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49 UMMA Objects
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Dogon (Dogon (culture or style))
Female Ancestor Figure
1900 – 1971
Museum Purchase assisted by the Friends of the Museum of Art
1971/2.24
Female figure with crossed legs, breastfeeding a child. The large mother figure is decorated with scarifications on her breasts, shoulders and back. She bears filed teeth, is wearing an elaborate headdress and her face has been decorated with three brass tacks. Mirror fragments were used to evoke eyes. On the back of the sculpture a mirror covers a raised addition containing unknown elements. The figures are seated on a rectangular base with geometric decorations. 
Yombe (Yombe (culture or style))
Mother and child figure
1885 – 1895
Gift of Candis and Helmut Stern
2005/1.187
This carved, wooden Yaka figure depicts a man standing with an animal perched atop his head. The carving is stylized and exhibits characteristics typically seen among northern Yaka figural representations: flexed knees; arms bent with upturned palms positioned at shoulder level; and, an animal figure upon its head. In this case, the creature has a curved body and appears to be an anteater. The male figure has a narrow, cylindrical body; a slightly protruding belly; a simple coiffure; an elongated face; barely-open eyes from which vertical lines extend downward; a disproportionately large, pointed nose, and a darkened beard.
Yaka (Yaka (Kwango-Kwilu region style))
Figure
1915 – 1925
Gift of Candis and Helmut Stern
2005/1.193
As one of a pair of delicately carved, ivory statuette-pendants, this female figure stands upright, as opposed to her counterpart whose head and upper body lean slightly forward. Both, however, have a round head with a convex face; large, coffeebean-shaped eyes; a rectangular mouth with prominent lips; a cylindrical neck; and, a coiffure decorated on the back with a cruciform pattern. Additionally, both female figures clutch their breasts in their hands. The statuettes have been pierced through, allowing them to suspend from a string.
Luba (Luba (culture or style))
Power Figure
1845 – 1855
Gift of Candis and Helmut Stern
2005/1.220.1
This wooden&nbsp;figure depicts a female with a strikingly large, balloon-shaped animal skin sack tied above the crown of her head. An animal horn has been embedded within this massive sack. Representative of the northern style of Kusu carvings which is known to have sharp, angular forms, this&nbsp;<em>kakudji</em>&nbsp;features an ovoid head; a rounded, convex face and forehead; large ears; prominent cheekbones; coffeebean-shaped eyes within large ocular cavities; a well-defined, pointed nose; an elliptical mouth with slightly parted lips; a long, cylindrical neck; arms bent at the elbow, forming a 90-degree angle at the waist; and breasts that are situated nearly at shoulder level. The figure possesses a swollen belly, indicating pregnancy, and hence, representing the themes of maternity, fertility, and the continuation of the lineage. Animal skin enshrouds the female&rsquo;s lower body. Tukula powder, derived from the camwood tree and used to consecrate&nbsp;<em>kakudji</em>, appears on the figure&rsquo;s
Kusu (Kusu (Luba region style))
Power Figure
1915 – 1925
Gift of Candis and Helmut Stern
2005/1.223
This double-faced sculpture has been carved from semihard wood. The male is distinguished by the beard, formed by a double row of small triangles. The female, which faces the opposite direction, shares a neck and trunk with her male counterpart. The heads are disproportionately large and both faces are ovoid-shaped, with a wide convex forehead and broad features. Their coiffures converge to form a single cone composed by stratified, semi-circular rings. A cavity on the top of the coiffure likely held medicinal substances, imbuing the figure with power. The male and female each have sharply protruding bellies, marked with round umbilici.  Both possess two sets of arms, which are detached from the body and situated on either side of their respective abdomens. Three of the four feet have broken off. The encrusted surface of the <em>kabeja</em> reveals that it was once the recipient of libational offerings.   
Hemba (Hemba (culture or style))
Power Figure
1865 – 1875
Gift of Candis and Helmut Stern
2005/1.226
This carved wooden figure depicts a standing male, and is one of a pair that includes a female figure also carved by the same hand. According to noted art historian Niangi Batulukisi, these two figures deviate from the classical Bembe style and are “an extreme rarity” due to the fact that they are likely connected to an ancient pre-Bembe style.<br /><br /> The male figure’s trunk is disproportionately long, while the legs are slightly flexed at the knees. His facial features includes closed eyes set in round, ocular cavities and a perfectly rounded, open mouth.  The hairstyle bears geometric motifs. Most striking, however, is that medicinal substances have been tied around the male’s entire torso--indeed from his neck to his pelvis--by tightly-wound, resin-covered strings. Moreover, a hole appears on the crown of his head, likely intended for the placement of an animal horn containing even more medicinal ingredients. A small sliver of a white shell appears across the figure’s chest. Traces of tukula powder ca
Bembe (Bembe (Kongo))
Male Figure
1865 – 1875
Gift of Candis and Helmut Stern
2005/1.196.2
Staff with a short, pointed handle. The top of the handle is surmounted by a rectangle with two inverted triangles. Underneath the triangles is a small face and a neck with four raised grooves.  
Igbo (Igbo (Southern Nigerian style, culture))
Staff
20th century
Gift of Margaret H. and Albert J. Coudron
2001/2.43
Standing figure with bent knees and its hands at the front of its hips. The head is triangular with protruding u-shaped ears and a ridge extending from its forehead, over the head, and down the back of the neck.&nbsp;
Dogon (Dogon (culture or style))
Standing Female Figure
1950 – 1999
Gift of Mary Paul and Bruce Stubbs in honor of Evan Maurer
2016/1.208
Crouching or seated female figure with an elongated face that tilts backwards. The figure is holding her breasts and has a distended stomach and deep navel. 
Sierra Leonean (Sierra Leonean)
Female Figure
1400 – 1699
Gift of Leah and John Atwater
2016/1.241
This hour-glass shaped stool is supported by two caryatid figures who sit in a pose of lamentation&mdash;crouched with head in hands. Scarified patterned abstracted tears spill from their lower eyelids. Brass studs adorn the perimeter of the stool&rsquo;s seat, base, and figures. Both figures wear strings of black, red and white beads around their necks.
Chokwe (Chokwe (culture or style))
Caryatid stool
1850 – 1899
Gift of Candis and Helmut Stern
2005/1.204

Papua New Guinean
Ancestral Figure
Museum Purchase assisted by the Friends of the Museum of Art
1971/2.50
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