Female Caryatid Drum (Pinge)

c. 1930-c. 1950

Senufo
Côte d’Ivoire
Northern Africa and the Sahel

This drum representing a woman of rank balancing a load on her head celebrates women’s prominence in Senufo society, where they act as family founders and spiritual mediators and guardians. It is embellished with designs that allude to the knowledge and power of diviners. This particular drum may have been played by a woman during commemorative funerals for members of the influential all-female associations known as Sandogo and Tyekpa.

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

Culture: Senufo
Title: Female Caryatid Drum (Pinge)
Place: Côte d'Ivoire (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.: 1930–1950
Medium: Wood, hide, and applied color
Dimensions: 122.9 × 49.2 cm (48 3/8 × 19 3/8 in.)
Credit Line: Robert J. Hall, Herbert R. Molner Discretionary, Curator's Discretionary, and African and Amerindian Art Purchase funds; Arnold Crane, Mrs. Leonard Florsheim, O. Renard Goltra, Holly and David Ross, Departmental Acquisitions, Ada Turnbull Hertle, and Marian and Samuel Klasstorner endowments; through prior gifts of various donors
Reference Number: 1990.137

Robert Goldwater, Senufo Sculpture from West Africa (New York: Museum of Primitive Art, 1964), fig. 165 (ill.).
William S. Rubin, Primitivism in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern, (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1984), p. 289 (ill.).
Marie-Therese Brincard, ed. Sounding Forms: African Musical Instruments. (New York: American Federation of Arts, 1989) p. 103, no. 26.
Ramona Austin and Anita J. Glaze, Senufo: Women and Art, exh. Cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1991) np.
Anita J. Glaze, “Call and Response: A Senufo Female Caryatid Drum” in Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies vol. 19, no. 2 (1993), pp. 118–133 (ill.).
Kathleen E. Bickford and Cherise Smith, “Art of the Western Sudan,” in Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies: African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago vol. 23, no. 2 (1997), pp. 118–119 (ill.).
Susan Elizabeth Gagliardi, Senufo: Dynamics of Art and Identity in West Africa (Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art; Milan: 5 Continents Editions, 2015), p. 79.
Susan Elizabeth Gagliardi and Constantine Petridis, “Senufo Unbound: Dynamics of Art and Identity in West Africa: Exhibition Preview”, in African Arts vol. 48, no. 1 (Spring 2015), p. 14 (ill.).
Susan Elizabeth Gagliardi, “Mapping Senufo: Mapping as a Method to Transcend Colonial Assumptions,” in The Routledge Companion to Digital Humanities and Art History, ed. Kathryn Brown (New York: Routledge, 2020), p. 140-1, figs. 10.3, 10.4.
Constantine Petridis et al., Speaking of Objects: African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2020), cat. no. 15, pp. 54-55 (ill.).
Constantine Petridis, “Making Objects Speak at the Art Institute of Chicago: A New Publication and a Refurbished Arts of Africa Gallery,” in Tribal Art magazine (No. 99, Spring 2021), p. 108 (ill.).
Susan Elizabeth Gagliardi and Constantine Petridis, “Mapping Senufo: Making Visible Debatable Information and Situated Knowledge,” in Perspectives on Data, ed. Emily Lew Fry and Erin Canning (Art Institute of Chicago, 2022), fig. 2.
https://doi.org/10.53269/9780865593152/03

Cannes, France, Palais Miramar, Arts d’Afrique et d’Oceanie, July 6–Sept. 29, 1957.
New York, Museum of Primitive Art, Senufo Sculpture from West Africa, Feb. 20–Mar. 5, 1963; traveled to Art Institute of Chicago, July 12–Aug. 11, 1963, and Baltimore Museum of Art, Sept. 17-Oct. 27, 1963, cat. no. 117 (not ill.).
Berkeley, Calif., Lowie Museum of Anthropology, African Arts, 1967, no cat.
Washington, D.C., National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Sounding Forms: African Musical Instruments, Apr. 26–June 18, 1989, cat. 130, fig. 26.
Art Institute of Chicago, Senufo Woman and Art: A Caryatid Drum, Apr. 27–Oct. 27, 1991, no cat.
Cleveland Museum of Art, Senufo: Dynamics of Art and Identity in West Africa, Feb. 22–May 31, 2015, cat. 42; traveled to Saint Louis Art Museum, June 28–Sept. 27, 2015; Montpellier, France, Musée Fabre, Nov. 28, 2015–March 6, 2016 (Cleveland and Saint Louis only).

Charles Ratton (died 1986), Paris, by 1957 [see Cannes, Arts D’Afrique et D’Oceanie, 1957; Senufo Sculpture from West Africa, 1963; Goldwater, 1964, no. 165]; sold to Harry A. Franklin (died 1983), Harry A. Franklin Family Collection, Beverly Hills, Calif., early 1960s [personal communication from Valerie Franklin 2/26/2014]; by descent to Valerie Franklin, to 1990 [see Marie-Therese Brincard, 1990, p. 103]; sold, Sotheby’s, New York, Apr. 21, 1990, The Harry A. Franklin Family Collection of African Art, lot 47, as A Senufo Memorial Drum, to the Art Institute, 1990.

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