BACK TO AFRICAN ART

Mother and Children, early 20th century
AGBONBIOFE ADESHINA
(African, Nigeria, died 1945)

Wood, pigment
Purchased with funds from the Alice Speed Stoll Accessions Trust 2003.14

Most of the African objects in the Speed’s collection were created by artists whose identity is now lost to us. Fortunately, the distinctive carving style of this sculpture allows us to recognize it as the work of Agbonbiofe Adeshina, a well-known and greatly admired Yoruba artist working in Nigeria during the early 1900s.

This sculpture depicts a Yoruba mother holding an infant in her lap and carrying another child strapped to her back. This depiction of maternity—and indirectly fertility—appears frequently in Yoruba art. It reflects real life, for Yoruba women carry their babies fastened to their backs with long strips of cloth, but it also illustrates the vital role that women play in society and life. The Yoruba believe that, as givers of life, women make possible all the good things that one achieves in life. This sculpture probably once stood beside a Yoruba king or high-ranking official, suggesting that the king ultimately owes his social and political power to the spiritual and mystical power of women.