Shrine Figure (a-Tshol, Elëk, or ma-Tshol)

Late 19th or early 20th century

Baga or Nalu
Guinea
Coastal West Africa

Among the culturally related Baga and Nalu peoples, figures combining bird and human features were the most revered objects in shrines dedicated to protecting kin. The name for one changes according to who is using it, but always means “medicine.” Together with other protective medicines in the shrine, these objects were invested with supernatural powers. On important occasions, bird-human figures are placed upon a man’s head and performed.

Status: On View, Gallery 137
Department: Arts of Africa

Culture: Baga
Title: Shrine Figure (a-Tshol, Elëk, or ma-Tshol)
Place: Guinea (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1875–1925
Medium: Wood
Dimensions: 58.7 × 26.7 × 80.1 cm (23 1/8 × 10 1/2 × 31 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Mrs. Chauncey Borland; through prior gift of Mr. Raymond J. Wielgus
Reference Number: 1962.474

Allen Wardwell, Primitive Art from Chicago Collections (Art Institute of Chicago, 1960), pp. 104 (ill.) [published as “Lent anonomously”]
Allen Wardwell, Primitive Art in the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 1965), fig. 51.
Diane M. Pelrine. Affinities of Form: Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas from the Raymond and Laura Wielgus Collection, listed as ex-collection, p. 215.
Marie Yvonne Curis and Ramon Sarro, “The Nimba Headdress: Art, Ritual, and History of the Baga and Nalu Peoples of Guinea,” The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 23, 2 (1997), pp. 124-5, cat. no. 14 (ill.).
Constantine Petridis et al., Speaking of Objects: African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2020), cat. no. 20, pp. 72-73 (ill.).

Portland Museum of Art, Tribal Art of West Africa, Sept. 16–Oct. 31, 1971, cat. 11.

John J. Klejman (died 1995), Klejman Gallery, New York, by 1957 [this and the following information according to Affinities of Form 1996, p. 215, listed as ex-collection Wielgus]; sold to Raymond Wielgus (died 2010) and Laura Wielgus (died 2003), from 1957. Allan Frumkin Gallery, Chicago and New York, by 1962; sold to the Art Institute, 1962.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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