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Stool with Cocoa-Pod Harvester

A work made of wood and pigment.

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  • A work made of wood and pigment.

Date:

20th century

Artist:

Asante
Ghana
Coastal West Africa

About this artwork

Among the Asante and related peoples of Ghana, stools belong to individuals and their iconography has personal, cultural, and political significance. Simple stools typically serve quotidian needs, while more elaborate stools are reserved for community leaders, chiefs, and office-holders. This work features a man chopping cocoa pods from a tree–a reference to Ghana’s thriving agricultural economy in the early to mid-20th century. Today, cocoa production in Ghana symbolizes the entrepreneurial spirit of early twentieth century West Africans who, with little help from the colonial government, established a flourishing cash crop through their own enterprise, capital, technology, and skill. This stool is sculpted from a single piece of wood and depicts a highly refined figure removing the ripe red and yellow cocoa pods from the tree. The smooth surface of the sculpture, in addition to its clean lines, reveals a modern sensibility towards the expression of West African ingenuity.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Arts of Africa

Culture

Asante

Title

Stool with Cocoa-Pod Harvester

Place

Ghana (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.

1900–1999

Medium

Wood and pigment

Dimensions

45.7 × 55.9 × 27.9 cm (18 × 22 1/2 × 11 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Jane Stroud Wright

Reference Number

2014.1182

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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