The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

1650–1700

Africa, West Africa, Ghana, Akan-style artist

terracotta
Overall: 12.7 cm (5 in.)
Gift of Katherine C. White 1975.157
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The projection below the neck would allow this head to function as a stopper for a vessel or as a way to affix it to the body of a statue.

Description

Akan sculptures made head forms as idealized portraits of the deceased. Made of terracotta, a low-termperature fired ceramic, this head features simple shapes of triangles, curves, and lozenges to represent the nose, mouth, and eyes. The style of this terracotta memorial head allows us to date it, and locate its likely place of manufacture. Scholars believe that this small, hollow-backed style sculpture is from the Ahinsan funerary site and was made between 1650 and 1700.
  • at least 1968–1975
    Katherine C. White
    1975–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art by gift
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 This work appeared in the 1968 exhibition African Tribal Images: The Katherine White Reswick Collection as cat. no. 98
  • Fagg, William. African Tribal Images; the Katherine White Reswick Collection. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1968. No. 98.
  • Kent, OH, Kent State University Art Gallery, 1993: Leadership Arts of West Africa, September 15-October 15, 1993.
    CMA 1976: "Year in Review 1975," CMA Bulletin LXIII (Feb., 1976), p. 66, no. 27
    CMA 1968: "African Tribal Images: The Katherine White Reswick Collection," cat. no. 98, repr.
  • {{cite web|title=Head|url=false|author=|year=1650–1700|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1975.157