face of the mother and the face of her child are both looking in a downward direction. The faces are deeply carved, especially the bulging eyes. The eyes give us a sense of balance and calmness because of their mild expression.

The sculpture makes repetitive use of circles. Everything seems round and makes the sculpture very womanly; the eyes, mouth, head, bowl, feet etc. The mother's shoulders and arms are the focal point and create a space around the child. (And even if the mom's head were missing we could still sense the warmth and loving care the mom has towards the child.) Her broad shoulders and long arms tell us that she is embracing the child.

The lower part of the mother's body is less proportional and is not very detailed. Her body does not have a purpose or a function in the narrative story. The sculpture, in its original use, was placed in front of the new mother's house and was used to inform the village about a first-born.

The Bowl Bearer is a closed form because everything is touching and closing in one another, but still the sculpture contains voids. The diamond-shaped pattern, which is seen on the front, continues on the back. It is carved into the sculpture, so the surface has small convexes and concaves. The same has been done with the hair of both the mother and the child. The sculpture is made out of wood and has a very smooth and polished surface. I believe it is made out of ebony, because of its color and lack of irregularities that usually appear when coloring wood. There are no sharp edges and it looks like it has been completed without any flaws.

The viewer has to admire the child. The way the mother holds the bowl makes it very realistic - as if she will not and cannot drop it. You can also view the bowl as a metaphor for a pregnant belly. And one can interpret the sculpture as a story in three phases: pregnancy, giving birth, the child is