ART on view 104 FIG. 22: Carved tusk. Babanki-Tungo (or the Kedjom-Kitingu Kingdom), Cameroon. Mid 20th century. Ivory. L: 89.2 cm. Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York, inv. 1999.06.36. Gift of Lawrence Gussman in memory of Dr. Albert Schweitzer. Photo: Jim Frank. been associated with different peoples or with different historical sources.” She further remarks that “the absence of field-documented examples makes their stylistic relationship to the Wurkun the best comparative venue.” She not only attributes the example of the NMA to the Wurkun/Bikwin peoples of the middle Benue River, but also qualifies it as an “impressive mask.”25 What began as a questionable object has thus proved to be a remarkable one, owing to scholarly research. Of the two other objects that needed to be examined, the Dan figure displays unusual characteristics, and archival information on the Cameroon ivory tusk was scant. The Dan figure’s headdress and scarifications show stylistic affinities with the work of Zlan, the great Dan master-carver, but the traces of erosion on the body are uncommon on a commissioned portrait that was kept indoors and brought out only as a symbol of prestige. Generally these portrait-figures are distinguished by a smooth and shiny black patina. Although the erosion remains unaccounted for, the fine execution and stylistic similarities to the work of so great a master-carver are of far greater significance. As to the carved ivory tusk, Christraud Geary, the prominent scholar of the Cameroon Grassfields and curator of African and Oceanic art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has resolved the question of attribution. She observed that the motifs depicted on the tusk relate to the worldview shared by the peoples in the Grassfields and that the style of the delicate carving and the softly delineated and worn motifs in low relief are indicative of production in the Babanki Kingdom, one of the most important ivory-carving centers in the northwestern region of Cameroon.26 New in the Collection: Surprising Objects Recent acquisitions relate to the core collection of African art at the MNA, first by complementing it and then by supplementing it. Two significant sculptures from the western Sudan; two fine textiles, one from Nigeria and the other from the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and a masterfully carved ceremonial axe from Nigeria are notable examples. Because the collection has few figurative sculptures from the western Sudan (which includes Mali and Côte d’Ivoire), the acquisition of two impressive wood carvings of different types—a Senufo figure (fig. 24) and a Dogon shutter (fig. 25)—supplement, complement, and greatly enrich the holdings of the NMA. The anthropomorphic Senufo figure now resonates with the collection’s elaborately zoomorphic helmet mask, both used by the members of the Poro society. What is more, as the art historian Anita Glaze revealed in the catalog that accompanied a focused exhibition, Constellations: Studies in African Art, in 2008, in which the Senufo sculpture was a central piece, the carving is undoubtedly that of a blacksmith master sculptor. It combines a vertical thrust of neck and torso with rounded buttocks, and the sculpture’s function, iconography, and symbolism are unique.27 The Dogon shutter supplements the collection by filling a gap, but at the same time it complements the Tsogo post as an architectural element. In their stylized
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