Minneapolis Institute of Art
Male figure
Mitsogo artist
- Date
- early 20th century
- Medium
- Wood
- Culture
- Tsogo
- Department
- Arts of Global Africa
- Institution
- Minneapolis Institute of Art
These figurative pillars of a chapel, used by followers of the Gabonese Bwiti religion, are painted with three highly symbolic colors: red refers to blood, birth, and life; white to sperm, breath, and spirit; and black to death and misfortune. The chapel is a physical expression of oppositions: left and right, high and low, male and female. The extension above the male is phallic while the lozenge shape above the female represents the feminine sex and the skiff that carries the soul of the deceased to the Otherworld. Tsogo, Africa
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