Noir #211
Angèle Etoundi Essamba, Cameroonian, born 1962
2000
Gelatin silver print
Edition 9/20
Image: 18 7/8 × 13 1/2 in. (48 × 34.3 cm)
Sheet: 19 15/16 × 16 1/8 in. (50.7 × 40.9 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Alvin and Mary Bert Gutman 1940 Acquisition Fund
PH.2003.30.1
Geography
Place Made: Cameroon, Central Africa, Africa
Period
21st century
Object Name
Photograph
Research Area
Africa
Photograph
Not on view
Inscriptions
Signed, in ink, lower right: Angele Etoundi Essamba 2000; numbered, in ink, lower left: # 9/20; signed and signed, on reverse, in graphite, lower right: c [encircled] Angele Etoudi / Essamba / Noirs 4, 2000 / GSP. # 9/20
Label
The contrast in this image of a pregnant stomach parallels Essamba’s experience as a Black woman living in a white world. Its shape is inspired by the shape of a calabash, which has a similar life-holding and life-giving purpose to wombs. Calabashes can be dried out and utilized as containers or consumed for sustenance. The abstracted womb mirrors the shape of the Odundo sculpture beside it; both symbolize maternity, fertility, and the aesthetics of Black women’s embodiment.
From the 2023 exhibition Homecoming: Domesticity and Kinship in Global African Art, curated by Alexandra Thomas, Curatorial Research Associate
Course History
ANTH 50.17, Rites of Passage, Sienna Craig, Spring 2020
First Year Student Enrichment Program – Cultures, Identities and Belongings, Colleen Lannon, Summer 2023
First Year Student Enrichment Program - Cultures, Identities and Belongings, Mokhtar Bouba, Summer 2023
Philosophy 1.11, Art: True, Beautiful, Nasty, John Kulvicki, Summer 2023
Writing 2.05, Why Write, Anyway?, Erkki Mackey, Fall 2023
Writing 5.24, Photographic Representations, Amanda Wetsel, Fall 2023
Writing 5.25, Photographic Representations, Amanda Wetsel, Fall 2023
Exhibition History
Homecoming: Domesticity and Kinship in Global African Art, Harteveldt Family Gallery, Owen Robertson Cheatham Gallery, and Northeast Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 22, 2023–May 25, 2024.
Looking Backward, Moving Forward: Women Photographers at the Hood Museum of Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 12-September 19, 2004.
Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem, The Netherlands, 8 September-11 November 2001.
Publication History
Noirs: Angele Etoundi Essamba, 2001. Arnhem: Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem.
Barbara Thompson, "The African Collection at the Hood Museum of Art," African Arts, Volume XXXVII, No. 2, Los Angeles: African Studies Center, University of California, 2004, ill. p. 32.
Provenance
Skoto Gallery, New York, New York; sold to present collection, 2003.
This record is part of an active database that includes information from historic documentation that may not have been recently reviewed. Information may be inaccurate or incomplete. We also acknowledge some language and imagery may be offensive, violent, or discriminatory. These records reflect the institution’s history or the views of artists or scholars, past and present. Our collections research is ongoing.
We welcome questions, feedback, and suggestions for improvement. Please contact us at: Hood.Collections@dartmouth.edu