Headrest (Musawu)

Late 19th to early 20th century

Yaka
Kwango region, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Central Africa

As an emblem of his combined political and spiritual responsibilities, a Yaka chief wore a hat of knotted, netted, and woven raffia that was charged with medicinal ingredients. An elaborately carved neckrest served as another part of his insignia. While it served the practical purpose of protecting the chief’s headgear while he slept, the imagery of this example—which may have held medicines in its interior—likely reflects the Yaka buildings on stilts that housed powerful ritual objects.

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

Culture: Yaka
Title: Headrest (Musawu)
Place: Democratic Republic of the Congo (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 and pigment
Dimensions: 16.7 × 9.8 × 17.4 cm (6 5/8 × 3 7/8 × 6 7/8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of George F. Harding
Reference Number: 1928.175

Alain Locke. 1927. Blondiau-Theatre Arts Collection of Primitive African Art (introduction), exh. cat (New York: The New Art Circle/Theater Arts Monthly), cat. no. 180 (ill.).
Harlem Museum of African Art, The Negro in Art Week: Nov. 16 -23, exh. cat (Art Institute of Chicago, 1927), no. 22 (listed in checklist, not illustrated).
Helen F. MacKenzie. “A Group of Primitive Carvings in Wood and Horn,” in Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 24, 1 (Jan. 1930.) p. 8-9 (object mentioned, not illustrated).
Roy Seiber, African Furniture and Household Objects, exh. cat. (American Federation of Arts, 1980), p. 120 (ill.).
Arthur P. Bourgeois, Art of the Yaka and Suku (Meudon, France: Edition Alain & Françoise Chaffin, 1984), p. 71, fig. 49.
Kathleen Bickford, “Foreword,” The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 23: 2 (1997), p. 101, fig. 1.
Kathleen Bickford Berzock, “African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” African Arts 32:4 (Winter 1999), p. 24, fig.7.
William J. Dewey, The World Moves, We Follow: Celebrating African Art, exh. cat. (Frank H. McClung Museum, University of Tennessee, 2003), p. 39, pl. 38.
William J. Dewey, The World Moves, We Follow: Celebrating African Art, exh. cat. (Knoxville, Tenn.: Frank H. McClung Museum, University of Tennessee, 2003), p. 39, pl. 38.
Constantine Petridis et al., Speaking of Objects: African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2020), cat. no. 57, pp. 144-145 (ill.).

New York, The New Art Circle, Bondiau-Theatre Arts Collection of Primitive African, Feb. 7-March 5, 1927, cat. no. 180 (illustrated).
Children’s Museum at the Art Institute of Chicago, The Negro in Art Week: Primitive and Modern, lent by Harlem Museum of African Art [Blondiau Collection of African Art], Nov. 16-Dec. 1, 1927, cat. 22 (not illustrated); traveled to Rochester, N.Y., the Memorial Art Gallery.
Iowa, Junior Art Museum of Des Moines, Baga to Batabwo: Safari in Art, Oct. 19–Dec. 9, 1958.
New York, N.Y., The American Federation of Arts, African Furniture and Household Objects, April 1980–Sep. 1981, cat. p. 120
Art Institute of Chicago, Africa: Heads of State, Seats of Power, Sep. 2–Nov. 17, 1995, no cat.
Knoxville, Tenn., Frank H. McClung Museum, The World Moves, We Follow: Celebrating African Art, Jan. 10–May 18, 2003, cat. plate 38.

Raoul Blondiau, Brussels, Belgium, by 1925 [acquired between 1900 to 1925 according to Blondiau-Theatre Arts Collection, exh. cat. 1927]; sold to Theatre Arts, Inc. (Theatre Arts Monthly), New York, N.Y., Nov. 1926 [according to Blondiau-Theatre Arts Collection, exh. cat. 1927; Deacon 1981]; sold to the Art Institute, 1928.

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