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Harris Klein Collection of African Art

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Harris Klein Collection of African Art RESEARCH ON THE HARRIS KLEIN COLLECTION OF AFRICAN ART A Project by Sabrina Klutzke BA Sociology, Benedictine College, 2006 Submitted to the Department of Anthropology and the faculty of the Graduate School of Wichita State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts May 2009 © Copyright 2009 by Sabrina Klutzke All Rights Reserved NOTE: This is a SEARCHABLE PDF file. Formatted with Adobe Acrobat Professional 6.0 it is accessible to all versions of Acrobat Reader later than 5.0 To search in the file, use the Search feature of your Acrobat Reader To find specific words, phrases, or catalog numbers. ii RESEARCH ON THE HARRIS KLEIN COLLECTION OF AFRICAN ART The following faculty members have examined the final copy of this thesis for form and content, and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts. _________________________________________ David Hughes, Committee Chair _________________________________________ Robert Lawless, Committee Member _________________________________________ Annette LeZotte, Committee Member _________________________________________ Jerry Martin, Committee Member iii PREFACE This paper was created in a searchable pdf format. The Find function under the Edit heading in Adobe Reader enables the user to easily move from the culture description to the museum database form of the object located in Appendix II. Simply type into the find function the accession number that is found in the culture description or the table at the end of the section. This will pull up that object’s form that includes the object’s description, measurements and photograph. To return to the paper, select the “find previous” button. Another option is to click the Search button with the binoculars logo on the toolbar. After entering the accession number into the search box, the computer will display every instance the number is used in the file. Simply click on the available options to move to the form and back to the table. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 DOGON .......................................................................................................................................... 3 BAMBARA .................................................................................................................................... 9 MOSSI .......................................................................................................................................... 10 BWA ............................................................................................................................................. 12 BOBO ........................................................................................................................................... 18 LOBI ............................................................................................................................................. 20 TUSYAN ...................................................................................................................................... 21 SENUFO ....................................................................................................................................... 24 SHERBERO .................................................................................................................................. 37 BASSA .......................................................................................................................................... 39 DAN .............................................................................................................................................. 40 GUÉRÉ ......................................................................................................................................... 44 BETE ............................................................................................................................................ 46 GURO ........................................................................................................................................... 47 BAULE ......................................................................................................................................... 48 AKAN ........................................................................................................................................... 58 Ashanti ...................................................................................................................................... 78 Fanti .......................................................................................................................................... 82 YORUBA ...................................................................................................................................... 84 IBO ................................................................................................................................................ 91 v OGONI .......................................................................................................................................... 94 JUKUN ......................................................................................................................................... 97 WURKUN .................................................................................................................................... 99 MUMUYE .................................................................................................................................. 100 MAMBILA ................................................................................................................................. 102 EJAGHAM ................................................................................................................................. 104 CAMEROON .............................................................................................................................. 108 Grassfields............................................................................................................................... 108 Forest Region .......................................................................................................................... 113 Widekum ................................................................................................................................. 114 TEKE .......................................................................................................................................... 115 YAKA ......................................................................................................................................... 117 KUBA ......................................................................................................................................... 121 SONGYE .................................................................................................................................... 125 LEGA .......................................................................................................................................... 127 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 132 APPENDIX I: Map of Africa ..................................................................................................... 139 APPENDIX II: Harris-Klein Catalog Record ............................................................................ 140 vi INTRODUCTION African art was recognized as a skilled craft around the beginning of the twentieth century when it influenced modern artists such as Picasso, Matisse, and Braque. Chaim Gross, a sculptor, began to collect objects for the Harris Klein collection of African art in the mid-1930s. Gross admired African sculpture and was a zealous collector. Through his work, he helped to revive the art of wood carving that he first admired in folk art as a child in Galicia (Museum of African Art 1976:3). Although his style does not look particularly African, his work shares simplicity of form with many African pieces (Museum of African Art 1976:3). Harris Klein’s father hired Chaim Gross to purchase a comprehensive range of West African art. Gross chose objects for the Klein collection based on formal qualities he admired rather than anthropological importance. The Kleins were fascinated by African art. Mrs. Klein stated that at first “…we viewed it in contrast to Western art, a different civilization. But we found that in many ways ours and their civilization were alike, there was a connection that we felt. So it brought home to us the universality of the human condition” (Janzen 1996:3). Mrs. Harris Klein donated the collection to the Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University. When the Ulrich Museum changed their mission statement, the collection was loaned to the Lowell D. Holmes Museum of Anthropology. In 2008, the status of the collection was changed to a permanent loan so that the objects could be marked, catalogued and accessioned into the permanent collection. The purpose of this master’s project was to catalogue the collection to facilitate its use and incorporate the information into the museum’s database. The Harris Klein Collection includes pieces from several different ethnic groups in western and central Africa.
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