About this work

The term nkisi refers to spirit-invested objects that were empowered with medicinal and magical ingredients called bilongo. In the case of this male figure, the bilongo are enclosed in the cap on the head and in the mirror-sealed resin packet on the abdomen. The name nkondi refers to the figure’s ability to hunt down and punish wrongdoers. A nail or a blade was driven into the figure to prompt the inhabiting spirit at every consultation.

Description text © The Art Institute of Chicago, licensed CC BY 4.0.

Sculpture

Male Figure (Nkisi Nkondi)

Vili

Date: Probably early to mid-19th century
Artist: Kongo: Vili · Republic of the Congo · Central Africa
Place of origin: Republic of the Congo
Medium: Wood, metal, glass, fabric, fiber, cowrie shells, bone, leather, gourd, and feathers
Dimensions: 73.7 × 33.1 × 28 cm (29 × 13 × 11 in.)
Classification: sculpture
Style: vili
Department: Arts of Africa
Credit line: Ada Turnbull Hertle Endowment
On view: Not on view
Rights: Public domain

Subjects

View on artic.edu

Provenance

Klaus Clausmeyer (died 1968), Düsseldorf, Germany, by 1958. Ludwig Bretschneider (died 1987), Galerie Ludwig Bretschneider, Münich, Germany, by 1959; sold to Ulfert Wilke (died 1987), New York, N.Y. and Iowa City, Iowa, from 1960 [see Ulfert Wilke, an Artist Collects and Wilke correspondence with Bretschneider in curatorial file]. Merton Simpson (died 2013), Merton D. Simpson Gallery, New York, N.Y., by 1971; sold to Armand Arman (died 2005), New York, N.Y., 1974 [Pace Gallery, African Accumlative Sculpture, 1974, pp. 51 and 67, no. 103]; sold by the Donald Morris Gallery, New York, N.Y. and Birmingham, Mich. to the Art Institute, 1998.

Exhibition history

Rochester, N.Y., Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, Traditional Art of Black Africa, Nov. 14–Dec. 28, 1969., cat. 62. New York, N.Y., Pace Gallery, African Accumulative Sculpture: Power and Display, Sep. 21–Oct. 19, 1974, pp. 51, 67, fig. 103. New York, Museum for African Art, Western Artists/African Art, May 6-Aug. 7, 1994 cat. 5; traveled to Knoxville Museum of Art, 1994-1995, Newport Beach, Calif., Newport Harbor Art Museum, July 1-Sept. 10, 1995, Sacramento, Calif., Crocker Art Museum, Oct. 27-Dec. 31, 1995. Marseille, France, Musée d'Arts Africains, Oceaniens, et Amerindiens de Marseille, Arman et l'Art Africain, June 23, 1994–Oct. 30, 1994, cat. 55; traveled to Paris, Musée National des Arts d'Afrique et d'Oceanie, Dec. 3, 1996–Feb. 17, 1997, Cologne, Germany, Rautenstraucht-Joest-Museum für Völkerkunde, Mar.–Aug. 1997, New York, N.Y., Museum for African Art, Oct. 7, 1997–April 17, 1998 [as African Faces, African Figures: the Arman Collection, cat. 147].