Helmet (Sigi Kun)

Mid-19th to mid-20th century

Bamana
Mali
Northern Africa and the Sahel

The style and incised surface designs of the standing female figure at the center of this helmet suggest that it was made by a Bamana artist. Echoing those of buffalo, the framing horns fit within a visual theme that is widespread in West Africa, referencing ideas of male power, authority, and prestige. Among the Bamana and other Mande-language speakers, such helmets were called sigi kun (buffalo head) and used by hunters’ associations.

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

Culture: Bamana
Title: Helmet (Sigi Kun)
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.: 1850–1950
Medium: Wood and pigment
Dimensions: H.: 70 cm (29 9/16 in.)
Credit Line: African and Amerindian Curator's Discretionary Fund; through prior purchased with funds provided by of the Alsdorf Fund; through prior gift of Mrs. Ernest B. Zeisler; through prior purchased with funds provided by of the American Hospital Supply Corp.; through prior gift of the Britt Family Collection, Gwendolyn Miller and Herbert Baker; through prior purchased with funds provided by of the Alsdorf Foundation; African and Amerindian Art Purchase Fund; through prior gift of Deborah Stokes and Jeffrey Hammer in honor of Milton Gross; through prior gift of Muriel Kallis Newman; through prior bequest of Florene May Schoenborn
Reference Number: 2018.362

Holas, Bohumil. 1978. L’art sacré sénoufo. Abidjan: Nouvelles Éditions Africaines, pp. 272-273 (ill.).
Constantine Petridis et al., Speaking of Objects: African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2020), cat. no. 12, pp. 48-49 (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. 13.
https://doi.org/10.53269/9780865593152/03

Simon (d. 1999) and Miche (d. 2007) Escarré, Côte d’Ivoire, and La Baule, France, from the early 1950s (reportedly acquired in Korhogo, Côte d’Ivoire) [according to personal communication from P. Girard in curatorial file; photo documentation in curatorial file]; Miche (d. 2007) Escarré, La Baule, France; sold to Patrick Girard, Lyon, France, April 26, 2002 [personal communication from P. Girard in curatorial file]; sold to the Art Institute, 2018.

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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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