Noah Purifoy, Artist
Untitled
, 1970
Medium
Wood, leather, brass, and copper
Dimensions
49 x 28 x 18 1/2 in. (124.5 x 71.1 x 47 cm)
Credit Line
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Purchase, 71.170. Photo by Jerry L. Thompson, Courtesy of Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Made from wooden spoons, leather, hair, brass, and copper, this mixed-media sculpture suggests a cross between a Ghanaian akua'ba and a Hopi kachina. The akua'ba is a Ghanaian fertility doll that Asante women carry on their backs. The round shape of the head and the wide neck symbolize beauty to the Asante. Kachinas are effigies made in the likeness of the masked spirits of the Hopi tribe. This work was first shown in the exhibition Contemporary Black Artists in America at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1970.