{
"data": {
"id": 112585,
"accession_number": "1931.204",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Male Figure, by 1931. Totokro Master. Wood; overall: 44.8 x 9.3 x 7.7 cm (17 5/8 x 3 11/16 x 3 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the African Art Sponsors of Karamu House, 1931.204",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Male Figure",
"creation_date": "by 1931",
"creation_date_earliest": 1900,
"creation_date_latest": 1931,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Africa, West Africa, C\u00f4te d'Ivoire, Baule peoples"
],
"technique": "wood",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "African Art",
"collection": "African Art",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Overall: 44.8 x 9.3 x 7.7 cm (17 5/8 x 3 11/16 x 3 1/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.448,
"height_inch": 17,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.625,
"width": 0.093,
"width_inch": 3,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.6875,
"depth": 0.077,
"depth_inch": 3,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.0625
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 312341,
"title": "The Silver Jubilee Exhibition",
"description": "The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).",
"opening_date": "1941-06-23T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 301168,
"title": "Primitive to Contemporary Sculpture",
"description": "Primitive to Contemporary Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 6-October 31, 1956).",
"opening_date": "1956-09-06T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 287107,
"title": "African Master Carvers: Known and Famous",
"description": "African Master Carvers: Known and Famous. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 26-July 16, 2017).",
"opening_date": "2017-03-26T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 316953,
"title": "Second Careers: Two Tributaries in African Art",
"description": "Second Careers: Two Tributaries in African Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 1, 2020-March 14, 2021).",
"opening_date": "2020-11-01T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(Paul Guillaume, Paris, sold to African Art Sponsors of Karamu House, Cleveland, OH)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1929",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "African Art Sponsors of Karamu House, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1929-1931",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "African Art Sponsors of Karamu House, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1931",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1931-",
"sortorder": 4
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "In Baule society, the name of the artist who made a sculpture is not always public knowledge. In 1999, art historian Susan Vogel gave the sculptor of this work and others similar in style the nickname \"Totokro Master\" for the geographic region they came from.",
"description": "Purported to be the earliest surviving work by a Baule carver who art historians have dubbed the \"Totokro Master,\" this Male Figure typically comes as a pair of male and female sculptures, and serves as a bridge between the spirit (asye usu) and human worlds in the hand of Baule diviners. Representing idealized humans in their prime, the diviners consider them suitable forms used to cast out disruptive spirits. It is featured here without the female example. The African Art Sponsors\u2014a group of donors associated with Cleveland\u2019s Karamu House, the oldest African American theater group in the country\u2014purchased this Baule male figure in 1929 and donated it to the museum in 1931.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80005042"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1931.204-male-figure"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "\"Three Pieces of Negro Sculpture.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 19, no. 3 (March 1932): 38-39.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 38-39; Reproduced: p. 47",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25137461"
},
{
"citation": "Petridis, Constantine. \"A World of Great Art for Everyone.\" In Representing Africa in American Art Museums: A Century of Collecting and Display. Kathleen Bickford Berzock and Christa Clarke, 104-121. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 119",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Nzewi, Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Second Careers : Two Tributaries in African Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2019",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 22, reproduced: p. 31, fig. 19, p. 58",
"url": "https://ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1090438741"
},
{
"citation": "Nzewi, Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Second Careers : Two Tributaries in African Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2019",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 22, reproduced: p. 31, fig. 19, p. 58",
"url": "https://ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1090438741"
},
{
"citation": "Nzewi, Ugochukwu-Smooth C. \"Martin Puryear and Africa.\" In Martin Puryear: Nexus, edited by Emily Liebert, 142-151. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2025.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 147-148, fig. 62",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1931.204",
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"creditline": "Gift of the African Art Sponsors of Karamu House",
"image_credit": null,
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"athena_id": 112585,
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{
"id": 379425,
"description": "Totokro Master",
"extent": "execution",
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"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1931-05-25T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1900,
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"date_text": "by 1931",
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"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Standing Male Figure"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 05:56:30.814000"
}
}