Pair of Headdresses (Tyi Wara Kunw)

Mid–19th to early 20th century

Bamana
Baninko region, Mali
Northern Africa and the Sahel

These headdresses were all worn by men in male-female pairs during performances celebrating the mythical farming beast named Chiwara, which introduced the Bamana people to agriculture. The rituals motivated young men to work hard. Each headdress combines the graceful horns of an antelope with the body of an aardvark. A young male calf sits upon the female’s back, symbolizing the fertile union of men and women and of the earth and the sun.

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

Culture: Bamana
Title: Pair of Headdresses (Tyi Wara Kunw)
Place: Mali (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.: 1850–1925
Medium: Wood, metal, brass tacks, and grasses
Dimensions: Left: 98.4 × 40.9 × 10.8 cm (38 3/4 × 16 1/8 × 4 1/4 in.); Right: 79.4 × 31.8 × 7.6 cm (31 1/4 × 12 1/2 × 3 in.)
Credit Line: The Art Institute of Chicago, Ada Turnbull Hertle Endowment
Reference Number: 1965.6-7

Art Institute of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago Annual Report 1964–1965 (1965), p. 41.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Quarterly of the Art Institute of Chicago 28 (1965), p. 111, pl. 3 (ill.).
Allen Wardwell, New Aquisitions of African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago, African Arts, vol. IV, no. 1 (Autumn 1970), pg 1 and cover.
Duane Preble and Sarah Preble, Artforms: An Introduction to the Visual Arts, third ed. (Prentice Hall, 1985), p. 265, fig. 303 (ill.).
Richard F. Townsend, African Sculpture: The Art Institute of Chicago [In-Gallery Guide] (Art Institute of Chicago, 1985).
Roy Seiber and Roslyn Adele Walker, African Art in the Cycle of Life, exh. cat. (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1987), object 22.
Thomas Buser, Experiencing Art Around Us (West Publishing, 1995), pg. 37 (ill.).
Kathleen E. Bickford and Cherise Smith, “Art of the Western Sudan,” African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 23, 2 (1997), pg. 113, pl. 6 (ill.).
Kathleen Bickford Berzock, “African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” African Arts Magazine 32, 4 (Winter 1999), pp. cover, 2, 19 (ill.).
Alisa LaGamma, Genesis: Ideas of Origin in African Sculpture, exh. cat. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2002), pp. 12–24, 79–82.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago: The Essential Guide, revised ed. (Art Institute of Chicago, 2003), p. 21 (ill.).
Thomas Buser, Experiencing Art Around Us (Wadsworth Publishing, 2006).
Sujatha Meegama, Gods and Heroes from Around the World [Family Self-Guide] (Art Institute of Chicago, n.d.), p.2.
Art Institute of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago The Essential Guide (Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), p. 14 (ill.).
Richard F. Townsend and Kathleen Bickford Berzock, “The Art Institute of Chicago New Galleries,” in Tribal Arts XVI-1/62 (Winter 2011), p. 67, figure 19 (ill.).
Stefan Eisenhofer, African Art (Taschen, Back to Visual Basics series, 2010), pp. 32-33 (ill.).
Constantine Petridis et al., Speaking of Objects: African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2020), cat. no. 1, pp. 22-29.
Eva Barois De Caeve et al., On Art History in Africa (Dakar : RAW Material Company, 2020), p. 90, fig. 2.
Constantine Petridis, ed., The Language of Beauty in African Art (Yale University Press, 2022), cat. no. 65, p. 132 (ill.).

Washington, D.C., National Museum of African Art, African Art in the Cycle of Life, June 2, 1987–January 10, 1988.
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Genesis: Origins in African Sculpture, November 19, 2002–April 12, 2003, cat. pp. 12–24, 79–82.
Kimbell Art Museum, Forth Worth, Texas, “The Language of Beauty in African Art”, April 3-July 31, 2022; Art Institute of Chicago, Nov. 20, 2022 - Feb. 27, 2023, cat. no. 65.

Unknown dealer, Paris [personal communication from Hélène (ex-Kamer) Leloup, Oct. 1982, documented in curatorial file]; sold to Henri Kamer (died 1992) and Hélène (ex-Kamer) Leloup, Henri A. Kamer Gallery [Kamer Inc.], Paris, France, by 1965; sold to the Art Institute, 1965.

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