The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of October 21, 2021

Totem 01/01–18 (Baga-Batcham-Alunga-Kota)

2018

Hervé Youmbi

(Cameroonian, b. Central African Republic, 1973)

Africa, Central Africa, Cameroon

Wood, glass beads, thread, glue, and silicone adhesive

Overall: 188 x 53 x 38 cm (74 x 20 7/8 x 14 15/16 in.)

Purchase from the Karl B. Goldfield Trust 2018.5

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

The towering hybrid sculpture consists of contemporary carvings of four canonical African masks and sculptures.

Description

Totem 01/01-18 is a brilliant work plays off the conventional codes of historic African arts to present subversive arguments around issues of taxonomy, commodification, identity, and the system of value that underpins African arts in the market and museums. It is a contemporary carving that combines four canonical African mask and sculptural forms—Kota-Mahongwe guardian figures sit atop a tsesah mask from Batcham in the Cameroon Grassfields whose back bears a Bembe Alunga society mask, which surmounts a Baga d’mba headdress from Guinea or Guinea-Bissau at the base—into a soaring superstructure.

Provenance
2018
(Axis Gallery, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
2018-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Malaquais, Dominique. “Imag(IN)ing Racial France, Take 3 – Herve Youmbi.” In Public Culture 23:1 (2011).
Nzewi, Ugochukwu-Smooth C. “In the Long Shadows of Euro-America, or, What is Global Contemporary,” African Arts 48, no. 2 (Summer 2015): 10-11.
Malaquais, Dominique. “Playing (in) the Marketfield: Herve Youmbi and the Art World Maze,” In Cahiers d’etudes africaines, no. 223 (2016): 559-579.
Forni, Silvia. “Masks on the Move: Defying Genres, Styles, and Traditions in the Cameroonian Grassfields.” In African Arts 49, no. 2 (Summer 2016) Pg. 38-53 ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org
König, Kasper, Britta Peters, and Marianne Wagner. Skulptur Projekte Munster 2017. Leipzig: Spector Books, June 10 – October 1, 2017.
Forni, Silvia and Dominique Malaquais. "Village Matters, City Works: Ideas, Technologies, and Dialogues in the Work of Herve Youmbi." Critical Interventions, 12, issue 3 (2018): 294-305. Reproduced and mentioned; p. 303, fig. 15
Nzewi, Ugochukwu-Smooth C. "Contemporary African Art." Cleveland Art (September/October 2018): 8-9. Reproduced and mentioned: P. 9. www.clevelandart.org
Nzewi, Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Second Careers : Two Tributaries in African Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2019 Reproduced: p. 20, fig. 5 (foreground), p. 21, fig. 6, p. 24, fig. 12 (right); mentioned: p. 20. ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org
Nzewi, Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Second Careers : Two Tributaries in African Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2019 Reproduced: p. 20, fig. 5 (foreground), p. 21, fig. 6, p. 24, fig. 12 (right); mentioned: p. 20. ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org
Forni, Silvia and Dominque Malaquais. "Village Matters, City Works: Ideas, Technologies, and Dialogues in the Work of Hervé Youmbi," In Critical Interventions 12, issue 3, (2018): 294-305. Reproduced and mentioned: p. 303, fig. 15 ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org
Griswold, William M. “Recent Acquisitions (2013-20) at the Cleveland Museum of Art.” Burlington Magazine 163, no. 1414 (January 2021): 93-104. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 104, no. 23; mentioned: P. 93
Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2018.5