Figure of Pregnant Woman

Label

The figure of a woman stands with her hands on her protruding belly—representing fertility. Beaded jewelry and twisted rope adorn her body, and rounded knubs on her head evoke stylized hair. The wood is dyed black, a color that often represents maturity and spirituality. These figures are believed to help one conceive a child and could be passed onto others who also needed spiritual help.  - Lydia Davis ’23, Homma Family Intern

From the 2023 exhibition Homecoming: Domesticity and Kinship in Global African Art, curated by Alexandra Thomas, Curatorial Research Associate

Course History

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

African Art from the Permanent Collection, Barrows Windows, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 9-March 30, 1975.

Black Womanhood: Images, Icons, and Ideologies of the African Body, Friends Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 1-August 10, 2008; Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, September 10-December 10, 2008; San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, California, January 21-April 26, 2009.

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.

Recent Acquisitions, Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 17-27, 1974.

The Ritual Context of African Art, Dartmouth College Museum, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, May-September 1975.

Publication History

Barbara Thompson, Black Womanhood: Images, Icons, and Ideologies of the African Body, Seattle: University of Washington Press [Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College], 2008, p. 115, plate 21.

Provenance

Evelyn Annenberg Friede Jaffe Hall (1911-2005), New York; given to present collection, 1973.

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Subjects