{
"data": {
"id": 141744,
"accession_number": "1965.325",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Headdress (chi wara), early to mid-1900s. Africa, West Africa, Mali, Bamana-style blacksmith-carver. Wood, cowrie shells, glass beads, possibly aluminum, iron alloy, upholstery studs, and natural fibers; overall: 44.5 x 66 cm (17 1/2 x 26 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Ralph M. Coe in memory of Ralph M. Coe, 1965.325",
"current_location": "108A African",
"title": "Headdress (chi wara)",
"creation_date": "early to mid-1900s",
"creation_date_earliest": 1900,
"creation_date_latest": 1970,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Africa, West Africa, Mali, Bamana-style blacksmith-carver"
],
"technique": "Wood, cowrie shells, glass beads, possibly aluminum, iron alloy, upholstery studs, and natural fibers",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "African Art",
"collection": "African Art",
"type": "Mask",
"measurements": "Overall: 44.5 x 66 cm (17 1/2 x 26 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.445,
"height_inch": 17,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5,
"width": 0.66,
"width_inch": 26,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 300794,
"title": "Year in Review: 1965",
"description": "Year in Review: 1965. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 27-November 14, 1965).",
"opening_date": "1965-10-27T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 292699,
"title": "Artlens Exhibition 2017",
"description": "Artlens Exhibition 2017. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 24, 2017-May 29, 2019).",
"opening_date": "2017-06-24T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Kansas City, MO, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: The Imagination of Primitive Man: A Survey of the Arts of the Non-Literate Peoples of the World (1962), cat. no. 3.",
"opening_date": "1962-01-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "CMA 1965: \"Year in Review,\" Bulletin, LII (November 1965), p, 152, no. 22.",
"opening_date": "1965-11-01T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(J.J. Klejman Gallery, New York, NY)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1954",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "Mrs. Ralph M. Coe [Dorothy deWolf Tracey, 1890-1966] Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1954-1965",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1965-",
"sortorder": 3
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Chi wara headdresses look different depending on the region they were made in. The style of this example tells us it was likely made in the Djitoumou region of southern Mali.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Chi wara\u2014a mythical \u201cfarming beast\u201d\u2014was said to teach farming to the Bamana people. Carved patterns cover this female chi wara\u2019s body, highlighting its muscles and emphasizing that it is no earthly animal, but rather an agricultural spirit that combines human, antelope, and anteater elements. This example wears earrings and a nose ring of imported metals and beads. Its carver\u2014a blacksmith\u2014used a naturalistic style common south of the city of Bamako. Accompanied by women\u2019s songs, male performers danced paired male-and-female chi wara headdresses affixed to basketry caps at agricultural competitions and weddings.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1965.325-headdress-chi-wara"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, and Henry John Drewal. 1989. African Art : A Brief Guide to the Collection : The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Museum, fig. 16.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, Barbara J Bradley, and Cleveland Museum of Art. 2001. Knockouts : A Pocket Guide. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, no. 68, pp. 66-7, repr. color p. 66; listed p. 118.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "CMA 1991: Handbook, p. 147.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Petridis, Constantijn. South of the Sahara: selected works of African art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: cat. 3, p. 36 - 37",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Petridis, Constantine., \"New Light on African Art\", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 43 no. 06, Summer 2003",
"page_number": "Mentioned & reproduced: p. 6-7",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2003-06/page/n5"
},
{
"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: pp. 119-120",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, and Ralph T. Coe. The Imagination of Primitive Man: A Survey of the Arts of the Non-Literate Peoples of the World. Kansas City, Mo: The Museum, 1962.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 10, p. 12, cat. no. 3",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Art Institute of Chicago, Constantijn Petridis, and Martha G. Anderson. Speaking of Objects: African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago. 2020, 26.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 25-26, fig. 4",
"url": ""
}
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"creditline": "Gift of Mrs. Ralph M. Coe in memory of Ralph M. Coe",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 141744,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1965-09-11T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1900,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "early to mid-1900s",
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"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Antelope Headdress (N'gonzon Koun)",
"Female Antelope Headdress (chi wara)",
"Antelope Headdress"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 07:17:07.189000"
}
}