GENERAL DESCRIPTION
This female figure holds a large lidded bowl with the aid of kneeling female caryatids. She celebrates Yoruba ideals of feminine beauty: an elaborate hairstyle, an elongated neck, lineage marks on her face, and a gap between her two front teeth. She wears waist beads like a young girl and has the dorsal scarification of an engaged woman.
An olumeye is used to offer kola nuts to visitors or deities in a hospitality ritual. The lidded bowls of conventional examples are carved in the form of a fowl, a sacrificial animal. Olowe’s unique approach is to represent the Yoruba cosmos, which is often visualized as a spherical gourd divided into aye and orun, the upper and lower realms, and covered with symbolic patterns.
An unusual feature of Olowe’s colorful olumeye is a free-standing human head within the “cage” of female figures, possibly representing a sacrificial victim. It is impossible to remove it from the cage.
Excerpt from
Roslyn A. Walker, Label text, Arts of Africa, 2015.
NOTES
Catalogue essays specific to object
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
By 1919: Edwin Holland (1873-1929), England, collected in Nigeria
n.d.: private collection, thence by descent from the above
2004: Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., purchased at auction " African, Oceanic, and Pre-Columbian Art," Sotheby's, New York, May 14, 2004, lot 60 [1]
Notes:
The main source for this provenance is the Sotheby's auction catalogue, May 14, 2004, p. 66. Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.
[1] Works of art given or purchased by The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., a non-profit organization, are placed in the custody of the DMA for the purpose of public display on the premises of the Museum or in other recognized are galleries or museums. The title to all works of art purchased (or otherwise acquired) by the McDermott Art Fund remains with the Fund.
AUDIO ASSETS
'Yoruba Aesthetics and Olowe of Ise's Olumeye.' Gallery talk by Sidney Perutz, 2007, 13309244: UMO
VIDEO ASSETS
Curator Roslyn Walker discusses this bowl, 12937230: UMO
IMAGE ASSETS
Conventional olumeye carved by Agbonbiofe of Effon-Alaiye, early 20th century. Collection of John and Jane Pemberton.
207173115: UMO
WEB RESOURCES
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
FUN FACTS
TEACHING IDEAS
RULES
apply to objects where number equals 2004.16.McD
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General Description
This female figure holds a large lidded bowl with the aid of kneeling female caryatids. She celebrates Yoruba ideals of feminine beauty: an elaborate hairstyle, an elongated neck, lineage marks on her face, and a gap between her two front teeth. She wears waist beads like a young girl and has the dorsal scarification of an engaged woman.
An olumeye is used to offer kola nuts to visitors or deities in a hospitality ritual. The lidded bowls of conventional examples are carved in the form of a fowl, a sacrificial animal. Olowe’s unique approach is to represent the Yoruba cosmos, which is often visualized as a spherical gourd divided into aye and orun, the upper and lower realms, and covered with symbolic patterns.
An unusual feature of Olowe’s colorful olumeye is a free-standing human head within the “cage” of female figures, possibly representing a sacrificial victim. It is impossible to remove it from the cage.
Excerpt from
Roslyn A. Walker, Label text, Arts of Africa, 2015.
Fun Facts
Archival Resources
Web Resources
Notes
Catalogue essays specific to object
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
By 1919: Edwin Holland (1873-1929), England, collected in Nigeria
n.d.: private collection, thence by descent from the above
2004: Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., purchased at auction " African, Oceanic, and Pre-Columbian Art," Sotheby's, New York, May 14, 2004, lot 60 [1]
Notes:
The main source for this provenance is the Sotheby's auction catalogue, May 14, 2004, p. 66. Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.
[1] Works of art given or purchased by The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., a non-profit organization, are placed in the custody of the DMA for the purpose of public display on the premises of the Museum or in other recognized are galleries or museums. The title to all works of art purchased (or otherwise acquired) by the McDermott Art Fund remains with the Fund.
AUDIO ASSETS
'Yoruba Aesthetics and Olowe of Ise's Olumeye.' Gallery talk by Sidney Perutz, 2007, 13309244: UMO
VIDEO ASSETS
Curator Roslyn Walker discusses this bowl, 12937230: UMO
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