Bird Figure (Lumbr)

Late 19th or early 20th century

Lobi
Burkina Faso
Northern Africa and the Sahel

This bird figure would have been placed in a shrine along with dozens of other sculptures and items collected from nature for use in divination. It served as an intermediary between the human world and the supernatural one. Spirits called bathila manifest themselves through such objects in order to provide assistance to individuals who seek it when confronted with illness or other misfortune. The encrusted surface was formed from repeated offerings of earth, animal blood, and plant extracts.

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

Culture: Lobi
Title: Bird Figure (Lumbr)
Place: Burkina Faso (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.: 1880–1925
Medium: Wood and sacrificial material
Dimensions: H.: 62 cm (24 3/8 in.)
Credit Line: Arts of Africa and the Americas Curatorial Discretionary Fund
Reference Number: 2019.716

Meyer, Piet. 1981. Kunst und Religion der Lobi. Exh. cat. Museum Rietberg, Zurich, p. 116, cat. 141.
LaGamma, Alisa with John Pemberton III. 2000. Art and Oracle: African Art and Rituals of Divination. Exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art /Harry N. Abrams, p. 77 (checklist only; not illustrated).
Roy, Christopher D. and Thomas G. B. Wheelock. 2007. Land of the Flying Masks: Art and Culture in Burkina Faso. The Thomas G.B. Wheelock Collection. Prestel, cat. no. 214.
Sotheby’s, Paris. 2011. Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie, Divers amateurs. Sales cat. Sotheby’s, Paris, June 15, 2011, lot 55.
Constantine Petridis et al., Speaking of Objects: African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2020), cat. no. 6, pp. 38-39.
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. 106 (ill.).

Zurich, Rietberg Museum, Kunst und Religion der Lobi, 1981, p. 116, cat. 141.
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art and Oracle: African Art and Rituals of Divination April 25–July 30, 2000, cat. exhibition checklist, p. 77.

Franz Burkhard, Burkina Faso then Germany, probably acquired in Burkina Faso acquired between 1960 and 1979 [this and the following according to Sotheby’s June 15, 2011 lot 55; Roy and Wheelock, 2007, p. 425, no. 214]; sold to Thomas G. B. Wheelock, New York, from 1981 [Kunst und Religion der Lobi 1981, no. 141 p. 116; Art and Oracle 2000, p. 77]; sold Sotheby’s, Paris, Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie, Divers amateurs, June 15, 2011, lot 55, to Patrick Girard, Lyon, France [sales catalog of Olivier Castellano 2018, pp. 8-11]; sold to Olivier Castellano, Paris, September 2018 [acquisition paperwork in curatorial file]; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2019.

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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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