Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
ADJUNCT MODULE D: WORLD ART
Preferred Title:
Lega Ivory Figure
Image View:
Overall view from front
Creator:
unknown (Lega sculptor)
Location:
exhibition: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Montréal, Québec, Canada)
Location Note:
From Africa to the Americas: Face-to-Face Picasso, Past and Present (2018 exhibition)
Date:
19th-20th C. (creation)
Cultural Context:
Lega
Style Period:
Lega
Work Type 1:
figurine
Classification:
Sculpture and Installations
Material:
ivory
Technique:
carving (processes)
Measurements:
15 cm (height, approx.)
Subjects:
abstraction; human figure
Description:
The Lega people (or Warega) are an ethnic group of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Within a community, a chief inherits his position on a patrilineal basis, and his close relatives have highest rank. Counterbalancing this hereditary structure, the Bwami society also regulates social and political life. This society has seven levels for men and four for women and is open to all. An initiate advances through the ranks through a complex system of instruction, payment and initiation, achieving increasing status. Iginga figures are individually owned by the highest ranking society members, are the most coveted of all initiation objects. Some anthropomorphic figures are called kalimbangoma. Each member of Musagi wa Kindi, a sublevel of the highest Bwami rank, owns a bone or ivory human kalimbangoma figure as a sign of his status. (Source: Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Main_Page)
Collection:
Archivision Adjunct Module D: World Art
Identifier:
7A3-AFRICAN-FAFFM-DO 2-A01
Rights:
© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.

Lega Ivory Figure